Letter-Sound Knowledge

1. Produces the sounds that correspond to frequently used *diphthongs ou, oy, and digraphssh, th, ea. (*Diphthong: A vowel produced by the tongue shifting position during articulation; a vowel that feels as if it has two parts, especially the vowels spelled ou and oi.Digraphs: A group of two consecutive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound (e.g., ea in bread; ch in chat; ng in sing.)
   

2. Decoding and Word Recognition

   1. Uses knowledge of advanced phonic elements (e.g., digraphs and diphthongs), special vowel spelling, and word endings to recognize words.

   2. Reads compound words, contractions, possessives, and words with inflectional endings.

   3. Uses word context (semantics: Does it make sense?) and order in the sentence (syntax: Does it sound right?) to confirm or correct decoding efforts.

   4. Reads multisyllabic words (2-3 syllables) using syllabication and word structure (e.g., base/root word, prefixes, and suffixes) in word recognition.