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Fast Track

  1. Overview
  2. Benchmark Activities
  1. Questions and Answers

1. Overview

You may have a child who has never had any intentional Phonological/Phonemic Awareness instruction. Nevertheless, you know he understands some of these concepts already. Should you start with the introductory lessons in the first module and bore him with activities he already knows? Or should you jump ahead to the tenth module and risk skipping over skills he needs to learn? We have selected several specific games in our curriculum that serve as Benchmark Activities to help you decide where the child should start. If your child demonstrates mastery of the benchmark activity in an early module, he probably can breeze through the remainder of that module before skipping ahead to the benchmark activity in the next module. When you get to a benchmark activity that he struggles with, stop there, back up, and focus on every activity in that module until he masters those skills before moving forward in the curriculum. ↑ Top

2. Benchmark Activities

Module A: Listening

With children ages two and three, start with Activity A1 and cover all subsequent activities. With children aged four years, start with Activity A4.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity A1 and move forward from there. Move through these lessons as quickly as possible.
  • If the child is successful with this activity, continue on through the subsequent Listening activities.
If the child is five years old and in Kindergarten, you may want to skip the Listening module.

Module B: Rhyming

If the child is four years old, start with Activity B6.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity B1 and move forward from there. Move through these lessons as quickly as possible.
  • If the child is successful with this activity but struggles or gets frustrated with subsequent Rhyming activities, stop with the Rhyming module. Make note of the last successful Rhyming game, and move on to Module C: Sentences & Words. You and your child will come back to these activities at a later point in the curriculum.
  • If the child completes Activities B6 through B9 successfully, skip Activity B10 and move ahead to the next module.
If the child is five years old and in Kindergarten, you may want to skip the Rhyming module until you are referred to specific Rhyming activities later in the curriculum.

Module C: Sentences & Words

Complete all of the sentence activities in this module: C1 through C6. Then skip Activity C7 and try Activity C8.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity C7 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, continue to Activity C9.

Module D: Compound Words

Start with Activity D2.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity D1 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, continue through Activity D6, then skip over Activity D7 and try Activity D8.
    • If the child is unsuccessful, go back to Activity D7.
    • If the child is successful, move on to the next module.

Module E: Syllables

The skill of hearing and manipulating syllables is vitally important to future success in learning to read. Do not speed too quickly through this module. Your child must master these skills! Start with Activity E2.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity E1 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, continue through Activity E9, then skip over Activity E10 and try Activity E11.
    • If the child is unsuccessful, go back to Activity E10.
    • If the child is successful, continue with the subsequent Syllables activities.

Module F: Word Families

If your child skipped or was previously unsuccessful with the later Rhyming activities (B6–B10), return now and complete those before beginning this module. Start with Activity F4.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity F1 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, continue with the subsequent Word Families activities.

Module G: Beginning Sounds

Start with Activity G2.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity G1 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, do only the song from Activity G1, then continue through Activity G3. Skip over Activity G4 and try Activity G5.
    • If the child is unsuccessful, go back to Activity G4.
    • If the child is successful, continue with the subsequent Beginning Sounds activities.

Module H: Ending Sounds

Start with Part B of Activity H2.
  • If the child is unsuccessful with this activity, go back to Activity H1 and move forward from there.
  • If the child is successful, do only the song from Activity H1, then continue through Activity H5. Skip over Activity H6 and try Activity H7.
    • If the child is unsuccessful, go back to Activity H6.
    • If the child is successful, then continue through Activity H8. Skip over Activity H9 and try Activity H10.
      • If the child is unsuccessful, go back to Activity H9.
      • If the child is successful, continue with the subsequent Ending Sounds activities.

Module I: Digraph Sounds

Complete all six activities in this module. HOWEVER, if you are under major time constraints, you can teach Module J and then return to Module I. If you choose to do so, you MUST OMIT any words that either begin or end with ch, sh, th, wh or ng from the printables accompanying Module J MATERIALS.

Module J: Connecting Sounds

This module concentrates on counting, ordering, and manipulating individual sounds in words, so lots of practice with these activities will be important for success in decoding words later on. Start with Activity J1.
  • Concentrate on teaching our vowel song if children already know the vowel names. Otherwise, teach all of Activity J1.
  • Complete Activities J2 through J15.

Module K: Consonant Blends

If you skipped Module I, complete it before beginning this Module. Start with Activity K1. Kindergarten age children may be successful with some of these lessons. If the child is unsuccessful with any of these lessons, skip over the remaining lessons in the module and move onto Module L.