Pathway to Fluency: Unit 8

I am thrilled that Pathway to Fluency Unit 8 is here! Each and every unit in Pathway to Fluency was a labor of love. Countless hours of careful research, planning and development have gone into this program, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product.

Unit 8 continues the systematic approach of reading instruction. In Unit 8 of Pathway to Fluency, students will learn how to decode and encode words that have the following phonics skills: vowel patterns of diphthongs and the /aw/ sound, soft c and g, other jobs of silent e (after v or z and showing that the word is not plural), and adding the suffixes -er, -est and -ly.

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.

If you are looking for earlier units, click the links below:

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 8?

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 8. 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 8 for helpful reminders.

FOLDER #1: LESSON PLANS AND ASSESSMENTS

Pathway to Fluency Unit 8 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 8 Assessments check for understanding in phonological and phonemic awareness, understanding of the phonics skills learned, 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

These posters act as a visual aid and reminder of the phonics skills. You can use these during whole group instruction and post these so that students can refer to them as they work.

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 1-3 & 5-8: INTRODUCTION TO NEW PHONICS PATTERN & PARTNER PLAY

CENTER 1 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: READ AND GRAPH IT

Students choose which word matches the picture and graph the sounds into the boxes.

Each center has an independent practice page that students can take home to continue this skill.

CENTER 1 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL AND WRITE

Students take turns rolling a die, writing their word in a box and trying to get 4 boxes in a row. This game offers a fun way for students to practice encoding phonics words.

CENTER 2 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: STRETCH IT, CIRCLE IT AND WRITE IT

Students say the word, stretch out the sounds and decide which sounds make up the word. Then they write it in the box.

CENTER 2 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL, READ AND COVER UP

Students take turns rolling a die, saying the word and finding it on the mat.

CENTER 3 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: GRAPH AND MATCH THE SPELLING PATTERN

Students read a word, decide which spelling pattern is used in the word and graph the word into the boxes.

CENTER 3 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: READER’S THEATRE

Partners take turns reading the decodable lines to act out the play.

CENTER 4 INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ACTIVITY: SPIN, MAP AND SPELL

Students spin the spinner, map the sounds of the word and write the word into a box.

CENTER 4 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL IT, READ IT, CHECK IT OFF!

Students take turns rolling a die, reading a decodable sentence in the box and checking it off.

WEEKS 4 AND 9: REVIEW

CENTER 1 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: ROLL, GRAPH AND WRITE

Students take turn rolling a die, moving to the picture, and graphing the word.

CENTER 2 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: SPIN, GRAPH AND COVER

Students take turns spinning the spinner, graphing the word and covering the word on the board.

CENTER 3 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: READER’S THEATER

Students take turns reading their lines in the short story dialog.

CENTER 4 PARTNER GAME ACTIVITY: 5 IN A ROW

Students take turns reading a sentence to get 5 in a row.

FOLDER #4: PATHWAY TO FLUENCY UNIT 8 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 Pathway to Fluency Unit 8. 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 ACTIVITIES

Use these to help students practice mapping and graphing heart words. Remember, heart words are irregular high frequency words, or words that contain phonics skills that do not follow the same patterns as the ones they have learned thus far. Therefore, practice is important for these words.

ENCODING MATS

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

MAP IT & MAP IT AND WRITE IT MAT

Next up, use this mat to help students map the sounds and write the word on the lines.

READING COMPREHENSION CHECK

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 activities in 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 8-page books (three pages printed front and back) to re-enforce the phonics skills and high frequency words learned for each. Weeks 4 and 9 have three 8-page books for review. Furthermore, they build confidence in reading by allowing students to read decodable text in a fun short story.

Here’s a peek at the first book in week 1: