Advance Phonic -Reading-Stage-2

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Learning to Hear is the First Step of Learning to Read.

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IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE

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intellectual property are serious crimes.

CHILDREN LEARNING READING ©
Copyright 2010, ChildrenLearningReading.com (Jim Yang)

All Rights Reserved Worldwide
First Published 2010

Second Edition 2012. r2.0.1
Third Edition 2019

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without the prior agreement and written permission from the author.

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Table of Contents

IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE ......................................................................4
Advanced Phonics .............................................................................................7

Teaching Digraphs and Diphthongs ........................................................7
Oh, the Complexities!.............................................................................9
Guided Reading and Books ...................................................................10
The Schwa - ə........................................................................................12
Synthetic Phonics & The Complexities of English .................................14
Point & Swipe .......................................................................................20
Lesson 1: Voiced ‘th’ .......................................................................................23
Lesson 2: ar.....................................................................................................26
Lesson 3: sh ....................................................................................................29
Lesson 4: ee ....................................................................................................32
Lesson 5: ea ....................................................................................................34
Lesson 6: er.....................................................................................................37
Lesson 7: ir......................................................................................................39
Lesson 8: ur ....................................................................................................40
Lesson 9: ng ....................................................................................................41
Lesson 10: ch, tch ...........................................................................................45
Lesson 11: ow .................................................................................................47
Lesson 12: ou ..................................................................................................48
Lesson 13: or, ore ...........................................................................................50
Lesson 14: Unvoiced "th"................................................................................52
Lesson 15: oo ..................................................................................................54
Lesson 16: ew .................................................................................................56
Lesson 17: ai ...................................................................................................59

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Lesson 18: ay ..................................................................................................61
Lesson 19: oi ...................................................................................................63
Lesson 20: oy ..................................................................................................65
Lesson 21: aw .................................................................................................66
Lesson 22: au ..................................................................................................67
Silent "e".........................................................................................................69
Lesson 23: a_e ................................................................................................72
Lesson 24: e_e ................................................................................................73
Lesson 25: i_e .................................................................................................74
Lesson 26: o_e ................................................................................................75
Lesson 27: u_e ................................................................................................76
Lesson 28: soft "c", /s/, ce, ci..........................................................................78
Lesson 29: igh .................................................................................................82
Lesson 30: oa ..................................................................................................84
Lesson 31: ow .................................................................................................86
Lesson 32: ol ...................................................................................................87
Lesson 33: ph ..................................................................................................89
We are Done! .................................................................................................92

What's Next? ........................................................................................93

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Advanced Phonics

Welcome to Children Learning Reading – Advanced Phonics!
Through our Phonics Foundations program, your child has
learned and mastered the 26 letter names and sounds. The
lessons here will take your child’s reading ability to a whole
new level by introducing them to more complicated written
text – expanding vocabulary and improving reading fluency.

Teaching Digraphs and Diphthongs

In Phonics Foundations, when we taught letter names and
letter sounds, we taught the two together. For example, "the
letter A makes the /a/ sound". With digraphs and diphthongs,
we follow a similar pattern of teaching; however, the major
difference here is that the sounds taught are represented by
the combination of two or more letters. Because of this, it is
important to help your child catch on to the idea that two or
more letters are combining together to represent a single

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sound. A digraph is a combination of two letters representing a
single sound (sh, ch, ph, etc...). A diphthong is a combination of
two vowels representing a single sound (oo, ea, ai, etc...). When
teaching these, we need to be specific and explicit just as we
teach individual letters and sounds. For example:

Point to "SH" together, and say:

"The letters SH make a /sh/ sound".

Point to "EE" together, and say:

"The letters EE make a /yee/ sound".

When you first introduce digraphs and diphthongs to children,
it is very common for many children to continue attempting to
sound out the individual letters, rather than seeing it as a
whole unit and not recognizing it as a single sound. For
example, children will attempt to sound out "AR" as /a/ and /r/
instead of the /ar/ sound, or attempt to sound out "SH" as /s/
and /h/ instead of the /sh/ sound. This pattern recognition
process requires some time and practice, and aside from being
very explicit about what we are learning each lesson, this is
what I do when a student tries to sound out the individual
letters in a digraph. Let's use the word "fishing" as an example:

• The student sounds out /f/ /i/ /s/....
• I will stop the student once I hear the /s/ sound

instead of the /sh/ sound

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• I place my thumbs on each side of the word
"fishing" and cover up all the letters except for "sh"
- the /sh/ sound. This helps the student see "sh" as
an entire sound unit - /sh/.

• I ask the student, "what sound does S and H
together make?"

• The student answers /sh/.
• “That's right! Good job! Now let's try this one more

time..."
• Be clear and explicit about what you are teaching.

Use this method to draw your child's attention to
the letter combination, and help your child see it as
an whole sound unit.

Oh, the Complexities!

As you are no doubt aware that because of the many
complexities and irregular words, English is not an easy
language to teach! There are multiple spellings representing a
single sound, and there are multiple sounds represented by a
single spelling. For example:

• 'er', 'ir', 'ur' - all 3 spellings make the same /er/ sound
• /ch/, /sh/, /k/ - all 3 sounds can be represented by the

same digraph "ch"

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Our lessons are divided and organized to teach individual
sound units. The lessons in this book are more complex and
will take longer to complete. It is important that children
master the lesson material before moving forward.

Guided Reading and Books

As your child has come a long way, I would like to bring up the
topic of reading, and using reading as the tool to help children
become even better and more fluent readers. By now, your
child can decode many words of the "basic" code, and while you
may not feel that he or she is "ready" to charge off into reading
books on their own, I would like to say here that they are not
that far off! Certainly, pickup any simple storybook, and there
will be many words that the child will have difficulties with -
many that cannot be decoded using the "basic" code, and some
are irregular words. But that's okay! It is a good idea to
enhance your child’s reading skills through regular read-aloud
sessions. These provide good opportunities for children to come
across more difficult words, and as they learn and enhance
their phonics and phonetics knowledge through the Stage 2
lessons here, their skill and ability to decipher printed text
will improve in leaps and bounds. It is through consistent and
frequent reading, that the ability to decode and read becomes
second nature, and children eventually become fast and fluent
readers. The lessons in our program will undoubtedly help
children build a rock solid foundation in reading through

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developing phonemic awareness development and through the
use of synthetic phonics; however, if the child does not have
ample opportunities to read and to practice reading, he or she
will progress much slower in developing fast and fluent
reading skills. This is similar to learning to play any
instrument - take piano for instance. You can learn to read the
music notes, learn how to play the notes and chords on the
piano, but without repeated practice, you will not be able to
play any piece with fluency or mastery. As we have discussed
in detail in stage one, it is through high reading volume that a
person becomes a fast and fluent reader.

The more you read, the better you read.
That is a simple, proven fact. As it is important to continue
with the advanced phonics lessons of our program, it is also
important to engage your child in regular, daily read aloud
sessions. When it comes to reading, more is better. Read out
loud sessions will provide extra opportunities for the child to
practice and reinforce what he or she has learned, and at the
same time, provide opportunities to encounter new words,
irregular words, and less commonly occurring variations of
graphemes and phonemes not covered in our reading lessons.

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The Schwa - ə

I am discussing the schwa sound here, because it is not taught
in our program, and I will explain why. I bring it up here,
because I would like to make you aware of it, and having
knowledge of the schwa will likely save you from scratching
your head often times when decoding certain words that just
do not quite seem to work using to the sounds that we have
learned. If you have never heard of the schwa before, you know
about it now, and it really is a very interesting name, not to
mention its very important function in the English language!
In fact, schwa is the most common vowel sound in English! The
upside down "e" symbol is used to denote the schwa and it

looks like this: ə. The schwa is mostly found in unstressed

vowel positions, and it has a very neutral sound; however, its
sound is not always exactly the same, and how it sounds will
vary depending on the letters adjacent to it. More interesting,
and possibly confusing, is that the schwa can be represented
by all the vowels a, e, i, o, u, sometimes the letter "Y", and it
can also be represented by a combination of letters in many
cases. Let me give you some examples:

• SON [sən] - a short O /o/ sound does not work in the word
"SON". The letter O here is a schwa, and it makes more of an
"uh" sound.

• MOTHER [məthər]
• SYRINGE [sərinj]

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• WHAT [wət] - the short A sound /a/ "ah" does not work here,
because we do not pronounce it as /w-ah-t/; instead, the A in
"what" is a schwa, and it also makes a rather neutral "uh" sound.

• CAPTAIN [kaptən] - the diphthong "ai" in most situations would
make an /ay/ sound; however, here, it is a schwa.

• THE [thə]

Yes, I know, using my very narrow definition of sight words,
"THE" is actually NOT a sight word! The "th" in "the" is a
voiced /th/ sound, and the ending "e" is actually a schwa! So
yes, "THE" can be decoded and sounded out. In our program,
"THE" is actually taught as a sight word, and the schwa is not
introduced to the child - at least not until the child has already
developed a rock solid foundation in letter sound mastery
along with robust decoding skills. When my students are first
taught THE as a sight word, they simply accept that as fact,
and we move on. Later on, should the occasion ever arise, I tell
them that the word "THE" can be sounded out, and that the
ending "E" is what's called a "schwa".

Even though schwa is the most common vowel sound in
English, we do not teach it explicitly because teaching the
schwa is no easy task. Generally, the schwa can occur in two
situations:

1. As a vowel in un-stressed syllables of multi-syllable
words

2. As a vowel in reduced vowel sounds

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More confounding [kənfound] is that the schwa can be
represented by all the vowels and even letter combinations,
and that its sound can vary depending on adjacent letters -
although in most cases, the schwa will make a very neutral
sounding "uh" sound – similar to that of the “short U” sound
/u/. With that in mind, how do you go about teaching a young
child the schwa without causing them confusion and grief? You
don't. We keep the learning process simple and
straightforward, and minimize the potential of causing
confusion during the initial learning process, and once a more
solid reading foundation is in place, we can then explain some
of these complexities of English to our children. This brings us
to the next important topic of keeping things simple, and
gaining an understanding of the many complexities of English
when it comes to reading and decoding.

Synthetic Phonics & The Complexities of English

While there are 26 alphabet letters in English, there are 44+
phonemes that can be represented by the individual letters or
a combination of letters. If only English was straightforward
where each letter or letter combination represented just one
and only one sound, then it would be a rather simple process of
teaching children to read. However, many of the 44 phonemes
have multiple grapheme representations. For example, as

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shown already, the /ai/ sound (long A) can have these different
spellings:

• a - maple
• ai - maid
• ay - play
• a_e - plate
• ea - break
• ey - grey
• eigh – freight
• ae - sundae

Note: A grapheme is the smallest distinguishing unit of a
written language. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound.

On the other hand, often times, one grapheme can have
multiple pronunciations! For example, using "ea" again from
the word "break" - this more often makes a /ee/ sound, for
example, in words such as:

• sea
• speak
• beam

As you can see, with all these different spelling and
pronunciation variations, things can quickly get very confusing
for the beginning learner. This is why we start simple, and
begin with teaching the basic "code" of English where we teach
students the basic sound that is most often associated with a
grapheme. All the complications and variations of spelling and

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pronunciation can be taught after the student has mastered
the "basic" code.

Please have a look at the table on the following page that
summarizes most of the phonics sounds and spellings. It is a
fairly comprehensive list I compiled, and this will help put it in
a clearer perspective of what I mean by the basic and complex
code of decoding. By the time you finish teaching your child to
read with my program (in the not too distant future), you will
undoubtedly become quite the expert on the English language
yourself! As you work through our advanced lessons dealing
with the “complex” code, you may at times need to refer to this
table.

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TABLE 2.1

Basic Complex

A - /a/ Short "A" - "ah"

A - long /ay/ -a -ai -ay -ae -a_e -ey -eigh -ea

AR -ar (car)

AW -aw (jaw) -au (august)

B - /b/ /b/

C - /k/ -c -k -ck -ch (school) -que (antique)

CH -tch -ch: 3 sounds /ch/ (chips) /sh/ (chef) /k/ (school)

D - /d/ /d/

E - /e/ Short "E" (egg) -ea (head, bread, sweat)

E - long /ee/ -e -ee (tree) -ea (seat) -y (happy) -e_e
(meme)

ER -er (better) -ur (hurt) -ir (first)

F - /f/ /f/ -ph (photo) -gh (laugh)

G - /g/ /g/ -gh (ghetto) -gue (plague)

H - /h/ /h/

I - /i/ Short "I" (big)

I - long /igh/ -i -igh (light) -i_e (kite) -ie (tie) -y (fly)

J /j/ /j/ -ge (orange) -dge (dodge) -gi (giant) -gy
(gym)

K /k/ /k/

L /l/ /l/ Light L & Dark L

M /m/ /m/ -mb (lamb) -mn (column)

N /n/ /n/ -kn (knight) -gn (sign)

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NG /ng/ /ng/ -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung

O /o/ Short "O" (box) -a (wash, quantity)

O - long "oh" -oa (coat) -ow (row) -o -o_e (note)
-eau (chateau) -ough (dough) -oe (toe)

OY -oi (soil) -oy (oyster)

OO Long -oo (food), Short -oo (foot)

-ue (glue) -ew (chew) -ui (fruit)

OR -or (for) -ore (more)

OU -ou (house) -ow (cow)

P /p/ /p/

Q /kw/ Easier to teach as /koo/ instead of /kwuh/

R /r/ /r/ -wr (write) -rh (rhyme)

S /s/ /s/ -se -ce -ci -cy -sc (scene) -ps -st (listen) -
ss

SH -sh (shop) -ch (chef) -ti (caution) -ci (special) -si (passion)

T /t/ /t/

TH Voiced TH: them, there
Unvoiced TH: think, bath

U /u/ Short "U" (bug) -ou (touch) -oo (flood)

U - long -u -u_e (fuse) -ew (few) -ue (cue)
/yoo/

V /v/ /v/

W /w/ /w/ -wh (whale)

X /ks/ /ks/

Y Multiple sounds: /ee/ (happy), /i/ (gym), /igh/ (fly)

Z /z/ /z/ -x (xylophone) -ss (scissors) -s (his)

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I hope this has given you a deeper appreciation of the
complexities of English. As you can see from our table,
learning to read English is no simple matter! How could there
be so many different spellings to make the /ay/ sound, or the
/oa/ sound, and how about the /s/ sound? The digraph "CH"
really makes three different sounds! If you attempted to teach
these all at once to a young student, it will only lead to
confusion and frustration.

But not to worry! Our Advanced Phonics lessons has all
the key elements delivered and taught in a logical and
sequential order that will help minimize the potential for
confusion. Not all letter combinations listed in the above chart
are taught in our program due to their lower frequency of
occurrence in words. In choosing the progression of teaching
digraphs and diphthongs in our program, the primary
consideration was the frequency of occurrence in words, so that
we help the child focus on mastering the letter combinations
that are most frequently seen in print.

By focusing on the "basic" code early on, and tackling the
complications and variations now – only after building a rock
solid foundation in phonics – you can quickly help your child
develop incredible phonetic reading skills. The true genius of
the synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness approach is
that it breaks the learning to read process down into the most
basic building blocks, and it breaks down this process into
simple steps which allows for a very logical reading program

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that makes it possible to teach even 2 and 3 year old children
to read phonetically.

Our primary goal is to help students develop superb
accuracy in reading and decoding. Reading fluency and
comprehension is something that develops with time and
practice. New learners following the synthetic phonics and PA
approach will be a bit slower, only at first, simply because of
the need to "sound out" and blend to say the word; however, it
is precisely through repeating this "sounding out" practice
countless times that enables a child to develop instant and
automatic word recognition skills that is essential for
developing reading fluency and accuracy. What is the point of
reading fast if a student continues to make mistakes and
guesses at words?

Point & Swipe

I am including our “Point & Swipe” sounding out method here
one more time from our Stage 1 Phonics Foundations book.

When we teach reading and decoding, we point to each
sound within the words, and explicitly teach the sound
associated with the letter(s). After sounding out all the sounds
in a word, we then swipe our finger across the bottom of the
word from left to right while saying the complete word at full
speed. For example:

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1 Say /b/

BUS

2 Say /u/
"uhhhhh"
BUS

3 Say /s/
"ssssss"
BUS

4 Say the word at

BUS full speed: "BUS"

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Looking at the reading chart on previous page:
1. Point to the letter B, and say /b/
2. Point to the letter U, and say /u/ "uhhhhhh" (stretch the
sound)
3. Point to the letter S, and say /s/ "ssssssss" (stretch the
sound)
Note: please remember to smoothly connect each of the
sounds so it would sound something like this:

"BUUUUUUUHSSSSSSSS"

4. Start with your finger pointed at B, and say the entire
word BUS at normal speed without pause, and swipe
your finger across the bottom of the word BUS as you say
it.

Now let’s get on with the Advanced Phonics lessons!

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Lesson 1: Voiced ‘th’

Words: the, that, this, then, them, they, there

Step 1: In our Phonics Foundations book, we had taught your
child the sight word "THE", and as you discovered in our
section on the schwa, “THE” could actually be sounded out,
where we have the voiced “th” and the E is a schwa. In this
lesson, we teach your child the voiced /th/ sound in words such
as "that" and "this".

The “th” digraph has a voiced sound and a voiceless
sound. In this lesson, we're going to teach your child the voiced
sound of “th”, and later on, we teach your child the unvoiced
/th/ sound. So, you might be wondering what's the difference
between a voiced and unvoiced sound?

• In the current lesson, we teach the voiced /th/ sound
where a sound is made with the vocal cords. For example,
the words "this", "that", and "them" all contain the voiced
/th/ sound. To make this sound, the very tip of the tongue
comes through the teeth and a sound is made by the
vocal cords. In other words, your vocal cords will vibrate.
Simply put your fingers on your throat, and make the
voiced /th/ sound, and you will feel your throat vibrate.

• Later on in this book, we will also teach the unvoiced /th/
sound. With the unvoiced /th/ sound, only air passes

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through the mouth. This takes the same mouth position
as the voiced /th/ sound. For example, words such as
"think" or "with" contain the unvoiced /th/ sound. Being a
voiceless sound, only air is pushed through the opening
of the mouth. If you put your fingers on your throat
again for the voiceless /th/ sound, you will not feel any
vibrations coming from your throat.

When teaching the ‘th’ spelling, it will be quite normal if you
find that your child initially tries to sound out “th” as the 2
individual phonemes of /t/ and /h/ - after all, this is what they
have learned from our earlier lessons. So it is important to
reiterate with your child here that "th" combines to make just
one single voiced sound, which is /th/. When you initially begin
working on /th/ with your child, you may find that your child
has a tendency to continually try to sound out /th/ words as /t/
/h/. For some children, especially younger toddlers, it may take
several tries before they catch on to the idea that "T" and "H"
combine together to make the voiced /th/ sound.

Step 2: Words: the, that, this

Step 3: Words: then, them, they, there

Step 4: Sentences:

• This hotdog is so hot.
• That cat got lost there.
• Don't let them go there.

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• This is the best band.
• Let’s jump up, and then flip, and then spin.
• Stop the frog there. It messed up that pond.
• They clogged up the sink, and then they left.

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Lesson 2: ar

Words: are, arm, car, cart, card, cards, far, farm, tart, part,
dart, start, bar, barn, bark, park, mark, dark, spark, art, mart,
smart, alarm

Step 1: The proper pronunciation of "ar" is easily sounded out
from the word "are". It is the exact same voicing. Other words
such as "arm", "car", "par" all have the "ar" sound. Teach your
child the "ar" sound, and begin working with words using "ar".
You can refer to the MP3 audio clips for "ar" examples. When
teaching digraphs, be explicit about what you are teaching,
and make sure to teach 'ar' as one single sound unit.

Step 2: Words: are, arm, car, cart, cards, far, farm

Step 3: Words: tart, part, dart, start, bar, barn, alarm

Step 4: Words: bark, park, mark, dark, spark, art, smart

As discussed already, when you first begin teaching digraphs,
many children will have the tendency to sound out the
individual letter sounds in the digraphs, and this is perfectly
normal. After all, that is what they have learned up to this
point. When working on reading and decoding in this book, be
explicit about what you are teaching. Stop your child right
away if he or she begins sounding out the individual letters

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and not recognizing the digraph as a single sound unit. Using
"park" as an example:

• The child sounds out "/p/ /a/...." instead of "/p/ /ar/....".
• Stop the child.
• Cover up the letters "P" and "K", leaving only "AR"

visible.
• "Let's look here for a minute. Please remember that

when you see A and R together, they make just one
sound - /ar/. Let's try that again."

Step 5: Phoneme Addition and Substitution

• Write the digraph AR on a whiteboard, and asks the
child to read it: "/ar/".

• "If I add a /t/ sound at the end of 'ar', what word does
that make?" (art)

• Now write a "t" on the board in front of 'art'.
• "What if I added another /t/ sound in front? What

word is it now?" (tart)
• Erases the last 't'.
• "Now what if I erased the last /t/ sound, what do we

have now?" (tar)
• Write a 's' in front and a 't' after 'ar'.
• "How about if I add a /s/ sound at the beginning, and a

/t/ sound at the end?" (start)

Word group suggestions:

• far, farm, alarm

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• art, tart, tar, start, smart
• bark, dark, park, mark, spark
Step 6: Sentences

• They are in the parked car.
• Mark is smart.
• That dog barks at the cart.
• The farm has a big red barn.
• That car has an alarm.

Step 7a: Story Reading

Dad has a farm.
On his farm, dad has a dog.
The dog barks a lot at dad's farm.
Dad's farm has a big red barn.
A car and a cart are parked in the barn.

Step 7b: Comprehension Checks
• Who has a farm?
• What does the dog do?
• What color is the barn?
• What is inside the barn?

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Lesson 3: sh

Words: shed, dish, fish, gosh, bash, cash, dash, mash, rash,
crash, ship, shop, shot, shark, sharp, shack, shrub, finish

Step 1: In this lesson, words with "sh" are introduced. "Sh" is
easily sounded out as when you are telling someone to
"shhhhhh". Also, /sh/ is a voiceless sound where you are just
pushing air through your mouth, and your vocal chords will
not vibrate when making this sound.

I just want to highlight the fact here that the /sh/ sound
has several different spellings such as "ch", "ti", and "ci", and
you may be surprised to learn about some of these. As we have
already discussed, there are many complexities in English
where multiple spellings can represent one sound, and
conversely, certain letter spellings can represent more than
one sound. In this case, the /sh/ sound has several different
spellings, but we're only concerned with teaching the "SH"
spelling for the /sh/ sound here. For your reference only, I will
briefly discuss the other spellings as well, just so that you
know how to explain and teach them should the occasion arise
in the future. Below are the different spellings for the /sh/
sound:

• "sh" - please see lesson material.

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• "ch" - words such as "cache", "chef", "chalet", "machine",
and "caleche". You will see the 'ch' spelling pop up again
in the learning unit where we teach the /ch/ sound.

• "ti" - for the /sh/ sound made by "ti" you'll most often see
it in combination with "al", "on", and "ous" as in "tial",
"tion", or "tious". For example, "partial", "martial",
"portion", "station", "motion", "ambitious", and "cautious".
For example, if you were to sound out a word such as
"portion" it would be something like this:

/p/ /or/ /ti/ /o/ /n/ - [porshən] - the "o" in "tion" is a schwa.

• "ci" - "ci" also makes a /sh/ sound in words such as
"special", "spacious", and "official".

• "si" and "ssi" - finally, "ssi" makes the /sh/ sound as well
in words such as "passion", "vision", and "expression".

The extra information above is for your reference only. They do
not need to be explicitly taught at this mid stage - please
remember that our goal is to keep things simple and straight
forward until a solid foundation is built. These are discussed
here so that when you do come across some of these, you'll
know how to explain them to your child.

Step 2: Words: shed, dish, fish, gosh, shack, shrub

Step 3: Words: bash, cash, dash, mash, rash, crash

Step 4: Words: ship, shop, shot, shark, sharp, finish

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Step 5: Sentences

• The ship is at the dock.
• That ship has a lot of fish.
• It's a mad dash to the finish.
• Gosh, that car crashed in to a shrub!
• My pup got sick, and my pup got a shot.

(Treat “my” as a sight word, and there's no need to
sound it out. Simply teach your child how to
pronounce the word.)

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Lesson 4: ee

Some of the lessons in this book contain quite a bit of new
materials introduced including extra words, sentences, stories,
and rhymes to provide your child with plenty of practice with
each. Because of this is, I would suggest spending a little extra
time on the lessons with your child.

I would like to add a reminder here that when teaching
the letters, letter sounds, and digraphs in all the lessons,
please make a particular effort to make clear to your child
what he or she is being taught, and what the focus is for each
lesson. So in this case, before moving on to the words, make
sure to explain to your child what he or she will be learning.
For example:

"Okay Jimmy, we are going to learn a new letter combo ‘ee’,
and the letters ‘ee’ make a /yee/ sound. Look here, can you say
/yee/ for me?"

"Yee." Jimmy responds.

Obviously the above is just an example, and you don't have to
teach it the exact same way. The important thing to keep in
mind here is to help your child catch on to the idea that two
letters combine to make a single sound - in this case, the
letters "ee" together make the 'yee' sound.

We're also introducing several common open syllable
words in this lesson including "be", "he", "she", and "me".

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Simply treat these as sight words rather than trying to sound
them out.
Step 1: Teach the “ee” spelling and its /yee/ sound to your child.

Step 2: Sight Words – be, he, she, me, we
Step 3: Words – bee, beep, see, seed, seek, seem
Step 4: Words – fee, feed, feet, speed, spree, tree
Step 5: Words – heel, peel, jeep, keep, sheep, sleep

Step 6: Sentences

• Keep the sheep asleep.
• His feet has speed.
• You can keep that free jeep.
• Can you see the seed by the tree?

Step 7: Rhyme Time

Bob the sheep fell fast asleep;
Fell fast asleep by the jeep.
Beep, beep, went the jeep;
Bob jumps up, and he cannot sleep.

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Lesson 5: ea

There are several things to note here:
• The ‘ea’ spelling makes 3 different sounds itself:
o /yee/ (long E sound taught in this lesson – speak,
meal, steam)
o /ai/ (long A sound) – break, steak, great
o /e/ (short E sound) – head, instead, meadow

Is this confusing enough yet? Not to worry. Let’s focus only on
the long E sound for the ‘ea’ spelling here. If you have a
younger child (under 6 years), I would suggest not getting
overzealous to introduce the other sounds as shown above just
yet. If you have an older child, and if you feel comfortable
enough about it, you can introduce some of the above to your
child.

Step 1: Teach the ‘ea’ spelling as the /yee/ sound.

Step 2: Words – ear, fear, hear, rear, dear
Step 3: Words – beak, beam, east, beast
Step 4: Words – beans, jeans, mean, treat, speak

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Step 5: Sentences

• That lean man is mean.
• My left ear can hear.
• Beam me up, dear.
• The mean beast is in the east.

Step 6a: Optional Story Reading

It is sunny and hot.
Betty feels sleepy from the heat.
She is asleep, and had a dream.
Betty dreamed that she had tea and jelly.
Betty's hands got yucky and messy.
Mom tells Betty to clean up.

Step 6b: Comprehension Checks
• Why was Betty sleepy?
• What happened when Betty fell asleep?
• What did she dream about?
• How did Betty's hands get yucky?

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Step 7: Rhyme Time

Jack be nimble;
Jack be quick;
Jack jump into the quiet street.
Jack yell;
Jack scream;
Jack just had a bad dream.

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Lesson 6: er

In this lesson, we teach your child the /er/ sound represented
by the ‘er’ spelling. The /er/ sound actually has five different
spellings including "er", "ir", "ur", “ar”, and “or”. These are
called r-controlled vowels. This is simply a vowel followed by
the letter “r”, but knowing what r-controlled vowels are isn’t
all that important. The key here is mastering the sound
represented by these different spellings. We’ve already learned
the “ar” digraph in a previous lesson. Here, we teach the “er”
spelling, and in the subsequent lessons, we also teach the “ir”
and “ur” spellings. Later on, we will also teach “or”.
Side note: Did you know that the /er/ sound can also be
represented by the ‘or’ and ‘ar’ spellings as well? Complicated!
Right? Let me show you some examples:
‘ar’ making the /er/ sound word examples:

• wizard, lizard, burglar, cellar, dollar, calendar
‘or’ making the /er/ sound word examples:

• actor, vendor, work, visor, sailor, word, tailor, professor
Step 1: teach the ‘er’ spelling and the /er/ sound to your child.

Step 2: Words – her, better, after, faster, hotter

Step 3: Words – sister, soccer, master, blaster

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Step 4: Words – beaker, blender, sharper, runner

Step 5: Sentences

• This blender is better.
• I am a faster runner.
• She ran after the soccer ball.
• Bumper to bumper traffic.
• My sister is bigger than me.

Step 6a: Story

It is winter, and it is freezing.
Vicky is sick, and she has a very bad fever.
Vicky is shivering under her blankets.
Vicky's mom is very clever.
She heats up a big cup of hot chocolate for Vicky.
Vicky drinks the hot chocolate, and stops
shivering.

Step 6b: Comprehension Checks
• What season is it?
• Why is Vicky shivering under her blankets?

• What did Vicky's mom do to help her?

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Lesson 7: ir

Step 1: Continuing with the /er/ sound, teach the ‘ir’ spelling to
your child.

Step 2: Words – bird, dirt, sir, stir
Step 3: Words – firm, firmly, first
Step 4: Words – girl, skirt, shirt

Step 5: Sentences

• I got it first.
• He has a firm grip.
• First, we must stir.
• The bird is in the dirt.
• I need a shirt and a skirt.

Step 6: Story

This is my father. He is a surfer.
This is my mother. She is a smart banker.
This is my sister. She is a lot bigger than me.
This is me! I am just a small kid that can read.

Note: the ‘ur’ spelling (as in surfer) of the /er/ sound is
introduced next lesson.

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Lesson 8: ur

Step 1: Teach the ‘ur’ spelling and the /er/ sound to your child.

Step 2: Words – fur, hurt, surf, surfer
Step 3: Words – burp, burger, turn, burn, burner
Step 4: Words – curly, turkey, turnip

Step 5: Sentences

• That surfer is hurt.
• I had a big burp.
• The burger is on the burner.
• The turkey eats the turnip.

Step 6: Story

The little rabbit got hurt.
It hurt its leg.
I pick up the rabbit, and heal its leg.
I pat the rabbit softly.
Its fur is so soft.

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Lesson 9: ng

The digraph 'ng' is a nasal sound that sounds similar to the /n/
sound; however, this is a bit of a tricky sound to teach because
its sound will deviate slightly depending on the vowel that it is
paired with. Over the years I have repeatedly debated with
myself (and tested) about what is the more effective method for
teaching this sound - whether to, 1) teach the 'ng' sound and
then teach students the blending of /a/ + /ng/, /i/ + /ng/, /o/ +
/ng/, and /u/ + /ng/, or 2) to simply teach it as four separate
sound units as /ang/, /ing/, /ong/, and /ung/. With the first
choice, you are only teaching one additional /ng/ sound, while
with the second choice, you are teaching four "new" sounds.

With teaching phonetic reading, the premise I have
always worked with has been to only teach all the necessary
sounds which can be combined and manipulated to decode and
sound out other sounds, syllables, and words. Again, this is
why we do not teach things such as word families, onsets,
rimes, or syllables because it is not necessary - they can all be
sounded out from smaller sound units. This is why with the
/ng/ phoneme, I was torn between teaching /ng/ as an
individual phoneme or teaching it as four separate sounds of
/ang/, /ing/, /ong/, and /ung/. When I taught /ng/ – by itself –
some students had problems with the blending of /a/ + /ng/,
and /i/ + /ng/, but there were never any problems when I
simply taught /ang/, /ing/, /ong/, and /ung/ - the only caveat is

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that you are now teaching four sounds instead of one! Despite
that, teaching /ang/, /ing/, /ong/, and /ung/ is my preferred
teaching method now.
Please Note: Although I teach /ang/, /ing/, /ong/, and /ung/, I
always begin the lesson by introducing 'ng' first.

Step 1a: Teach the /ng/ sound, and then explain that depending
on what vowel it is paired with, it will make a slightly
different sound, and then proceed to teach starting with the
/ang/ sound.
Step 1b: Teach words

o bang, rang, clang, hang

Step 2a: Teach the /ing/ sound.
Step 2b: Teach words

o sing, ring, ping, spring

Step 3a: Teach the /ong/ sound.
Step 3b: Teach words

o long, song, pong, strong

Step 4a: Teach the /ung/ sound.

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Step 4b: Teach words

o hung, lung, flung, sprung

Step 5: Sentences

• Let's sing a song.
• This string is long.
• Dad is parking the car.
• Ping pong is fun.
• The alarm keeps beeping.
• Mommy went on a shopping spree.
• That strong man is the strongest.
• Bang! Bang! Bang! He's banging on the

desk.

Step 6a: Story

Tommy has a sling shot.
A mocking bird lands on the tree.
The mocking bird is singing a song.
Tommy is being bad.
He flings a rock at the bird, but missed.
Mommy sees it, and she gets upset at Tommy.
She asks Tommy to stop it.

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Step 6b: Comprehension Checks
• Who does the sling shot belong to?
• What landed on the tree?
• Why was mommy upset at Tommy? Or,
How was Tommy being bad?

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Lesson 10: ch, tch

Both 'ch' and 'tch' make the same /ch/ sound. However,
bringing up the complexities of English again, 'ch' also makes
three different sounds:

• /ch/ - chop, chess
• /sh/ - chef, machine
• /k/ - school, scheme
When teaching this lesson, I usually explain to my students that
'ch' actually makes three different sounds. I think it is for the
children’s benefit to be aware of all the different sounds, although
we only focus on teaching the /ch/ sound in this lesson.

Step 1: Words: chop, chess, chest, cheap, cheat, chant

Step 2: Words: march, match, catch, channel, teach,
teacher

Step 3: Words: each, beach, reach, such, much, fetch,
scratch

Step 4: Sentences

• Catch a big fish.
• My dog went to fetch the ball.
• Don't cheat on your test.
• Put the cheese in the chest.
• Don't talk if the teacher is teaching.

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Step 5: Story

My mom teaches me to read.
I can read a lot.
I can read simple books.
I can't read big books yet, but mommy is
teaching me.
She sits by me and we read.
I get better and better at reading.

Step 6: Rhyme Time: My Lunch

Sitting on the bench;
I want to eat my lunch.
Munch, munch, munch;
The ants eat all my lunch.

I didn't get to eat my lunch;
And I am hungry.
The ants eat all my lunch;
And so I am angry.

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Lesson 11: ow

Step 1: Teach 'ow' as the /ow/ sound - just like the "ow" sound
someone makes when they get hurt. When I need to remind my
students what sound 'ow' and 'ou' makes, I like to say:

"What do we say when we get hurt?"
"Ow!"
Note: The 'ow' spelling actually makes two different sounds
that are probably seen with about equal frequency; therefore,
we teach both sounds of 'ow' in our program. In this learning
unit, the /ow/ (as in cow) sound is taught, and in a later unit,
'ow' will be taught again, where it makes the /oh/ sound as in
"snow" and "flow".

Step 2: Words: how, now, cow, down, town, crowd
Step 3: Words: allow, clown, brown, crown, flower,
power, tower

Step 4: Sentences

• The cow is eating grass now.
• That funny clown fell down.
• We are going downtown to shop.
• The crowd frowned at the brown clown.

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Lesson 12: ou

Step 1: Teach the 'ou' spelling as the /ow/ sound.

Step 2: Words: out, our, sour, flour, loud, cloud
Step 3: Words: house, mouse, shout, found, sound,

Step 4: Sentences

• Don’t shout so loud.
• There is a mouse in the house.
• There are clouds in the sky.
• There is a pretty flower on the ground.
• Why is there flour on my flower?

Step 5: Rhyme Time

I'm a little fat pig short and stout;
Here's my tail, and here's my snout.
When I get all hungry, hear me shout;
Squeeze my tail and watch me hop all about!

I'm a little fat pig short and stout;
When I'm hungry, I shout so loud.
Feed me some grub in my tub;
Grab a brush and give my back a scrub.

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Step 6a: Rhyme Time

There is a mouse in the house.
The mouse eats the cheese;
The mouse eats the corn.
There is a mouse in the house!

The mouse runs around in the house.
It messes up the carpet;
And dad can't catch the mouse.
The mouse still runs around in the house!

Dad brings a cat in to the house;
The cat runs after the mouse;
They run around in the house;
The cat chases the mouse out of the house!

Step 6b: Comprehension Checks
• What did the mouse eat in the house?
• Why did dad bring a cat in the house?
• How did dad get rid of the mouse in the house?

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Lesson 13: or, ore

Step 1: Teach both "or" and "ore" as the /or/ sound. This is the
last of the r-controlled vowels we discussed previously. The
other ones we’ve learned already are: “ar”, “er”, “ir”, and “ur”.

Step 2: Words: for, fork, pork, work, workout
Step 3: Words: sore, store, more, chore, shore
Step 4: Words: order, border, sport, score, short

Note: The ‘or’ spelling can also make the /er/ sound. Here
are some examples:

• word, actor, motor, work, workout, vendor,
doctor, visor, sailor

In this lesson, we focus just on the /or/ sound for the ‘or’
spelling – with the exception of “work” and “workout”.
Step 5: Sentences

• Swim ashore.
• I am sore from my workout.
• Jordan went to the store.
• She has house chores to do.
• I have more work to do.

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