The Structured Literacy Playbook, written by literacy experts Melissa Orkin, Ph.D; Sarah Gannon, M.Ed; and Alexandria Osburn, M.S.Ed at Crafting Minds Group, helps educators strengthen students’ reading skills through intentional modeling, guided practice, and coaching in a practical, sequential, and efficient way. This post, drawn from strategies featured in the book, kicks off a three-part series on supporting striving readers.
In the three articles of this blog series, we explore ways to support students who
encounter these common reading challenges:
1. Sequencing Sounds When Decoding Words
2. Sound by Sound Decoding
3. Accurate but Not Automatic Reading
Strategy 1: Start Decoding Early
A common misconception is that decoding instruction must wait until students have learned all letter–sound correspondences. In reality, decoding can—and should—begin much sooner. Once students know a handful of consonant sounds and at least one short vowel sound, they are ready to start blending and reading simple words.
For example, with just the letter–sound correspondences for s, a, t, and p, students can decode words like at, sat, pat, and sap. Introducing blending strategies at this stage jump-starts reading development and helps students see the immediate purpose of learning letter–sound relationships.
The key is to use your phonics scope and sequence to determine when students have adequate letter–sound knowledge to begin. Early decoding practice reinforces letter–sound recall, builds confidence, and supports the transition from isolated phonics instruction to real reading.
Teaching Tip: Introduce decoding with a small set of letters, then expand as new letter–sound correspondences are taught. This allows students to practice blending with real words from the start, making phonics instruction more engaging and meaningful for novices.
Strategy 2: Blend Sounds Continuously
Traditional phonics instruction often uses segmented blending in which students produce each sound separately before combining them. For example, when students encounter the word bat, they would say the sounds /b/ /a/ /t/. While this strategy is effective for many early readers, this approach can be challenging for children who struggle to hold sounds in the correct sequence. They often blend inaccurately by mixing up, dropping, or adding extra sounds to the word.
Enter our second winning strategy: continuous blending. This evidence-based approach teaches students to sound out a word without stopping or pausing between sounds. Using the example word bat, students would say /bbbbaaaaatttttt/ Research shows that continuous blending can boost decoding accuracy, especially for nonsense words (Gonzalez-Frey & Ehri, 2021). Removing pauses helps students keep sounds in the correct order, making it easier to read new or unfamiliar words.
Teaching Tip: When first modeling continuous blending, choose CVC words that start with a continuous consonant sound like /f/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /s/, /v/, and /z/ as opposed to /p/, /b/, and /k/ You can stretch these sounds (and vowel sounds too) for as long as your breath allows.
Strategy 3: Use a Multisensory Spelling Routine
Spelling can be especially challenging for early readers because each sound in English can often be represented by multiple letter patterns. While effective for many, traditional spelling instruction (typically weekly word lists and memorization) may not give students enough opportunities to connect sounds, letters, and handwriting in a meaningful way, especially if they struggle to keep sounds in order or recall the correct spelling pattern.
Enter our third winning strategy: Move It, Spell It, Write It, a multisensory routine that integrates phonemic awareness, sound–symbol correspondence, and handwriting. Using an Elkonin Spelling Mat, students Move It with tokens to represent each sound, Spell It with letter tiles or magnetic letters, and Write It on paper. Research shows that combining these steps strengthens the reciprocal relationship between reading and spelling (Moats & Brady, 2000).
Teaching Tip: Begin with words that match the current phonics concept for instruction to give students immediate, targeted practice.
Setting the Stage for Success
Helping students like Cameron requires targeted, evidence-based strategies that meet students where they are in their reading development. By starting decoding instruction early, using continuous blending to support accurate word reading, and incorporating multisensory spelling routines, educators can address common roadblocks at the letter–sound stage. These approaches not only build accuracy but also lay the foundation for greater automaticity and confidence in young readers.
Don’t miss the next two posts in this series: Sound-by-Sound Decoding and Accurate but Not Automatic Reading!
Want more winning strategies? Get your copy of The Structured Literacy Playbook now!
Interested in reading more? Check out another blog post from Crafting Minds!