Continuum Unpacked

Phonics

2 Sounds of < th >

Category: Phonics Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) refers to the association between a grapheme (a letter or cluster of letters) and its corresponding phoneme, and vice versa. It may also be called letter-sound correspondence.

Understanding this relationship enables students to read by relating graphemes to phonemes and blending phonemes together to sound out words, and to spell by breaking words into phonemes and representing each phoneme with a corresponding grapheme, with automaticity.

Learning these skills occurs largely in the context of learning about decoding and spelling of written words.

Knowledge and Skills: Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence

Kindergarten/Grade 1

Understanding the relationship between simple and high-frequency graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) and the phonemes (units of sound) they represent

Grade 1

Understanding the relationship between simple, high-frequency, and complex graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) and the phonemes (units of sound) they represent

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Looks like: Kindergarten / Grade 1

producing the most common grapheme for each consonant sound, and the most common phoneme for each consonant grapheme, including:
<th> as in thick

Why is this important?

identifying phonemes orally in spoken words (e.g., prompt: “What is the first sound in the word sun?”), first with continuous sounds, and then with stop sounds

Instruction