The Science of Reading and Foundational Skills

Patty Duncan, our Vooks Education Director, is here to answer all of your burning questions about literacy in this education-focused Q&A series!

When it comes to the Science of Reading, is there a scope and sequence for the Foundational Skills?

Yes, the Science of Reading approach emphasizes a structured and systematic scope and sequence for teaching foundational skills. This approach is based on extensive research into how children learn to read and highlights the importance of explicit instruction in key areas. Here are some example sequences by grade level:

Kindergarten

• Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming, syllable segmentation, initial sounds
• Phonics: Letter names and sounds, blending simple CVC words
• Fluency: Recognizing high-frequency words, reading simple decodable texts
• Vocabulary: Basic vocabulary through read-alouds and discussions
• Comprehension: Answering questions about stories, retelling stories

First Grade

• Phonemic Awareness: Advanced phoneme manipulation (blending, segmenting, substituting)
• Phonics: Long vowels, consonant blends, digraphs, more complex word patterns
• Fluency: Reading with greater accuracy and speed, expression
• Vocabulary: Expanding high-frequency words, introduction to academic vocabulary
• Comprehension: Making predictions, understanding story structure, identifying main ideas

Second Grade

• Phonemic Awareness: Continued practice as needed for struggling students
• Phonics: Complex vowel teams, multisyllabic words, prefixes, and suffixes
• Fluency: Reading with appropriate pace and expression, self-correction
• Vocabulary: Academic and domain-specific vocabulary
• Comprehension: Summarizing, making inferences, comparing and contrasting texts

This structured approach ensures that students build a strong foundation in each area before moving on to more complex skills. It’s important to provide plenty of practice and reinforcement at each stage to ensure mastery and to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of individual learners.