3-Part Letter Sound Cards

To read a word, a student turns each letter into its sound and blends the sounds together. When letter sounds are slow or uncertain, all of the student's attention goes to remembering each sound, and there is little left for blending or meaning. When the sounds are automatic, reading gets easier. In Scarborough's (2001) reading rope, this is the word-recognition side of reading, which becomes more automatic with practice. The 3-part format makes that practice independent. The control card lets students find and fix their own errors, which is how humans learn best, with no teacher correction required.

Use these after a student has been introduced to the sounds, with sound games and our Letter Sound Charts or sandpaper letters. Choose a handful of familiar sounds to start. Lay out the letter cards in a column and say each letter's sound together. Next, the student matches each picture to its letter, saying the sound as they go. Finally, they place the control cards just to the right of each pair to check their work and fix any errors on their own. As more sounds become familiar, add more cards until the student can match all 43.

If you have a choice, we recommend cursive. If your school or district teaches print, choose print so the letters match what students write every day.

Typically ages 3 to 6 (PreK and Kindergarten), once a student has been introduced to some letter sounds. They also work well for:

• First and second graders who need review
• Students in reading intervention
• English learners just learning the sounds of English
• Any student who prefers self-correcting work to teacher correction

Once students know their key sounds, they spell words with a movable alphabet (encoding before decoding), then read phonetic words with our Phonetic 3-Part Cards. When they are ready for spelling variations, move on to our Phonogram 3-Part Cards.