Level B covers material at the 1st and 2nd grade level
In Level B1 students learn to read words with letter combinations found in common words such as the boat, cow, sleep, and play. Each of the 12 units at this level focuses on the ways to spell a particular vowel sound. Students are first presented new letter-sounds in an activity in which they read a list of 12 common words that share the target sound, as shown below. In this way they learn not only specific letter-sound relationships, but they also learn that a single sound can be spelled more than one way.
Following a variety of exercises that provide practice reading words with the new letter-sounds presented in the unit, students analyze a list of 8 high frequency words which, for the most part, contain the target sound for the unit. Students analyze these words by saying each individual sound of the word as they circle how that sound is spelled.
Students continue to practice reading these words on the following page which contains these target words displayed in 4 rows, each row presenting the words in a different order.
Further practice reading these words is provided in each unit by having students read a series of sentences containing many of the words analyzed in the unit. Students practice reading these sentences until they achieve designated fluency targets. To ensure that students are paying attention to the meaning of the sentences as well as trying to read them quickly and accurately, each sentences is presented in cloze format, with a single word missing. Students supply the missing word from two choices presented at the end of the sentence. The sentences in each unit focus on using high frequency words that have the sounds and spellings the students sorted at the beginning of the unit.
In the course of all this work, students learn the multiple-letter vowel spellings (oa, ee, eigh, etc.), the past tense ending -ed, and practice reading two-syllable words with several engaging activities.
Students in Level B1 also continue and extend exercises begun in Level A, specifically the spelling chains, reading chains, and oral phoneme manipulation activities that help them improve their ability to understand the individual sounds in words as well as their ability to sound out unfamiliar words accurately and quickly.
At the end of each unit students further extend their practice by reading a fable from Aesop. Like the storybooks for Level A, the fables are all "decodable," presenting only letter/sounds that the student has already learned.
When students successfully complete Level B1, they will be able to easily read first grade level text, such as Dr. Seuss books, Frog and Toad, and Little Bear.
In Level B2 students complete their phonics study by learning more advanced letter-sound relationships, continue their work reading two-syllable words, and extend their skills with significant practice reading three- and four-syllable words.
When students successfully complete Level B2, they will be able to easily read second grade level text, and will be ready for books like those in the Magic Tree House series, as well as many Level 2 and Level 3 books in the Random House Step into Reading program.
Materials Needed for Level B
Aesop’s Fables
Student Workbook B-2