Introduce three to five new letters every week. Teach the shapes and sounds together. Form them in the air, write them on the board and on paper, and use magnetic or felt letters. Produce the sounds.
Begin with letters, s, a, t, i, n, and p. Look at and listen to words that contain these sounds. Spell and write simple words such as pat, sit, pant and spin. Practice blending the sounds.
Present groups of letters representing one sound once five or six letters have been mastered. Such combinations include "sh," "ough" and "ight." Repeat the steps of viewing, shaping, hearing, and writing. Every time new sounds are introduced, use this process.
Continually practice previously learned sounds. Spend several weeks teaching new sounds formed with pairs of letters such as "oa," "ow," "ou," "or," "ai," "ch" and "ing." Blend, spell, and read words containing those sounds.
Teach blending and segmentation of double-consonants including "sh," "sp," "tr," "sl," "pr," "sm" and "mp." Include words that incorporate these sounds, such as prove, shovel and trial.
Introduce letter combinations that produce more than one sound. For example, "ow" makes one sound in "blow" and another in "cow." The "ou" combination sounds different in could and out.
Present common concepts such as the silent e, prefixes and suffixes. Familiarize students with some of the oddities of English illustrated by words containing the same sounds produced by different spelling, such as blue/stew/moo/you.