Cumulative Instruction During Phonics

Carla Stanford: We know that structured literacy really counts on cumulative instruction. That means while I'm teaching, for instance, '-ck', I am also scooping up all the other content that I've taught. Short vowels, blends, beginning blends, ending blends, digraphs, suffix '-s.' So all of the content that I've taught previously will be scooped up and considered and used while we are reading and spelling during our phonics lesson. So for instance, with '-ck', when we are introducing that, our kids already know that 'c' says /k/, and 'k' says /k/, so they have these two spellings. Now they're going to learn a third spelling. And this is going to be an interaction. The cumulative nature of the lesson, that if we are intentional about it, we can set it up so the kids understand what's coming and they are ready. And we intentionally embed words for kids to practice so that they can have this cumulative opportunity and we walk them through that. At the end, I'm going to want to use 'c' or 'k', but I just learned a new rule and its '-ck'. So considering the cumulative impact of all the content is really essential as we are teaching our phonics lessons.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and anonymous donors