What order should you teach phonics skills?

We can all agree that teaching phonics is important.

But there are SO many skills.

Which ones should we teach? And in what order?

Today we’ll look at my recommended order for teaching phonics skills.

Before we get into my recommended order, I want to be clear about a few things.

There is no perfect order for teaching phonics skills.

When choosing your own scope and sequence (mine or someone else’s), do make sure the scope and sequence has the following characteristics (from Wiley Blevins in his wonderful book, A Fresh Look at Phonics).

Qualities of a strong phonics scope and sequence

• It moves from the simplest to most complex skills and builds on previous learning (experts disagree about this order, and that’s okay).
• It allows words to be formed as soon as possible.
• It teaches more common sound-spellings before less common sound-spellings.
• It separates easily confused letters and sounds.

I’ve chosen to break my scope and sequence down into three levels. Technically these levels are kindergarten, first, and second grade, but students need to start where they ARE and, if they are behind, receive a “double dose” of phonics instruction in Tier 2 or 3 so they can reach or exceed grade level benchmarks.

This may mean that you have a group of first graders who are starting in the middle of Level 1. You may also have kindergartners who move so quickly that they’re learning Level 2 skills before the kindergarten year ends.

I recommend assessing phonics knowledge with a quality phonics assessment (you can find that here) and then forming small groups based on phonics knowledge. A caveat: If you choose to teach phonics in small groups, it’s best if you work with other staff so that you don’t have to teach 4-5 groups. Otherwise, students will have to spend most of the reading block in literacy centers. Since they benefit most from explicit instruction from the teacher, this is not ideal. An excellent way to maximize student learning is with the Walk to Read model.

Over the years I have recommended slightly different sequences for teaching consonant and vowel sounds.

However, since I am using the following sequence when writing my series of decodable books (you can find those here), this is what I recommend.

(Again, this isn’t sacred! Adjust accordingly, as long as you follow Wiley Blevins’ recommendations above.)

Consonants, short vowels, and common digraphs / VC and CVC words

s, j, a, t, p, m, d, c, h, r, n, i, b, f, g, k, -ck, o, l, e, sh, th, u, w, ch, wh, x, y, z, qu

Remember that digraphs are two letters that represent one sound. The digraphs in the above list include -ck, sh, th, ch, and wh. “Qu” is technically a blend, but I usually include it with digraphs.

As you are teaching the above letters and sounds, teach your students to read VC (vowel-consonant) words like am and if. Teach them to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like cat and pig. Since they are learning digraphs, you will also teach them to read words like rack and chin.

(We have a huge collection of free printables for teaching CVC words, which you can find here.)

FLOSS rule

The floss rule says that when you spell the /f/, /s/, /l/, or /z/ sound after a short vowel in a single-syllable word, you usually double the final consonant.

“Floss” is a great way to remember this rule, but it doesn’t include the letter z. I love what Emily Gibbons does. She calls it “Zee floss rule” in a silly accent.

Examples: puff, fell, miss, jazz

(Check out my free FLOSS rule game here).

Simple 2-syllable compound words

Teach your students not to be afraid of big words! Now that they can read CVC words, know common digraphs, and understand the FLOSS rule, they can read compound words like catnip and bathtub.

Initial Blends

These days some voices are telling us not to teach blends. One concern is that we don’t want to teach blends as single units; children should simply sound out blends the way they do other letters – sound by sound.

I agree that we need to be careful; blends (sometimes called consonant clusters) are not digraphs. Each letter has its own sound. And it’s absolutely NOT necessary (indeed, it would be a huge waste of time) to teach each blend on its own.

But I don’t have a problem with calling consonant clusters blends, and we can all agree that students need practice reading words with CCVC, CVCC, and CCVCC patterns.

L-blends: bl-, cl-, fl-, gl-, pl-, sl-
R-blends: br-, cr-, dr-, fr-, gr-, pr-, tr-
S-blends: sc-, shr-, sk-, sm-, sn-, sp-, squ-, st-, sw-

Final Blends

-lp, -st, -ct, -pt, -sk, -lk, -lf, -xt, -ft, -nd, -mp, -st, -lt, -nch

(You can check out our free printables for teaching blends on this page.)

-ng & -nk endings

These are often called “glued” or “welded” sounds. Technically, -ng is a digraph and -nk is a blend (combining the sounds /ng/ and /k/).

It may help to teach these in word families:

-ing, -ang, -ong, -ung, -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk

Long vowel/final blend word families

In my Orton-Gillingham training these were called “kind, old words.” In these word families, the vowel makes a long sound instead of its expected short sound.

-ild, -old, -ind, -olt, -ost

Open & Closed syllable types

Believe it or not, you can teach this concept in kindergarten. Teach your students that when a syllable ends in a vowel, the door is open. The vowel shouts its name through the open door and makes its long sound (no, go, we, be, etc.).

When a syllable ends in a consonant, the vowel makes its short sound (cup, hen, sit, etc.).

Now that students understand open and closed syllables, they’re ready to practice syllable division – if that’s the route you want to go. This is a big thing in the Orton-Gillingham approach, but other approaches skip the division rules and teach a more loose and flexible approach to dividing words into syllables.

Over time I’ve shifted to more a flexible syllable division strategy. But I still believe it’s helpful to teach students to read words with a particular pattern, even if you don’t explicitly name that pattern.

Words with the VC/CV pattern

Words with the VC/CV pattern include napkin, muffin, bandit, and instruct. Now that your students know how to read closed syllable words, they are fully capable of learning to read these words.

Words with the V/CV or VC/V pattern

Words with the V/CV or VC/V pattern are a bit tricky because there is no set rule to tell us whether to divide after the first vowel or after the consonant.

While I used to favor an elaborate Orton-Gillingham-inspired method for dividing words, I now favor a more flexible approach.

V/CV examples: robot, tulip
VC/V examples: denim, visit, credit

Suffix -ed

Teach your students that the suffix -ed is used to show the past tense of verbs. It can represent /t/, /d/, or /id/.

I should note that in my decodable books I include words with the “ed” ending earlier in the sequence. That’s because books get very stilted when you try to avoid the “ed” ending.

In a decodable book I was writing the other day I wrote “Fox hugged his sis.” Otherwise I would have had to write “Fox did hug his sis,” and that just sounds weird. It’s okay to introduce a spelling pattern earlier than it appears in your scope and sequence.

CVCE (Magic e) words

Final silent e has many uses. In Magic e words, it makes the preceding vowel say its long sound.

Sample words: bake, dime, theme, cute, hose

Now that students can read CVCE words, they can read longer words that include this spelling pattern.

Examples: classmate, handmade, timeline

(This site is bursting with CVCE printables! Check them out here.)

Suffix -ing

Teach your students that when adding this ending, they either double the final consonant, drop the e, or make no change to the base word.

Less common digraphs, trigraphs, and silent letters

wr-, kn-, ph-, gh-, gn-, -mb, -tch, -dge

Common vowel teams

Vowel teams are two or more letters that combine to represent a vowel sound. One or more of the letters may actually be a consonant (as in the vowel team igh).

ee, ea, (eat), ai, ay, oa, ow (grow), oe, igh, y (dry), oo (zoo), oo (good)

(So many vowel team goodies on this site – check them out here.)

Don’t forget about multisyllable words!

Sample two-syllable words with one or more vowel teams: hayseed, firewood, raindrop

Spelling with -k, -ke, and -ck

When you hear the /k/ sound at the end of a one syllable word, it is spelled with a k if it is preceded by a vowel that says its name (CVCE), is preceded by a double vowel, or is preceded by a consonant. The sound /k/ is spelled ck when preceded by a single, short vowel.

Sample words: bake, beak, ask, back

R-controlled vowels

An r-controlled vowel is when the letter r influences the preceding vowel’s sound. Traditional phonics programs include the following as r-controlled vowel graphemes:

er, ir, ur, ar, or

Important: when counting phonemes (individual sounds) in words, count an r-controlled vowel as a SINGLE sound. It feels a little weird to do that, but it’s common practice in traditional phonics programs.

(You can find our r-controlled freebies here.)

R-Controlled vowels syllable type

Be sure to give your students practice with multisyllable words in which one or more syllables includes an r-controlled vowel, such as in barnyard, mutter, and western.

Diphthongs and complex vowels

A diphthong is a vowel sound that glides in the middle. The mouth position shifts during the production of the single vowel phoneme. There is disagreement about which vowel combinations are diphthongs. For our purposes, I include the following.

aw, au, a (as in calm), oi, oy, ou, ow (as in cow)

Now students can also read longer words like cookout, jawbone, and powder.

Note: Many programs include the diphthong syllable type WITH the vowel team syllable type, for a total of six instead of seven syllable types. I’ve done that myself with some printables I’ve made. It’s fine.

Words with the V/V pattern

Sample V/V words: cameo, diet, and fluid.

Consonant-le ending

This is sometimes referred to as the final stable syllable.

-ble, -dle, -fle, -gle, -kle, -ple, -tle, -zle

Now students can read words like bottle, feeble, jingle, and turtle.

Words that end with y as long e

Examples: crispy, giddy, tardy, stubby

soft and hard c and g

When c is followed by e, i, or y, it usually makes its soft /s/ sound. When c is followed by any other letter, it usually makes its hard /k/ sound.

When g is followed by e, i, or y, it usually makes its soft /j/ sound. When g is followed by another letter, it usually makes its hard /g/ sound.

• Soft c words: brace, dance, rancid
• Hard c words: cage, cramp, cup
• Soft g words: age, giant, gerbil
• Hard g words: dog, gift, goat

Lesson common vowel teams

ui, ue, ew, eu, eigh, ei (vein), ei (ceiling), ie (thief), ie (pie), ey, ea (head), ea (break), ou (youth), y (gym)

Words with the schwa sound

The schwa is a muffled vowel sound that is only found in unstressed syllables. In fact, the schwa is actually the most common vowel sound of all. When students are decoding multisyllable words and the word doesn’t sound right, they should adjust the vowel sound in the unaccented syllable. It may just be a schwa!

Remember that the schwa sound is sort of a short u sound (as in tandem) or a short i sound (as in tablet).

Students should already be familiar with schwa, but be sure to address it specifically if you haven’t done so already.

Sample words: abode, bacon, happen, salad, trial

Extra spellings

You have likely already taught these incidentally throughout the years, but just in case these skills need focused attention, you can teach them now.

ch (school), ch (machine), s – /z/

Words with prefixes

un-, re-, in-/im-/ill-, dis-, en-/em-, non-, in-/im-, over-, mis-, sub-, pre-, inter-, fore-, de-, trans-, super-, semi-, anti-, mid-, under-

Words with suffixes

-s/-es, -ed, -ing, -ly, -er/-or, -ion, -ible/-able, -al/-ial, -y, -ness, -ity/-ty, -ment, -ic, -ous, -en, -er, -ive/-ative, -ful,-less,-est

Whew! That was a lot! No need to copy it all down … join our email list below and get a FREE scope and sequence chart!

 Check our the rest of our phonics series!

 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10