Scope & sequence
A scope and sequence is a teaching framework that sequentially organizes concepts by level of difficulty. It’s like a road map for reading! Not all scope and sequence frameworks are identical but a good one should:
- Introduce a few short vowels early so students can begin building simple words
- Progress from simple to complex.
This means students learn words with short vowels like “tap” before silent e words like “tape” and then later long vowel teams like “plain” and “day.”
The road to reading
The lessons
We’ve chosen to use the Scope and Sequence from UFLI Foundations: An Explicit and Systematic Phonics Program.
Alphabet (lessons 1–34)
These lessons introduce the sounds of all the consonants and short vowels which are the building blocks for reading simple words.
- a /ă/
- m /m/
- s /s/
- t /t/
- VC & CVC Words
- p /p/
- f /f/
- i /ĭ/
- n /n/
- CVC practice (a, i)
- Nasalized A (am, an)
- o /ŏ/
- d /d/
- c /k/
- u /ŭ/
- g /g/
- b /b/
- e /ĕ/
- VC & CVC practice (all)
- -s /s/
- -s /z/
- k /k/
- h /h/
- r /r/ part 1
- r /r/ part 2
- l /l/ part 1
- l /l/ part 2, al
- w /w/
- j /j/
- y /y/
- x /ks/
- qu /kw/
- v /v/
- z /z/
Alphabet review & longer words (lessons 35–41)
These lessons review the short vowels and introduce longer short vowel words with consonant blends like stop, blast, and spend.
- Short a review (including nasalized A)
- Short i review
- Short o review
- Short a, i, o review
- Short u review
- Short e review
- Short vowels review (all)
Digraphs (lessons 42–53)
These lessons introduce digraphs. Digraphs are teams of letters that make one sound like /sh/ and /ch/. Students will continue to practice reading words with short vowels but now they’ll include digraphs too.
- FLSZ spelling rule (ff, ll, ss, zz)
- -all, -oll, -ull
- ck /k/
- sh /sh/
- Voiced th /th/
- Unvoiced th /th/
- ch /ch/
- Digraphs review 1
- wh /w/, ph /f/
- ng /ƞ/
- nk /ƞk/
- Digraphs review 2 (incl. CCCVC)
VCe (lessons 54–62)
Now that students know short vowels, these lessons help them to change short vowel words into long vowel words by adding a silent e to the end of the word.
- a_e /ā/
- i_e /ī/
- o_e /ō/
- VCe review 1, e_e /ē/
- u_e /ū/ , /yū/
- VCe review 2 (all)
- _ce /s/
- _ge /j/
- VCe review 3, VCe exceptions
Reading longer words (lessons 63–68)
These lessons introduce inflected endings (-es, -ed, -ing) that can be added to words. They also introduce open syllables which have a long vowel and closed syllables which have a short vowel. These lessons will help students to begin reading longer words with more than one syllable.
- -es
- -ed
- -ing
- Closed & open syllables
- Closed/closed
- Open/closed
Ending spelling patterns (lessons 69–76)
These lessons introduce words with distinct final spelling patterns like -y and -dge endings.
- tch /ch/
- dge /j/
- tch /ch/, dge /j/ review
- Long VCC (-ild, -old, -ind, -olt, -ost)
- y /ī/
- y /ē/
- -le
- Ending patterns review
R-controlled vowels (lessons 77–83)
Now that students have learned to read words with short vowels and some long vowel words, these lessons will help them to read words with R-controlled vowels.
- ar /ar/
- or, ore /or/
- ar /ar/ & or, ore /or/ Review
- er /er/
- ir, ur /er/
- Spelling /er/: er, ir, ur, w + or
- R-controlled vowels review
Long vowel teams (lessons 84–88)
Vowel teams are two or more letters that go together to make one sound. All the vowel teams in these lessons use the long vowel sounds of the first letter in the team.
- ai, ay /ā/
- ee, ea, ey /ē/
- oa, ow, oe /ō/
- ie, igh /ī/
- Vowel teams review 1
Other vowel teams (lessons 89–94)
These vowel teams are a bit more challenging because they include other sounds than just long and short vowel sounds.
- oo, u /oo/
- oo /ū/
- ew, ui, ue /ū/
- Vowel teams review 2
- au, aw, augh /aw/
- ea /ĕ/, a /ŏ/
Diphthongs and silent letters (lessons 95–98)
These lessons introduce diphthongs. When we say a diphthong, our mouth changes shape as we make the sound like /oy/ and /ow/. These lessons also introduce graphemes where one letter is silent like ‘kn’ for /n/ and ‘mb’ for /m/.
- oi, oy, /oi/
- ou, ow, /ow/
- Vowel teams & dipthongs review
- kn /n/, wr /r/, mb /m/
Suffixes & prefixes (lessons 99– 106)
Suffixes and prefixes are added to the beginning or end of a base word to change the meaning of the original word. These lessons will help students read and spell longer words with suffixes and prefixes.
- -s/-es
- -er/-est
- -ly
- -less, -ful
- un-
- pre-, re-
- dis-
- Affixes review 1
Suffix spelling changes (lessons 107-110)
Sometimes adding a suffix requires changing the spelling (e.g., change y to i: candy to candies).
- Doubling rule -ed, -ing
- Doubling rule -er, -est
- Drop -e rule
- -y to i rule
Low frequency spellings (lessons 111–118)
These lessons include spelling patterns that are less common or vary from the expected pronunciation (e.g., doctor and author end with an /er/ sound, not the expected /or/ sound).
- -ar, -or /er/
- air, are, ear /air/
- ear /ear/
- Alternate /ā/ (ei, ey, eigh, aigh, ea)
- Alternate long U (ew, eu, ue, /yū/; ou /ū/)
- ough /aw/, /ō/
- Signal vowels (c /s/, g /j/)
- ch /sh/, /k/; gn /n/, gh /g/; silent t
Additional affixes (lessons 119–128)
The final set of lessons introduce some challenging affixes like -sion/-tion. These lessons will help students to read some very complex words!
- -sion, -tion
- -ture
- -er, -or, -ist
- -ish
- -y
- -ness
- -ment
- -able, -ible
- uni-, bi-, tri-
- Affixes review 2
How does the scope and sequence relate to the phases of reading development?
The phases of reading development are on a continuum so there isn’t necessarily a point on the scope and sequence when a student moves from one phase to the next. Generally, once students recognize all of their letters they have moved from partial alphabetic to full alphabetic. They enter the consolidated phase when they are beginning to read multisyllabic words and automatically recognize chunks of words.
Tips!
If you’re uncertain about a starting point on the scope and sequence, consult with your mentor teacher.
For lesson resources corresponding to the scope and sequence, see the UFLI Toolbox.
