Grounded in the Science of Reading and designed in consultation with Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist Marisa Ware, the Charge into Reading Decodable Readers take the guesswork out of learning to read!
Starting with beginning letter sounds, each stage in the Charge into Reading Decodable Book Series builds on the previous stage.
Compelling storylines paired with a strict scope and sequence make for a series that children won't just be ABLE to read, but that they will actually WANT to read.
What Is a Scope and Sequence?
In order to read, children must first learn the sounds letters make, how to divide syllables, what punctuation is, and so much more. If this sounds like a lot to teach a child, it is! Luckily, children don’t learn all of this at once, and the order in which children learn these skills isn’t random.
Phonics curriculums (and typically decodable book series) follow something called a scope and sequence. A scope and sequence is an organized list of the concepts to be taught (the scope) and the order in which they are organized (the sequence). A proper scope and sequence moves from simple concepts all the way up to advanced skills.
How Was the Charge into Reading Scope and Sequence Created?
The Charge into Reading Scope and Sequence was not put together quickly, nor were any decisions made lightly. In consultation with Orton-Gillingham and LETRS trained literacy specialist Marisa Ware, the scopes used by various curriculums were examined in depth until we found one that we felt made sense as a jumping off point for a book series. From there, each particular step of the scope was examined to determine where it made the most sense for our books.
Marisa and I knew when crafting the Charge into Reading Scope and Sequence that some sounds are harder to categorize than others. Terminology isn’t always agreed on across the board. Is NG a digraph or a welded sound? Is AIR an r-controlled vowel or a vowel team? When we came upon one of those controversial sounds, we asked other respected literacy specialists to weigh in as well. Piece by piece, we brought our scope together in a way that aligned well with as many curriculums as possible while enabling us to provide quality materials that would support children in becoming successful readers.
Writing the Charge into Reading Decodable Books
Once our scope was complete, I was ready to begin writing. Because children learn to read one sound at a time, Marisa and I knew that it was important for our books to focus on one sound at a time. Not all short vowel sounds mixed together, but one short vowel sound per book to allow beginning readers time to gain mastery over each sound in isolation before putting them together, while adhering to a strict scope and sequence.
Writing engaging controlled text with a clear beginning, middle, and end is challenging, especially at the early stages of a scope and sequence. As a career children’s book editor and author, I knew I was up for the challenge. I also recognized how important humor is to keeping children engaged with reading and I was determined to write high-quality stories that would make children laugh and would encourage them to read the book again and again.
The Charge into Reading Decodable Book series now has 12 stages of reading. The only stage in which we deviate from our scope and sequence is Stage 1: Short Vowel Sounds, which does include a handful of stretch words to allow for a quality, full-length 14-page story while keeping the focus of each book on only a single short vowel sound. For the earliest beginning readers, who do not yet have the stamina for full-length stories, or who are still learning their consonant sounds, our Beginning Letter Sounds Decodable Book set offers shorter, 8-page single-vowel stories without stretch words.
The Charge into Reading Scope and Sequence
When it comes to our books, we never want anyone to have to guess where they are in our scope. That’s why a quick version of our scope appears on the back of every one of our books.
Each stage is color-coded, enabling readers to match the color at the top of the book to the stage of reading on the back of the book.
Our shortened scope and sequence lists every book found in our series, along with the phonemes, graphemes, and high-frequency words used in each book.
For parents and teachers seeking more information, our full scope and sequence lists every word in every one of our books. This list allows not only for pre-reading of the words in any book, but also allows parents and teachers using slightly modified scopes to determine which words a child might need help with.
Charge into Reading: Stage by Stage
At Charge Mommy Books, we believe in helping children learn to read—the right way. And to make sure that’s possible, we have created an 12-step reading program. Each stage of our phonics scope and sequence builds on what came before it. The books in each reading set can be read in any order and work together to strengthen each skill. A word list can be found at the front of each book featuring a breakdown of the words that fit the book’s skill set and any high frequency words that appear in the book.
Stage Pre-1: Beginning Letter Sounds
Our beginning letter sounds decodable reader set features 10 short books (16-pages each), broken into 2 sections. Each section contains 5 books, each with a focus on a different short vowel sound: short a, short e, short i, short o, and short u.
Section 1 introduces the following consonant sounds: m, s, t, p, f, n, d, c /k/, g, b, -s /s/, and -s /z/.
Section 2 introduces the following consonant sounds: k, h, r, l, w, j, y, x, y, and z.
Our short vowel sounds decodable reader set features 5 full-length books (24-pages each), each with a focus on a different short vowel sound: short a, short e, short i, short o, and short u. Each book includes only the featured sound, enabling children to master one short vowel sound at a time.
Featured phonemes: /ă/, /ĕ/, /ĭ/, /ŏ/, /ŭ/
Spelling pattern: Short Vowel-Specific CVC Words
Example Words: cat, hen, big, log, bug
Stage 1.5: CVC Words
CVC Words are words that feature a consonant-vowel-consonant spelling pattern. Our CVC Words Decodable Reader Set is ideal for children who have mastered short vowel sounds in isolation, and are ready to begin decoding sentences with mixed short vowel sounds.
Featured phonemes: /ă/, /ĕ/, /ĭ/, /ŏ/, /ŭ/
Spelling pattern: Mixed Short Vowel CVC Words
Example Words: ribs, fox, tub, bed, fan
Stage 2: Consonant Blends
Consonant blends occur when two or more consonants appear together, but each make their own sounds. Our consonant blends decodable reader set features five books, each with a focus on a different set of letter blends: L-blends, R-blends, and S-blends, T-blends, and Word-Ending Blends.
Featured graphemes: L-blends, R-blends, S-blends, T-blends, W-blends, and ending consonant blends
Example words: plum, frog, skip, lift, next
Stage 3: Digraphs
A digraph occurs when two consonants appear together and make one sound. Our digraph decodable reader set features six books, each featuring a different digraph or set of digraphs.
Featured graphemes: CH, CK, -NG, QU, PH, WH, SH, TH
Featured phonemes: /ch/, /k/, /ng/, /kw/, /f/, /wh/ (with breath), /sh/, /th/ (voiced and unvoiced)
Example words: flinch, quit, wham, stuck, moth, brings, brush
Stage 4: Long Vowel VCE Words
VCE, or vowel-consonant-e words are the earliest long vowel sounds children learn. Our long vowel VCE decodable reader set features 5 books, each with a focus on a different long vowel VCE sound.
Featured graphemes: A-E, E-E, I-E, O-E, U-E
Featured phonemes: /ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, /ū/, /yū/
Example words: flake, these, mice, robe, mute, rude
Stage 5: Word Ending Spelling Patterns
Once children have mastered initial letter blends and digraphs, they are ready to move on to more complicated spelling patterns, such as words ending in -dge, -tch, and -y. Our word endings and spelling patterns decodable reader set features 6 books meant to enhance these word-ending spelling patterns.
Featured graphemes: -NK, -DGE, -TCH, closed syllable exceptions, -Y, and the FLSZ rule
Example words: stinks, judge, pony, cliff, ball, gold, pitch
Stage 6: R-Controlled Vowels
Words like “car” seem like they should be short vowel words. After all, they are CVC words. But there’s a catch: the R changes the sound of the A, which means it does not make a typical short A sound. When letter R changes the sound of a vowel, it is called an R-controlled vowel. Our R-controlled vowel decodable reader set features 3 books, each of which showcases a different r-controlled vowel phoneme.
Featured phonemes: /ar/, /or/, /er/
Featured graphemes: ar, er, ir, or, ur
Example words: shark, fort, blurt, stir, alert
Stage 7: Vowel Teams
Vowel teams occur when two vowels work together to make a single sound. Our vowel teams decodable reader set features six books focused on preliminary vowel teams: long A vowel teams, long E vowel teams, long I vowel teams, long O vowel teams, long OO vowel teams, and short OO vowel teams.
Featured phonemes: /ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, /ōō/, /oo/
Featured graphemes: ai, ay, ee, ea, igh, ie, oa, ow, oe, oo, ou
Example words: rain, day, beet, feast, night, lie, row, toad, soon, toucan, book
Stage 7: Nonfiction Science Readers
Our nonfiction decodable science readers focus primarily on vowel teams and below, with the exception of the science terms and a handful of high-frequency and advanced words that are essential to understanding the topic.
Each book has been fully vetted by PhDs in their appropriate fields of study.
Stage 8: Diphthongs
A diphthong is a sound formed by two vowels in which the first sound slides into the next. Our diphthong decodable reader set features three books that break out the unique sounds made by sets of diphthongs.
Featured phonemes: /oi/, /ow/, /aw/
Featured spelling patterns: oi, oy, ou, ow, aw, au
Example words: coil, toy, shout, crown, hawk, launch
Stage 9: Advanced Spelling Patterns
Our advanced spelling patterns decodable reader set features five books focused on phonemes and graphemes children learn later in their phonics education.
Featured phonemes: /ā/, /ē/, /ū/
Featured graphemes: eigh, ei, ey, air, ear, are, ie, ey, ei, ear, eer, ier, ue, ew, ui, c+le, gh, gn, kn, mb, wr
Example words: dairy, break, gear, yield, blue, grew, able, noodle, gnaw, tomb, ghoul, thumb, wrist
Curriculum Alignment
The Charge into Reading scope and sequence is most closely aligned with the UFLI scope and sequence, but also pairs closely with IMSE, 95 Phonics, HMH into Reading, Wonders, and CKLA/Amplify.
For a complete look at how our books pair with each curriculum, visit our curriculum alignments page.