Moving from reading sounds to reading words
Phonics is about learning the sounds of English and mapping those sounds onto the letters we use to spell them. If you observe students learning to read, you will notice a few common early reading stages they go through.
Stage 1 Phonemic awareness: Students start to develop the skill of identifying the different sounds in words (segmenting). This is a difficult skill for many students and is a prerequisite for beginning to read.
Stage 2 Early phonics: Once students can identify the sounds in words, we can start to map those sounds onto the letters we use to spell them. For many students this is a difficult process that requires many repetitions and exposures to become automatic.
Stage 3 Pre-reading: Students start to learn which letters represent which sounds and they can see a letter and say the sound. For example, they see the letter p and they can say /p/ is p, or they can see a word like pip and say /p/ /i/ /p/ but they can’t yet blend those sounds into the word pip.
Stage 4 Early reading: Students can see a word like pip and blend the sounds together without having to sound them out first.
Our blending and tracking resources are designed to support students in moving from stage 3 to stage 4. From recognising sounds in print to reading whole words fluently.
Using chunks to make blending easier
A chunk is a letter pattern that regularly appears together in words and represents a familiar sound pattern, such as -en, -at, or -ing.
Working with chunks dramatically reduces cognitive load. Instead of blending p – e – n as three separate sounds, the student can blend p–en as two. The brain begins to recognise -en as one stable sound unit. This shift builds both speed and confidence.
Let’s look at a typical example of Student A, who is pretty good with letter/sound identification. They are given a sentence to read, and we hear them sound out every individual sound in every word, but seldom say the whole blended word.
By the end of the sentence, they are mentally exhausted and haven’t understood anything they’ve read, because they didn’t read the words, just the sounds.
We need to explicitly work with Student A on taking this next step, blending the sounds into words. However, as a student recently said,
“By the time I get to the end of the word, I have forgotten what the first sound was.”
This kind of difficulty is usually an issue with working memory overload. Most people can only hold up to about 3 – 5 chunks of information in their heads at a time. Many of the students we work with may only be able to work with two or three chunks of information at once. So if we look at a word like split, they say /s/ – /p/- /l/ and their working memory is full (3 chunks). But they continue to sound out the word /i/- /t/ and then try to blend the sounds and end up saying something like lit or till or it, because that’s all they have available in their working memory; the rest of the sounds have disappeared.
How do we address this? By teaching them to chunk sounds. Let’s look at split again, and instead of sounding out every letter, we teach the student that s-p makes /sp/ and l-i-t makes /lit/. Now they have only used two chunks in their working memory and can usually successfully blend those two chunks into sp-lit – /split/.
As the range of known chunks expands, decoding becomes easier. A student who knows -en, -et, and -an can instantly read dozens of new words: pen, ten, den, hen; pet, net, set, met; pan, man, tan, fan. With lots of repetition, the pattern recognition becomes automatic, which is the earliest stage of orthographic mapping.
Building Toward Larger Units: Syllables and Morphemes
Blending and chunking don’t stop with short words. As students encounter longer words, they apply the same logic on a larger scale.
Syllabification (dividing a word into its syllables) allows students to blend one syllable at a time. The word napkin becomes nap-kin; lemon becomes lem-on. This simplifies decoding by reducing words to manageable chunks.
Morphology takes this one step further by linking chunks and meaning. Recognising meaningful parts such as prefixes, bases, and suffixes gives more strategies and scaffolding for students to decode multi-syllable words. A student who can see that dishes is dish + es will only need to hold two chunks in memory to blend the word. This deeper awareness makes unfamiliar words far less intimidating, because even long words can be “chunked” into familiar units. For more information on this, visit the M-morphology section of our S.M.A.R.T. Spelling guide.
How Tracking Exercises build fluency
Tracking exercises involve students identifying, reading and writing common chunks in print. Blending and tracking are two halves of the same bridge between sound and print.
- Blending teaches the brain how to join sounds into words.
- Tracking teaches it to recognise those sound patterns automatically in print.
Together, they move students from conscious decoding to fluent, effortless reading.
Each time a student identifies a chunk in print, they strengthen the connection between its visual form and its spoken sound. When that connection becomes automatic, reading speed increases, and effort decreases.
Fluent reading depends on automatic recognition of common letter patterns. For students living with dyslexia or working memory difficulties, decoding is too slow, and both comprehension and confidence can suffer.
Tracking exercises reduce this load by isolating what the student needs to notice and giving it focused repetition. Each sheet, card, or game targets a small set of chunks until they’re instantly recognised. This creates the foundation for orthographic mapping. The process by which words become permanently stored for instant recall.
Using The LSK Tracking And Blending Resources
In the Literacy Support Kit, these skills are taught through structured repetition, diagnostic placement, and materials that keep practice at just the right challenge level. Combined with games and positive feedback, they transform what was once a laborious task into a series of achievable, motivating steps toward confident reading.
Learning chunks is the path to early reading fluency. We have several resources available to support your students to develop this skill.
Placing students and using the resources
Stages
- Diagnostic assessment using the Chunk and Word Screening Sheet to determine whether a student requires vc [blue] or vcc [green]chunks
- Make a reading card for each chunk that the student experiences difficulty with
- Practise making words with each chunk [ rime] and a single consonant [onset] p-et,n-et
- Select the appropriate tracking sheet for the student.
- Remove the chunk card from the reading pack when the student no longer experiences difficulty with reading words with the chunk
Worksheets
- Tracking blue for vc chunks
- Tracking green for vcc chunks
- Tracking green for initial consonant blends
Chunk work
Tracking ‘rime’ chunks can be a helpful exercise for struggling readers, building fluency and speed.
Demonstration phase
- Whole
- The teacher writes the chunk[s] that need work on reading cards, which can be added to the student’s deck. [ e.g., blue level: en, et, ed or green level: ent, est, end]. The teacher works with the student to build words with the chunk using the student’s deck of phonemes as the onset. e.g. p-en, h-en etc.
- Part: The student is given the appropriate tracking chunk activity sheet to complete.
- Direct
- Direct the student to track the chunk and say it each time they do so [in this case -en]
- The student then writes the words that have been tracked
- The student is timed 3 x reading the tracked words
- Whole: Time the student 3 times as they read the words that have been tracked.
- Whole
Further activities
Chunky Pig
Repetition is the key to automaticity, but repetition alone can become tedious. Games add the variety and motivation that struggling readers need to persist.
Games like Chunky Pig use blending and chunk recognition in a fun, fast-paced context. Students spin for a chunk or blend, find it on the board, and read it aloud as they move. Each round provides dozens of successful, accurate repetitions. The essential ingredient for fluency, without the frustration of traditional drills. Read more about Chunky Pig
Make a Chunk
These sheets are part of our handwriting resources but are also excellent for the dual purpose of identifying and practising chunks. Read more about Make a Chunk
Tips for Success
Success with the Literacy Support Kit comes from consistency, patience, and encouragement. Here are some key tips to help students feel confident, stay motivated, and make steady progress on their literacy journey.
- Stay Consistent and Patient: Consistent practice and patience are crucial, particularly with students living with significant learning difficulties.
- Celebrate Small Wins: Recognise each achievement, no matter how small, to build student confidence and motivation.
- Personalise the Approach: Adjust activities based on the student’s needs, using games and alternative materials to keep learning fun and accessible.
Contact Us
For more details on the Literacy Support Kit or how it can complement other literacy programs, please contact us with your questions.