Knowing what to teach and when to teach it is one of the most basic parts of planning your phonics instruction. Unfortunately, many programs have a scope and sequence that doesn’t make sense. Topics jump around with little thought to what students already know and what they don’t know yet. Another big difference between other phonics scope and sequences and ours is that we have review built into our structure.
It takes kids between four and six weeks to learn a new phonics pattern. Most programs teach one pattern a week. That scope and sequence is setting your students up for failure. They don’t have enough time to process and automatize what they are learning. Our program builds in a daily review of previous patterns. So, students are actively working with closed syllables while they are learning about open syllables. They will review closed syllables for six weeks after we teach them.
It is also easier to build this review into second-grade phonics because we work with multisyllabic words. Students have to work with different syllable types to read and write these words.
We built our second-grade phonics scope and sequence by thinking about which lessons would get kids reading the most words the fastest. Here is what we came up with:
Week 1: Closed Syllables (short vowels, sounds of k, blends, digraphs)
Week 2: Closed Syllables (short vowels, sounds of k, blends, digraphs)
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We know we put a lot of topics into closed syllables, but kids should have been learning about closed syllables since kindergarten. This is mostly a review for them.
Week 3: Open Syllables REVIEW Closed Syllables
Week 4: VCE Syllables REVIEW Closed Syllables, Open Syllables
Week 5: Consonant +LE REVIEW Closed Syllables, Open Syllables, VCE Syllables
Week 6: Consonant + LE REVIEW Closed Syllables, Open Syllables, VCE Syllables
Week 7: Y as a Vowel REVIEW Closed Syllables, Open Syllables, VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE
Week 8: Soft and Hard C REVIEW Closed Syllables, Open Syllables, VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel
Week 9: Soft and Hard G REVIEW Open Syllables, VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C
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Notice that closed syllables have dropped off your review list. By now, your students should be automatically sounding out and spelling closed syllables. If not, continue reviewing.
Week 10: Long A Vowel Teams (ai, ay) REVIEW Open Syllables, VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G
Week 11: Long E Vowel Teams (ee, ea) REVIEW Open Syllables, VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams
Week 12: Long I Vowel Teams (ie, igh) REVIEW VCE Syllables, Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams
Week 13: Long O Vowel Teams (oa, oe, ow) REVIEW Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams
Week 14: Long U Vowel Teams (ue, ui) REVIEW Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams
Week 15: Long OO Vowel Teams (oo, ue) REVIEW Consonant + LE, Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams
Week 16: Short and Long OO REVIEW Y as a Vowel, Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams
Week 17: Compound Words REVIEW Soft and Hard C, Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO
Week 18: Contractions REVIEW Soft and Hard G, Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words
Week 19: Contractions REVIEW Long A Vowel Teams, Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words
Week 20: AR Sound REVIEW Long E Vowel Teams, Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions
Week 21: OR Sound (or, ore, oar) REVIEW Long I Vowel Teams, Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound
Week 22: ER Sound (er, ir, ur) REVIEW Long O Vowel Teams, Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound
Week 23: R-Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE REVIEW Long U Vowel Teams, Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound
Week 24: OW Sound (ow, ou) REVIEW Long OO Vowel Teams, Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE
Week 25: OY Sound (oy, oi) REVIEW Short and Long OO, Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound
Week 26: AW Sound (aw, au, al) REVIEW Compound Words, Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound
Week 27: Short and Long EA Sound REVIEW Contractions, AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound
Week 28: Silent Letters REVIEW AR Sound, OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound
Week 29: REVIEW OR Sound, ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 30: REVIEW ER Sound, R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 30: REVIEW R- Controlled Syllables with Consonant + LE, OW Sound, OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 31: REVIEW OW Sound, OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 32: REVIEW OY Sound, Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 33: REVIEW Short and Long EA Sound, Silent Letters
Week 34: REVIEW Silent Letters
You may be wondering what all of this review will look like. There are two ways we review. First, at the beginning of every lesson, teachers show picture cards, and students sound them out and spell the word. The picture cards will be from all of the review patterns as well as the current pattern. Second, all of our units come with printable picture cards. We use these in stations where students can use them to play games or quiz each other. Keep out the review patterns so that students can work with them for the whole six weeks.
You, of course, are welcome to alter this scope and sequence to fit your students’ needs. No scope and sequence is perfect. In our experience, it is far easier to have a starting place and adjust from there instead of staring at a blank piece of paper. Good luck with all of your planning! Please reach out with any questions, comments, or ideas. We are always ready to learn from other teachers!