From Sounds to Spelling

The From Sounds to Spelling materials partially meet the expectations for alignment to research-based practices and standards for foundational skills instruction.

The materials include systematic and explicit instruction in letter names, their corresponding sounds, and letter formation. The materials include a scope and sequence delineating the order in which phonological and phonemic awareness skills should be taught. The materials include limited explicit instruction in phonemic awareness with repeated teacher modeling and minimal guidance for corrective feedback in phonemic awareness.

The materials do not contain elements of instruction that are based on the three-cueing system. The materials include systematic and explicit phonics instruction. The materials include a phonics scope and sequence with common phonics generalizations and high-utility patterns. The lessons include explicit instruction, modeling, practice, and repetition. The materials include opportunities to practice decoding and encoding words with common and newly taught sound and spelling patterns. The materials include decodable texts that align with the weekly phonics skill. The materials include assessment opportunities for phonics that occur during the Placement Test at the beginning and end of the year, as well as the End-of-Unit Assessments.

Students learn new high-frequency words each week with explicit instruction and modeling; however, materials do not consistently include teacher modeling of the spelling of high-frequency words that includes connecting the phonemes to the graphemes. Throughout the materials, there are opportunities for students to practice and gain decoding and encoding automaticity of high-frequency words.

The materials do not include explicit, systematic, evidence-based instruction in oral reading fluency.  The materials do not contain assessment opportunities for fluency.