From highly respected scholar Pat Cunningham, this enduring best seller offers a coherent collection of practical
activities that provide a framework for teaching phonics.
The fifth edition of this esteemed book seamlessly weaves together the complex, varied strategic approaches needed
to help students develop reading and spelling skills. Pat�s balanced reading program incorporates a broad spectrum
of methods for meeting the needs of individual students. New activities and strategies emphasize that what matters
is not how much phonics students know but what they actually use for decoding a new word, for reading and spelling,
and for writing.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One Building The Foundation for Phonics They Can Use
Chapter 1 Early Reading and Writing Activities
Early Reading Concepts
Shared Reading of Predictable Books
Predictable Charts
Writing
Getting to Know You
Summary
Chapter 2 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
Developing Phonological Awareness
Developing the Concept of Rhyme
Teaching Blending and Segmenting
Using Names to Build Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
Summary
Chapter 3 Concrete Words, Letter Names, and Sounds
Names
Alphabet Books
Letter Actions and Foods
Key Words for Sounds
Changing a Hen to a Fox
Guess the Covered Word
Chapter 4 Making Words in Kindergarten
How the Foundational Activities are Multilevel
Part Two Fluency
Chapter 5 Fluency Activities
Independent Reading Develops Fluency
Daily Writing Develops Fluency
Rereading Develops Fluency
Fluency Development Lessons
Summary
Chapter 6 High-Frequency Words
Building Meaning for High-Frequency Words
Doing A Word Wall
On-the Back Activities
Other Word Wall Practice Activities
Portable and Take Home Word Walls
Theme Boards
How Fluency Activities and Word Wall are Multilevel
Part Three Using Phonics and Spelling Patterns
Chapter 7 Making Words
A Sample Making Words Lesson
Making Words Homework
Additional Making Words Lessons
Summary
Chapter 8 Rhyme-Based Decoding and Spelling Activities
Learning the Most Common Rhyming Patterns
Rounding up the Rhymes
Using Words You Know
Reading/Writing Rhymes
Summary
Chapter 9 Spelling Activities
What Looks Right?
Word Sorting and Hunting
How Part Three Activities are Multilevel
Part Four Big Words
Chapter 10 Decoding and Spelling Big Words
Teaching Common Prefixes and Suffixes
Teaching Common Root Words
The Nifty Thrifty Fifty
Big Word Collectors
Modeling How to Figure Out a Big Word
Word Detectives
The Wheel
Mystery Word Match
Summary
Chapter 11 Making Words in Upper Gades
A Third Grade Making Words Lesson
A Fourth Grade Making Words Lesson
A Fifth Grade Making Words Lesson
How the Big Words Activities are Multilevel
Part Five Coaching, Assessment and Research
Chapter 12 Coaching for Strategic Decoding and Spelling
Coaching during Writing Conferences
Coaching during Reading
Summary
Chapter 13 Assessment
What is Assessment?
Assessing Early Reading Behaviors
Assessing Word Strategies
The Names Test
Summary
Chapter 14 The Theory and the Research�The Why Underlying the How
My Personal Phonics History
What We Know About How Good Readers Read Words
What We Know About How Children Learn to Read Words
