Progressive Phonics (Effective Literacy Website 3)

Progressive Phonics is a phonics program that gradually introduces skills and uses a lot of repetition. The stories include humor to make reading more enjoyable and for better retention. Stories are meant to be used for guided oral reading, so the print is color-coded so that it is easy to identify who is responsible for reading what. Lesson plans and worksheets aligned to the books are also available on the website. Progressive Phonics does not provide a suggested time to spend on each book or activity, which puts no pressure on the adult or the child.

The Alphabetti series is recommended for children that are 4-5 years old. In this series, children are taught letter names, letter sounds, and CVC words in unison, instead of progressively. Letters are introduced one at a time, but have the children reading and writing words that include the letter being introduced. Alternate forms of letters are also introduced so that children are able to identify letters in various fonts. All letters are taught as lowercase first, then uppercase letters are introduced in relation to the lowercase letters and how uppercase letters are used. The website provides an Alphabet Quick Start Guide to get a better understanding.

The Phonics books are for students that have mastered the Alphabetti series. In this series, children go through three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. The Beginner level focuses on short vowel sounds. The Intermediate level focuses on long vowels and consonant blends. The Advanced level focuses on silent letters, l-controlled vowels, and other rule breaking letter combinations. A Phonics Quick Start Guide is also provided on the website.

The Handwriting program was created for children to begin at at least 5 ½ years old. It was created to be an additional resource for the Progressive Phonics program, but could be used on its own. Letter writing is taught using writing patterns that are used to make up all 26 letters. The website has a Handwriting assessment that could be used to determine if your child is ready for the handwriting program.

EVERYTHING on the Progressive Phonics website is FREE and they have every intention of keeping it that way. Although there are no interactive online activities, everything is display or print-ready. The program is also easy for anyone to follow, which makes it easy for teachers to send home assignments that could be accessed easily on home computers.