Word Knowledge A

Beginning Readers

Your student is learning the basics of how to read. You will help them understand the individual sounds and letters in written language. The three units below each contain a sequence of reading skills for your student to learn. Start with the first unit “Every Letter A-Z”, and continue through the units in order. If a reading skill in the unit is too easy, that’s ok! You can move at a faster pace until you find a reading skill that needs some extra practice.

Remember to take breaks between worksheets or other activities, and have fun!

Just Getting Started?
Follow the ‘s for your first steps


Follow these model lesson plans for a full tutoring session (or 2!)

Short /a/ bilingual

Tutor Lesson
Student Lesson

Alphabet

Tutor Lesson
Student Lesson

Click “Every Letter A-Z” below and select “ABC” to get started with Academic support activities

The Whole Alphabet & Icebreaker

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQR

STU

VWX

YZ

Review & Cases

Short vowel /a/

Short vowel /i/

Short vowel /o/

Short vowel /e/

Short vowel /u/

Word Families _an, _ad

Word Families _at, _ap

Word Families _et, _en

Word Families _ill, _ip

Word Families _it, _in

Word Families _ob, _ell

Word Families _ot, _op

Word Families _ug, _un

Word Families _ut, _ub

Try the following tips and activities for further enrichment:

  • I Spy the Sound: a fun way to build phonics skills and phonemic awareness. In this variation of the classic game, ‘I Spy’, ask your child to spy words that begin with a certain sound, rather than a letter. For example, “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with mmm.”
  • When practicing reading skills, you should always give your student the chance to try to find the answer themselves. If they aren’t ready for that, start offering them small clues that will lead to the right answer. For example, if a student says “cat” instead of “cut”, ask them to “slide through each sound” or “drive through the sounds” out loud: c – u – t.
  • Personalize phonics skills by using your student’s name as an example! Review the sounds in their name, and come up with a list of other words that share each sound.
  • Before reading a story, look at pictures or videos about the content or location of the story to make it come to life.
  • Ask students to write a review, or a single sentence, describing what they just read.
  • When you find a book that your student loves, look for other books with the same author or genre to try reading that, too.
  • Ask your student to practice reading out loud.
  • Read out loud to your student. For younger students, make it interactive and silly!
  • Echo reading: ask your student to imitate you as you read. Choose a paragraph, story, or even script with lots of different types of expression, such as whispering, speaking loudly, dramatic pauses, or silly voices.
  • Act out a scene together with as much drama as you can, while reading from a script.

Additional resources: