Early Reading Skills
This section provides instructional supports in French and English for developing foundational reading skills such as phonological awareness & phonics/decoding in learning readers.
You will find links to core programs, planning considerations to help with getting started, games, tiered intervention supports, progress monitoring, and more!
Click here to access an overview of core programs, including information about what grades they support and when to begin.
Related Curriculum Expectations:
B2. Language Foundations for Reading and Writing
Use these buttons for navigating to each section below.
Early Reading Skills: Core Programs Overview
Tiered Intervention Support
Tiered reading intervention support is a system that provides increasingly intensive levels of support to students learning to read.
Each tier represents a continuum of support, with Tier 1 being universal, core instruction for all students, Tier 2 providing targeted interventions for small groups or one-on-one support, and Tier 3 offering intensive, individualized support for students with the greatest needs.
Click here for more information about the three levels of tiered support.
Here is a breakdown of the tiers of intervention support:
Tier 1-Universal/Core Instruction: This is the foundation of early reading skill building and involves high-quality, evidence-based reading instruction delivered to all students in the classroom.
Tier 2-Targeted/Strategic Interventions: Students who do not make sufficient progress or do not meet benchmarks with Tier 1 instruction receive targeted, small-group (or one-on-one) interventions that are provided in addition to Tier 1.
Tiered Reading Instruction
Tier 1 Intervention: Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken language—a key foundation for learning to read and one of the strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope.
It includes skills such as rhyming, syllable segmentation, onset and rhyme awareness, and alliteration. These skills help learning readers recognize that words are made up of smaller sound units, preparing them for phonemic awareness, the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds or phonemes.
Strong phonological awareness supports reading readiness, decoding, vocabulary growth, and spelling, helping students to become confident and capable readers.
This section provides links to English (Heggerty) and French (Pratique Phonémique) programs and related resources to support phonological awareness skill-building.
Heggerty is a systematic, research-based approach for use in our K-Grade 1 classrooms.
It is aligned with the Science of Reading and provides 10-minute daily lessons that deliver explicit instruction in critical phonemic awareness and early literacy skills.
Click here for more information about getting started with Heggerty.
Phonemic Awareness by Grade
Heggerty is an oral program that supports the development of a child's ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) within words.
Lessons are meant to follow a brisk pace, designed to be about 8 minutes or less in length.
Click here for more information about getting started with Pratique phonémique.
Sample Lessons by Grade
To view some sample Heggerty lessons, click here!
Progress Monitoring by Skill
Pratique phonémique (Gr. K/1)
*Please use the provided manuals for program implementation.
Reach out to your administrator and/or the Learning and Teaching Team if you require a manual.
Pratique phonémique- Intensive (Gr. 2/3)
UFLI Foundations is a systematic and explicit phonics program that supports the teaching of foundational reading skills for K-2 students.
It provides teachers with detailed lesson plans, accompanying PowerPoint slides, and downloadable/printable materials.
Implementation Support Materials
Lesson Step Pocket Reference
UFLI Lesson Steps (Teacher/Student Language)
Lesson Planning & Implementation
UFLI-Based Games
UFLI Check-In
UFLI Sound Wall Materials
UFLI Progress Monitoring
UFLI Script (for each step)
Grapheme & Heart Word Cards
CORE Phonics Survey & UFLI Foundations Scope & Sequence Alignment
Tier 1 Intervention: Phonics/Decoding
Phonics, or decoding, involves teaching reading by helping learners connect sounds (phonemes) to letters or letter combinations (graphemes) and to blend them in order to read words.
Mastering phonics is a foundational skill in early reading, enabling children to sound out and recognize unfamiliar words, which builds accuracy, fluency, and confidence.
Phonics/decoding is a key component of the Word Recognition strand in Scarborough’s Reading Rope, supporting automatic and effortless word reading—an essential part of becoming a skilled reader.
This section provides links to English programs and related resources to support phonics/decoding skills.
Click here to access the UFLI Foundations Toolbox for lesson resources, decodable texts, games, virtual blending boards, word work mats, printable resources, and more!
Click here for more information about getting started with UFLI in your classroom!
From Word Walls to Sound Walls
Core Phonics & UFLI Alignment Chart
Click here to target specific skills in the CORE Phonics Survey measures by aligning it with the core (Tier 1) instruction in UFLI.
*Please use the provided resources for program implementation.
Reach out to your administrator and/or the Learning and Teaching Team if you require these resources.
The Je sais lire en français program relies on a carefully-designed scope and sequence that helps students gradually build their knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
It contains teacher manuals, student booklets, and modules in slides format and is meant for French Immersion students in Grades 1-3.
Click here for more information and to access the freely-available materials from the GECDSB Sharepoint.
Son-au-graphe is adapted by the Greater Essex County District School Board from UFLI foundations with permission from the University of Florida Literacy Institute.
It is a systematic and explicit phonics program that supports the teaching of foundational reading skills for Kindergarten students.
Son-au graphe provides access to a scope and sequence, lesson slides, wall cards, games, and more!
“Catch Up Your Code is designed to address gaps in students’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code. It aims to improve decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing quality by identifying and filling these knowledge gaps.
It provides a whole-class assessment to pinpoint strengths and areas of need, and then provides targeted, 10-minute lessons to address them.
The program contains a teacher manual and access to a companion website with printable lesson worksheets and more!
Click here for a video with more information about getting started with Catch Up Your Code.
Assessment Tracking Template
These word lists were created by the Learning and Teaching Team to support progress monitoring based on each lesson.
Progress Monitoring Word Lists
Click here to access the Catch Up Your Code companion website for lesson resources.
This tracker template can be used to organize Catch Up Your Code assessment results. Through colour-coding, it creates a helpful visual for analyzing data and determining areas requiring support.
Depending on need, support may be provided in whole class, small group, or one-on-one settings.
Thank you to the staff at Englehart Public School for sharing this great resource!
Tier 2 Intervention
Tier 2 reading intervention is a more targeted, supplemental support system for students who are not making adequate progress in core reading instruction (Tier 1).
It involves evidence-based interventions delivered in small groups or in one-on-one settings to address specific, foundational reading skills so that gaps in learning can be addressed as soon as possible.
Student progress is closely monitored to determine if the intervention is effective or if adjustments are needed, potentially leading to more intensive support within Tier 3 or a return to Tier 1 support only.
To determine a student’s strengths and needs in early reading skills and to tailor intervention support to meet their needs, the teacher can conduct a CORE Phonics Survey (reading diagnostic assessment). The resulting data can be used to target intervention support.
Tier 2 Reading Intervention Kit Ideas
ORID Protocol Data Analysis
The ORID Protocol is a helpful process for analyzing data with guiding questions. It begins with the objective level and slowly moves to the reflective, interpretive, and decisional levels.
Core Phonics Survey
Click here to visit the Assessment page for more information about using reading assessments such as reading screeners and reading diagnostics to support early reading skills in your classroom.
Tier 3 Intervention
Tier 3 reading support represents the most intensive level of intervention within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). It is designed to provide highly-individualized, specialized instruction for students who have not made sufficient progress despite receiving high-quality Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction.
At this level, the focus shifts to addressing significant and persistent learning gaps that may be preventing students from developing foundational literacy skills. Instruction is tailored to meet the unique needs of each student and is typically delivered in very small groups or through one-on-one sessions.
The target learners for Tier 3 support are students in grade 2 who require additional support beyond the Tier 1 and 2 intervention and who would benefit from more targeted, systematic instruction in early reading skills.
SRA Corrective Reading Series is a complete and carefully-structured core program that uses direct instruction methods to help students master essential decoding and fluency skills.
It involves a scripted presentation approach that uses a brisk pace, carefully chosen exercises and examples, and other special presentation techniques to engage reluctant learners.
SRA Corrective Reading Series includes complete learning materials, including student books, workbooks, and teacher presentation books.
More information to come!
ERIT Support Resources
ERIT Role & Resources
Early Reading Intervention Teachers (ERITs) play a vital role in supporting literacy development within our schools. They serve as a key resource for Kindergarten to Grade 2 educators by providing targeted Tier 3 reading interventions for students who require intensive support.
In addition to working directly with students, ERITs assist teachers in implementing early reading screening tools, interpreting assessment data, and planning effective Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction. Their expertise helps ensure that instruction is responsive to individual student needs and aligned with evidence-based practices in early literacy.
Scheduling may look different for ERITs. Ideally, ERITs will work with a student for a minimum of three times per week, outside of the Tier 1 classroom phonics instruction. A learning cycle of 4 to 6 weeks is recommended, but this can be flexible and depends on whether the students’ learning needs have been met.
Please reach out to the Learning & Teaching Team for additional support with core programming, data analysis, and creating groups.
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