Alphabetic Principle
Programs and Materials
Letter-Sounds Correspondence
Materials Should:
- Separate auditorily and/or visually similar letters (e.g., e/i, d/b).
- Introduce some continuous sounds early (e.g., /m/, /s/).
- Teach the sounds of letters that can be used to build many words (e.g., m, s, a, t).
- Introduce lower case letters first unless upper case letters are similar in configuration (e.g., Similar: S, s, U, u, W, w; Dissimilar: R, r, T, t, F, f).
An Acceptable Sequence for Introducing Letters
a m t s i f d r o g l h u c b n k v e w j p y T L M F D I N A R H G B x q z J E Q
(Carnine, Silbert, & Kame'enui, 1997; see References)
Features of Well-designed Letter-sound Correspondence Instruction
- Are easily confused sounds separated over several lessons? (d/b/p, e/i, m/n)
- Are letter-sounds that occur in a large number of words introduced early in the sequence?
- Is the rate of letter-sound correspondence introduction manageable for the learner but adequate to allow multiple words to be made within 2-3 weeks? While there are no definitive guidelines for scheduling letter-sound correspondences, a rate of introducing one new letter-sound correspondence every 2-3 days is reasonable.
- Does the sequence include a few short vowels early to allow students to build words?
- Does the sequence begin with several continuous sounds?
Regular Word Reading
Instructional materials must be carefully designed based on:
- letters in words
- complexity of words
Letters in words for initial blending (sounding-out) instruction should:
- consist of continuous sounds (e.g., m, s)
- be familiar
- be visually and auditorily dissimilar (e.g., do not teach /b/ and /d/ together)
- occur in a large number of words so they will be of high quality
- be lower case unless upper and lower case are highly similar shapes (e.g., S, s, V, v)
(Carnine, Silbert, & Kame'enui, 1997; see References)
Features of Well-designed Word Recognition Instruction
- Does instruction teach an explicit "sounding out" strategy?
- Do the words to be decoded contain only known letter- or letter-sound combinations?
- Does the instructional sequence progress systematically from simple word types (consonant-vowel-consonant), word lengths (number of phonemes), and word complexity (phonemes in word, position of blends, stop sounds, etc.) to more complex words?
- Does instruction progress from sounding out words to reading "whole word"?
- Does the teacher model instruction at each of the fundamental stages (e.g., letter-sound correspondences, blending, reading whole words)?
Irregular Word Reading
Features of Well-designed Irregular Word Reading Instruction
- Does the program teach irregular words prior to their use in passages?
- Does the program limit the number of irregular words introduced per passage?
- Is there a review sequence to practice difficult irregular words?
- Is there an explicit strategy for teaching irregular words?
Features of Well-designed Word Reading in Passages Instruction
- Does the program delay passage reading until students develop proficiency with letter-sound correspondences and simple word types?
- Does the program introduce passage reading soon enough that students see the utility of word reading?
- Is there an explicit strategy for teaching students to transition from reading words in lists to reading words in connected text?
- Does instruction systematically increase students' reading fluency?