Earlier in children’s development, such instruction will focus on letter names, the sound(s) associated with the letters, and how letters are shaped and formed.
Later, the focus will be on more complex letter-sound relationships, including digraphs (two letters representing one sound, as in sh, th, ch, oa, ee, ie), blends (two or three letters representing each of their sounds pronounced in immediate succession within a syllable, as in bl in blue, str in string, or ft as in left), diphthongs (two letters representing a single glided phoneme as in oi in oil and ou in out), common spelling patterns (e.g., -ake as in cake, rake), specific phonograms (e.g., -all, -ould), and patterns in multi-syllabic words.
High-frequency words are taught with full analysis of letter-sound relationships within the words, even in those that are not spelled as would be expected.
Instruction in letter-sound relationships is:
- verbally precise and involving multiple channels, such as oral and visual or visual and tactile
- informed by careful observation of children’s reading and writing and, as needed, assessments that systematically examine knowledge of specific sound-letter relationships
- taught systematically in relation to students’ needs and aligned with the expectations of the Michigan K-3 Standards for English Language Arts
- accompanied by opportunities to apply knowledge of the lettersound relationships taught by reading books or other connected texts that include those relationships
- reinforced through coaching children during reading, most notably by cueing children to monitor for meaning and by cueing children to attend to the letters in words and recognize letter-sound relationships they have been taught
