Basic Program

Advanced Program

Units 1-8: Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and distinguish sounds of speech in language. We learn to speak before we learn to read; we learn to hear sounds before we learn which letters represent those sounds. Accordingly, in the first eight units of the Basic level, your child focuses on phonological awareness activities, distinguishing and manipulating sounds. Activities include Sound Chains, Finger Stretching, and Head, Waist, Toes.

Be patient—do these activities thoroughly and well. Research has shown that explicit phonological awareness instruction leads to better reading.

Units 9-36: Lesson Components

Sight Words

Lessons begin with Sight Word activities. New sight words for the week are listed in the lesson objectives. Typically, the child learns three new sight words every other week. Do not worry if your child is unable to master all of the words for the week, as later lessons provide many opportunities to review them.

It is recommended that the child work on no more than five sight words at a time. For example, if your child masters two of the three words for a given week, it is fine to add the third word to the following week’s list, for a total of four words. However, if your child is unable to master all three of the words, do not add all three to the following week’s words.

Preparing sight word cards: You will need to either print the provided sight word cards or hand print each sight word on a 3X5 index card. Use a bold black marker, and print each word in neat, large letters. Keep the cards in the file box. When your child has mastered a word, do not discard it. Rather, keep it in the sight words card box for future use.

Here are the sight words in the Basic level of the program:

the, and, is
on, to, in
it, he, was
says, have, with
where, from, there
that, of, put
two, they, both

you, went, we
what, their, want
said, your, so
who, see, or
for, she, her
does, why, one
were, my, are
Dr., Mr., Mrs.

Get Ready

These activities help your child review previously taught sounds and letters, and reinforce skills and concepts from previous lessons.

Learn New Concepts

In this section of the lesson, new concepts are introduced and practiced through a variety of multisensory activities, including:

Listening to sounds in words
Manipulating letter tiles
Completing practice pages with fun written activities
Writing words and sentences that you dictate

Show You Know

This section of the lesson asks your child to apply his or her new knowledge of a concept. The child often completes written activities on practice pages. Typically, once you have read the directions to the child and observed the child complete one or two examples, he or she may finish the page independently.

On some days, practice pages are followed by a dictation activity.

Oral Reading

In this part of the lesson, your child reads aloud to you, sometimes from a Sentence Sheet provided in the Student Pages, and sometimes from a PhonicsWorks Reader.

K12’s PhonicsWorks Readers are “decodable readers” with a carefully controlled vocabulary comprised almost exclusively of letter-sound patterns and sight words your child has already studied. Even though these stories are written in words your child has studied, most beginning readers still need plenty of time to figure out the words. When your child reads the stories, you serve as a guide to help when your child has difficulty. The lessons offer detailed suggestions about how to help your child read accurately and sound out challenging words.

As your child reads, it is very important that you sit next to him or her and carefully observe his or her progress. Lesson plans provide instructions for taking notes while listening to your child read. These notes will help you decide which letters and sounds your child still needs to work on, and which sight words are still difficult for your child. You may want to keep a small notebook for yourself in which you can write the title of the reading, the date, and a list of skills the child has mastered as well as what he or she needs to work on.

Once your child has mastered a story, have him or her reread the story often. By encouraging your child to reread known text, you are helping him or her develop fluency and the ability to apply, automatically and without conscious effort, previously learned skills to unfamiliar text. Regular rereading for fluency develops your child's powers of comprehension, as less effort spent on decoding means more effort can be focused on gathering meaning.

Getting Stronger Units

After Unit 10, Basic level, the even-numbered units are called “Getting Stronger” units. These units are designed to strengthen the child’s skills through review and practice. If your child is consistently scoring 100% on the assessments in prior units, you may choose to skip the Getting Stronger units.

If you choose to skip these units, you will need to return to the computer and mark all of the lessons in the unit as “completed.”

Should you skip ahead? Each child learns to read at his or her own pace. This variation is natural and is generally not a cause for concern. We have designed PhonicsWorks to meet the needs of a broad range of children, and we believe most children will benefit from working through all the lessons in the program.

While some children might be able to skip some of the Getting Stronger lessons, most children will benefit from the review and practice. This practice helps ensure that children have thoroughly mastered early reading skills, and that they are making progress toward achieving what cognitive psychologists call “automaticity.” That is, they are on their way to becoming skilled readers who can automatically turn printed letters into their corresponding speech sounds without having to linger over individual letters and sounds. It’s like reaching that point in math when your child can quickly add and subtract mentally without having to stop to count on his or her fingers; or, in music, when your child can play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on the piano without having to search for the notes.

Most children need repeated review and practice to achieve automaticity. When you come to the Getting Stronger lessons, however, you may feel that your child has sufficiently mastered the skills taught in prior lessons. If your child is consistently achieving perfect or near-perfect scores on the assessments, and if you feel that he or she will not benefit from further review and practice, then you may choose to skip the Getting Stronger lessons and move to the next unit.