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Overview of Decoding Skills

The concepts included in the graphic below come from the Reference Lists. The graphic is a working document, it aim at showing where the concepts begin and DOES NOT show where they end as the expectation is to build on them from level to level in order to achieve fluency. 

Foundation low

  • rhythm of oral vocabulary and names

  • first consonant sound

  • letters have individual sounds and names

Foundation high

  • single syllable sight words

  • onset (cap, cat, cab) and rime (cat, bat, hat) isolation in single syllable words

1L low

  • first and last consonant sound

  • first vowel sound (in, on, at) and medial short vowel (big, bag) sound

  • onset (cab, cat, cap) or rime (cat, bat, rat) in single syllable words

  • phoneme isolation

1L high

  • rime in single syllable words (make, take; day, may)

  • onset (clap, clip) or rime (spring, bring) in more complex familiar single syllable words

  • medial short vowel sounds (hat, hot)

  • inflectional verb endings (-ed, -ing, -es, -s)

2L low

  • long (bead) and short vowel (bed) sounds

  • digraphs in initial and final position (fish, church, thank, duck)

  • consonant blends in first or last position (trip, last)

  • final silent e (date)

  • two letter vowel combination with long vowel sound (coat, sleep)

  • first, medial, final sounds in familiar longer words

2L high

  • segment two syllable sight words while reading

  • more complex onset (three, throw) and rime (right, night)

  • common silent letter combinations (know, walk)

3L

  • segment two and three syllable sight words while reading

  • complex consonant blends in first and final position (shr, str, scr, spr, spl, thr, dge)

  • first, medial, final sounds in unfamiliar longer words

  • contractions (don’t, can’t)

  • suffixes (-tion, -er, -ment, -ly) and prefixes (un-, on-, pre-)

4L

  • segment unfamiliar multisyllabic words while reading

  • comparative and superlative inflection endings

  • suffixes (-cian, -ous, -ness) and prefixes (re-, dis-)

  • root words (electric, electrician, electricity)

For a definition of the terminology used here, see the glossary in the Professional Development tab.

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