Phonological Awareness and Phonics
A balanced reading program includes direct and explicit instructional strategies for teaching phonological awareness and phonics. Reading A-Z provides instructional resources for teaching the sounds and symbols of language and their relationships to one another using:

• 30 phonological awareness lessons
• 68 phonics lessons

Phonological Awareness Lessons
In effective phonological awareness instruction, children are taught to notice, differentiate, think about, and manipulate sounds — from sounds of words to sounds of individual phonemes. Reading A-Z's phonological awareness lessons are organized from the simplest skills to the most difficult. Each lesson includes picture cards, a game, a workmat, and a supplemental Read-Aloud book for extra practice.

Lessons 1—5	Identify and produce rhyme; discriminate sounds and words
Lessons 6—10	Identify and produce rhyme; discriminate initial sounds, blend syllables, blend onset and rime
Lessons 11—15	Discriminate final sounds; blend phonemes; segment syllables and onset and rime
Lessons 16—20	Discriminate medial sounds; blend and segment phonemes
Lessons 21—25	Blend and segment phonemes; manipulate initial sounds
Lessons 26—30	Blend and segment phonemes; manipulate final and medial sounds

Phonological Awareness Assessments
Monitor progress on awareness of words, rhymes, onset and rime, syllables, and phonemes using our phonological awareness assessments.

Phonics Lessons
Sounds and their corresponding symbols are taught in a series of phonics lessons using various strategies and aided by flashcards and worksheets. Students are given an opportunity to practice what they have been taught in a series of decodable books that are aligned to lessons that:

• are systematic
• are direct, with explicit instructions
• provide word manipulation practice
• provide blending and segmenting practice

Each of the 68 lessons spells out activities for each instructional session. The lessons are organized according to the following sequence:

• Consonant, Short Vowels, and Word Families – 35 lessons
• Blends – 6 lessons
• Long Vowels - VCe Pattern – 4 lessons
• Consonant Digraphs – 6 lessons
• Open Vowels – 1 lesson
• Vowel Digraphs – 5 lessons
• Other Vowel Patterns – 1 lesson
• Variant Vowels – 4 lessons
• Diphthongs – 2 lessons
• R-controlled Vowels – 4 lessons

Each lesson begins with tips for introducing and teaching the sound. The symbol is introduced and connected to the sound using various teaching techniques. Students are given an opportunity to write the symbol and use it in spelling. When appropriate, high-frequency words and word families are taught.

Picture cards for phonemic awareness
Letter cards for word building and blending/segmenting activities
Word family (phonogram) cards
Decodable word cards
High-frequency word cards

Decodable Books
Students need practice decoding the sound/symbol relationships they have been taught. The Decodable Books provide an opportunity for students to read continuous text in a story and book format while confronting words that have the phonics elements they have been taught. The decodable books also expose children to high-frequency words.