In the Read Naturally Live Phonics series, the Key Words step in each story has long provided a phonics lesson for a featured phonics pattern or set of patterns. Students listen to the lesson and then click on example words for more instruction about the pattern(s) and to practice reading like words. 

Read Naturally is pleased to announce a new addition to the Key Words step for stories in the Phonics series levels 0.8–2.3*—lessons to help students learn and master high-frequency, irregular words. Many high-frequency words are irregular or contain patterns students haven't yet reached in their phonics instruction—but naturally, they appear quite often in real texts. More explicit teaching† of these words early on allows students to access more text and meaning sooner and more effectively build automaticity in reading text.  

*Lessons in levels 0.8, 1.3, and 1.8 are available now. Lessons in level 2.3 are currently being rolled out.

†Because high-frequency irregular words make up such a large percentage of authentic text, the teacher modeling and practice steps already provide a lot of exposure to and practice with such words. However, breaking these words apart and explicitly teaching students which parts they can already decode and which parts they have to commit to memory is a proven way to help students master these words more quickly. 

How It Works 

When working on a Phonics series story in levels 0.8–2.3, students will continue to have a lesson in the Key Words step for the story's featured phonics pattern or set of patterns. Once they have completed that lesson, they will see a screen with two key words to learn by heart. They will listen to an audio lesson about how to read and spell each of these words. Then, they will read a sentence consisting of words they have already learned to decode and to read by heart.   

Like the decodable words that have traditionally been taught in the Key Words step for phonics stories, the presented key words to learn by heart also appear in the story, where students will hear them read in the Read Along step and then practice them in the Practice step. (Note: The highlighting in the image below was added to draw attention to specific words and does not reflect how they appear in the program.)

Story Passage

 

Then, after practicing the story and the word list, students will also spell at least one of the key words to learn by heart as part of the Spelling step.

Reference Resources

Two reference documents can help you see exactly what students are working on as they move through the Phonics series. The Read Naturally Live Phonics Elements by Story document lists the phonics patterns taught in each story, and the Read Naturally Live Key Words to Learn by Heart document lists the high-frequency irregular words now taught in the Key Words step at Phonics series levels 0.8–2.3.  

As always, we're working to make our solutions more effective for the students and teachers who use them every day. As your students work through the Phonics series with this new addition, we'd love to hear how these new lessons are working for them.