Stage 2: Now I Know My ABC’s (roughly 5-7 years old)

Beginning:

move from pretend reading to real reading
may say, “I can’t read” as they realize they do not know all the words in a book
use mostly pictures and initial consonants to help them figure out unknown words (context clues)
may guess at unknown words, even if it doesn’t make sense
reading of texts sounds very laborious (word-by-word)
begin to recognize words by sight
“silent” reading=whisper reading as they vocalize words
comprehension may be difficult from the first reading of a text, as readers are very focused on reading the words correctly
finger points to words when reading
rhyming becomes more consistent and readers are able to “play” with sounds in words better

Middle:

begin to try and sound out unknown words
rely on pictures, initial consonants, and length of words to help them figure out unknown words (context clues)
“silent” reading=whisper reading as they vocalize words
reading out loud is still word-by-word
still may guess at unknown words, but begins to realize that their guesses need to make sense
comprehension may be difficult from the first reading of a text, as readers are very focused on reading the words correctly
finger point to words when reading

End:

try to sound out many unknown words
when sounding out doesn’t work, context clues are used to help with unknown words
“silent” reading=whisper reading as they vocalize words
will still finger point from time to time, but may start to move away from it
develop more of an awareness that text should make sense; begins to self-correct more when an error is made
may start to look for known words within other words (chunking)

(WTW 3^rd ed, 22-23 & Reading Development

Beginning:

match the written letters in words to letter sounds more consistently
spell words with consonants, very few vowels are used
spell mostly with the beginning and ending sounds, as they are easiest to hear and feel in the mouth; (wall spelled WL and heart spelled HT)
say words slowly s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out the sounds as they write
space in between words becomes even more regular, but can still be lacking at times
may reverse some letters

Middle:

sometimes add vowels in the middle of words, so bell may be spelled BAL and boat may be BOT (long vowels are easiest to hear)
blends and digraphs are spelled partially (frog as FOG)
say words slowly s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out the sounds as they write
space in between words is more consistent

End:

begin to spell most short-vowel patterns (CVC) correctly
can spell most consonant blends (fr, gl, sn, etc.) and digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh) correctly
spell frequently used long vowel words correctly, such as like or name
still stretches out individual sounds in words to write them
most other long vowel words are spelled with short vowel patterns (PLAT for plate)
letter reversals are less often, but may still happen on occasion

WTW calls them Letter-Name Alphabetic Spellers