Unit 5 of Pathway to Fluency is here, and it’s filled with effective and fun activities to teach reading! Unit 5 continues the systematic approach of reading instruction. Prior to Unit 5, students have learned a range of phonics skills, including CVC words, silent e, blends, digraphs, r-controlled vowels, and some vowel teams. In Unit 5 of Pathway to Fluency, students will have a combined review of all of the skills from Level 1, plus they will learn the additional vowel teams of ow, ie, and igh. Then they will learn how to form and break apart compound words that use those phonics skills. This step is a great transition to reading longer words, and gives a strong foundation for reading multisyllabic words.

If you are unfamiliar with this reading program, I’ll break it down for you. Pathway to Fluency is a complete and comprehensive Science of Reading (SoR) Aligned Curriculum! Simply stated, it has everything you need for your whole-group, small-group and one-on-one reading instruction. Furthermore, Pathway to Fluency has been developed to teach everything from phonological awareness to fluency and spelling in a systematic way using methods that have been proven to be effective.
In the blog post for Pathway to Fluency Unit 1, I offered an explanation of what Science of Reading is and why it is vitally important when teaching children how to read. The Unit 1 blog post also includes an outline of the scope and sequence of Level 1 of the Pathway to Fluency Curriculum.
To read the Unit 1 blog post, Click Here. For the blog post for Unit 2, Click Here. To see Unit 3 in action, Click Here. And to read the blog post for Unit 4, Click Here.
Where do I start?
To download the Free Pathway to Fluency Pre-Assessment, click here. This simple phonics assessment is designed to evaluate your students’ current phonics skills in an easy way to help you determine which unit of Pathway to Fluency your students should begin. Utilizing this assessment can help ensure that your instruction is tailored to meet the diverse needs of your students, allowing them to build a strong foundation in reading and writing right from the beginning.
Scope and Sequence for Level 2 of Pathway to Fluency
Here’s an outline of the scope and sequence for Level 2 of the Pathway to Fluency Curriculum.



WHAT’S INCLUDED IN PATHWAY TO FLUENCY UNIT 5?
Pathway to Fluency has everything you need for your whole-group, small-group and one-on-one reading instruction. It has been developed to teach everything from phonological awareness to fluency and spelling in a systematic way using methods that are proven to be effective.

START HERE FILE
I have included the Start Here file to give you an introduction to Pathway to Fluency Unit 5. It also provides a brief overview of what the term science of reading means and how to implement best practices in your classroom using the Pathway to Fluency Curriculum. I encourage you to refer to this file as you teach through Unit 5 for helpful reminders.

FOLDER #1: LESSON PLANS AND ASSESSMENTS
Unit 5 includes 9 weeks of instruction with lesson plans for whole group lessons and small group center practice. These easy-to-follow lesson plans provide a structured approach to help you introduce, practice and apply the Pathway to Fluency materials and concepts in your classroom. More specifically, each lesson is broken down into 4 categories: Oral Phonological & Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, High Frequency Words, and Application & Independent Practice. The first three categories are done in a whole-group setting, while the Application & Independent Practice is done in small-group centers.



Each unit also includes a mid-assessment and post-assessment to help you gauge your students’ progress and to help drive instruction. The Unit 5 Assessments check for understanding in phonological and phonemic awareness, letter name and sound identification, and reading high frequency words (heart words). These assessments are quick and easy to administer one-on-one.

FOLDER #2: WHOLE GROUP RESOURCES
This folder has all of the cards and posters that you will need to support the whole-group instruction. More specifically, the files include sound wall cards, letter formation and letter sound posters, and high frequency word posters. These visual aids can be displayed on a classroom wall for easy reference as students are working on the centers.
SOUND WALL CARDS
The sound wall cards can be used to form the Vowel Valley and Consonant Sounds charts. There are a total of 44 sound (phoneme) cards to help introduce each phoneme. Each card shows proper mouth formation, an example of the sound within a word, whether the sound is unvoiced or voiced, and the possible spelling combinations (graphemes) that can create the sound. You can choose use the locks to cover the graphemes that have not been introduced.


HIGH FREQUENCY WORD POSTERS
These posters show the word, letter groupings, and hearts to represent irregularly pronounced letters within the word. In addition, the cues at the bottom should be said as you introduce the irregular letter groups.

PHONICS POSTERS
Use these posters to review and introduce the phonics skills that have been taught thus far. Most of the phonics skills have already been learned in Level 1 with the exception of the following: the long o sound spelled ow, long i spelled ie and igh, and compound words.

FOLDER #3: CENTER ACTIVITIES
Each week includes 4 centers for small group practice. These no-prep centers provide a hands-on way for students to take what they have learned in the whole-group instruction and practice those skills in a smaller group. This practice helps them become more fluent readers.
There are a total of four centers each week. You may want to consider dividing your class in one of two ways depending on your classroom size and schedule:
- Five groups- Four groups will each be at one of the four centers. The fifth group will be meeting for small group instruction at the Teacher Table. Each group would meet with the teacher once a week.
- Four groups- Each group will be at one of the four centers. The teacher will pull one group at a time for small group instruction at the Teacher Table. This option allows for each group to meet with the teacher daily, but requires slightly larger group sizes.
Each center includes a phonics and a high frequency word activity, with additional practice pages that correspond to the activities. Also, each center activity comes with multiple versions of each for repeated practice. For consistency, the activities are the same from week to week.

WEEKS 1-6: REVIEW OF LEVEL 1 PHONICS SKILLS, PLUS OW, IE & IGH WORDS
CENTER 1 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: MAPPING AND GRAPHING
Students say the word, map the sounds and graph each sound.



CENTER 1 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: SPIN IT, MAP IT AND GRAPH IT!
Students take turns spinning the spinner, saying the word and graphing it on the mat.


CENTER 2 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: MAP, GRAPH AND FIND
Students say the word, map the sounds, graph each sound and find the word three times.


CENTER 2 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL IT, READ IT, CHECK IT OFF!
Students take turns rolling a die, reading a short sentence and checking it off.


CENTER 3 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: SPIN, TRACE AND WRITE
Students spin the spinner, find and trace the word, and write the word on the lines below.



CENTER 3 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL AND READ SENTENCES
Students take turns rolling a die, moving their piece and reading the sentence.



CENTER 4 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: ROLL, SPELL AND CHECK IT OFF
Students roll a die, say the word, spell it out and check it off.



CENTER 4 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: READERS THEATER
Students take turns reading their lines in the short story dialog.




WEEKS 7-9: COMPOUND WORDS
CENTER 1 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: MAP AND GRAPH COMPOUND WORDS
Students say the word, split it up into 2 words, map the sounds and graph each sound.


CENTER 1 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: MAKING COMPOUND WORDS
Students read each word in a set, write the word as a compound word and cover the picture that matches.


CENTER 2 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: MATCHING COMPOUND WORDS
Students write the first word, find the second word that makes a compound word and complete the compound word.

CENTER 2 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: SPIN, TRACE & WRITE
Students spin the spinner, say the word, find and trace it and write it on the lines below.

CENTER 3 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: SAY, COVER AND WRITE
Students say the word, find the first and second words that make up the compound word and write it on the line.

CENTER 3 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL AND READ
Students take turns rolling a die and reading the word.

CENTER 4 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: START OR FINISH THE COMPOUND WORD
Students say the word, read the first or last word and write the word to complete it.

CENTER 4 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: READERS THEATER
Students take turns reading their lines in the short story dialog.

FOLDER #4: PATHWAY TO FLUENCY UNIT 5 TEACHER TABLE TOOLS
The teacher table is where you can differentiate your reading instruction based on your students’ individual needs. The “TTT” folder has all the resources that you will need for small-group instruction for the concepts introduced in Unit 5. These materials are organized by type, and then by week. Therefore, you can easily pull activities from previous weeks for review as needed. Use the Teacher Table Tools throughout the unit to offer scaffolding for struggling students, additional practice for on-track students and extension activities for students who are ready for more challenging work.
I’ve worked to make everything as low-prep as possible for your Teacher Table Tools. Organization couldn’t be easier! Simply place the pages into a binder and teach!

ORAL PHONOLOGICAL & PHONEMIC AWARENESS PRACTICE

To start, additional phonological and phonemic awareness activities are provided. These coincide with the whole-group lesson exercises. Use them as a warm-up at the beginning of small group instruction.

LETTER CHAINING ACTIVITY
Students can use the given letters to build a word, listen for the prompt for the letter change in the word, and read the new word.

WEEKLY WORD LISTS
Each week includes a word list of all decodable words. Students can map and encode the words.


HIGH FREQUENCY WORD CARDS & SAY IT, MAP IT, GRAPH IT CARDS
Use these as a warm-up at the beginning of small group instruction and as a scaffold for struggling students.




MAP IT & MAP IT, GRAPH IT AND WRITE IT CARDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.



TAP AND BLEND CARDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.



READ AND LABEL MATS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.

ENCODING MATS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.

LOOK-ALIKE WORDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.





SPLIT, WRITE & CLIP CARDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.




FLUENCY ROLL AND READ A SENTENCE
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.


READING COMPREHENSION CHECK
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.



COMPLETE THE SENTENCE
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.

WORD FLUENCY GRIDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.

SENTENCE FLUENCY GRIDS
Next up, use these cards to have students decode and choose the word that matches the picture.

READ AND SEEK PASSAGES
These are one of my favorite additions to Pathway to Fluency. They are decodable passages for students of all levels, and they include prompts for scaffolds, on-target and extension questions.



DECODABLE READERS
This is one of my favorite parts of this unit! Weeks 1-3 and 5-8 each have two 4-page books (one page printed front and back) to re-enforce the phonics skills and high frequency words learned for each. Weeks 4 and 9 have three 4-page books for review. Furthermore, they build confidence in reading by allowing students to read decodable text in a fun short story.













PATHWAY TO FLUENCY UNIT 5 MY HANDWRITING BOOK
This book offers students an opportunity to practice proper letter formation while also practicing phonics skills. You can choose to use these books at the Teacher Table to monitor mastery or as extra practice for students who have finished the center work. Each week includes 4 pages that progress to provide spiral review throughout the weeks.






I hope you find Pathway to Fluency Unit 5 helpful. Please reach out to me if you have any questions about Level 2 or about any other resources from my store.
Good MOrning!
I see that Level 1 units each take a nine weeks. When do you cover Level 2 units? Do you start each group at a different level and or unit?
Thank you so much for your help!
Susan
Hi Susan,
Ideally students would continue in the program together. However, some students may learn at a different pace than others. Therefore, I have included resources in the Teacher Table Tools for students who are struggling with certain phonics concepts, so you can use those to help the students that need extra practice. Also included in the Teacher Table file are Decodable Readers and Read and Seek passages for students who are ready for more reading. Unit 5 has a review of all of the previously learned phonics skills, so the first few weeks can give you a good idea for what level your students are at. If you find that students are struggling with certain phonics skills, you may want to start at an earlier unit. I hope that helps!
Kindly,
Annie
I teach first grade. What levels should I am to get through during a school year?
Hi Susan,
Most students should go into 1st grade with knowledge of the phonics skills that were introduced in Units 1-4 (Level 1). Unit 5 should be a good place to start. The first few weeks are a review of the previously learned skills, so this should give you a good indicator as to whether or not your students are ready to continue or should practice previous units. I hope this helps!
Kindly,
Annie
Yes, it does!! Thank you so much!!! 🙂