Teaching of CCVC and CVCC: Is it ok to still present st, cr, bl, tr etc?

SSP (structured synthetic phonics) is based upon the teaching of phonemes, the smallest unit of speech. This means teaching individual phonemes/sounds and not letter clusters.

**In the examples below:

In the word frog there are 4 phonemes: f/r/o/g. fr is not a phoneme.
In the word stop there are 4 phonemes: s/t/o/p. st is not a phoneme.
In the word tent there are 4 phonemes: t/e/n/t. nt is not a phoneme.

This contrasts with the trend of many years ago, in which double consonants were taught as one concept. For example: st, br, bl etc. in the context of CCVC words and ld, mp, nt etc. in the context of CVCC words. When a student has the ability to blend, teaching these double consonants no longer becomes necessary.

Tip 1: Use the Teaching Sequence for Year 1 as it outlines exactly the programs and resources to use, to effectively teach CCVC and CVCC words.

Tip 2: As the Teaching Sequence for Year 1 suggests, use the fully prepared colour coded lists from Structured Synthetic Time Savers In this resource, the words are presented in lists with colour coding that highlights and identifies the phonemes and how phonemes link to the letters. No letter clusters occur within SSP.

Tip 3: Of all of the targets in Stage 1, Target 3 is typically the target that is the most easily achieved. Targets 1, 2 and 4 require much more attention and time.

Assessment highlighting strong Target 3 results prior to Target 2 acquisition.

Updated on: 05/10/2022

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