Components

Level K

EPS Phonics PLUS K provides colorful, interactive exercises that engage young students and create a strong foundation of early literacy skills. EPS Phonics PLUS K begins with a strong emphasis on phonological awareness and alphabetic principle—the cornerstones of early reading instruction. Increasingly complex phonics skills are introduced and then reinforced within the context of poems, rhymes, folktales, and decodable stories.
 
Phonological Awareness
  • Identifying initial consonants and vowels
  • Segmenting and blending phonemes
  • Recognizing and producing rhyme
  • Syllables
  • Identifying and blending onset and rime
Fluency
  • Automaticity practice
  • Repeated readings
  • Read-alouds
  • Choral reading
  • Partner reading and Reader’s Theater
Alphabet Awareness
  • Recognizing and naming letters
  • Alphabetical order
  • Capital and lowercase letter discrimination
  • Consonant and vowel discrimination
Vocabulary and Word Analysis
  • Automaticity practice
  • High frequency words
Concepts of Print
  • Concept of word and sentence
  • Track print left to right and top to bottom
Writing
  • Writing letters of the alphabet
  • Words
Phonics
  • Sound-to-symbol correspondence
  • Blending onset/rime and phonemes
  • Initial consonants and vowels and digraphs
  • Word families
  • Spelling
Comprehension 
  • Context clues
  • Think-alouds and visualization
  • Sequencing and predicting
  • Following directions
  • Literal recall and retelling
  • Story structure: beginning-middle-end
  • Critical thinking

Decodable Readers give children a chance to read narrative and expository books and to practice and reinforce their newly acquired phonics and sight word skills in context. Reading these books gives students a chance to enjoy reading at a skills-appropriate level and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
  • 10 readers
  • Individually authored and richly illustrated
  • Reinforcement and review of concepts
  • Practice with comprehension and sight words
Scope and Sequence
  • Initial consonant sounds
  • Initial short vowel sounds
  • Initial consonant digraphs
  • Word families -at, -ip, -ug, -op, -en

Level A

EPS Phonics PLUS A provides a variety of interactive, dynamic exercises that review and expand upon concepts developed in Level K. Students apply their new skills to a variety of poems, plays, literature, and decodable stories. 

Phonological Awareness
  • Identifying initial, final, and medial consonants and vowels
  • Segmenting and blending phonemes
  • Recognizing and producing rhyme
  • Syllables
  • Identifying and blending onset and rime
Fluency
  • Automaticity practice
  • Repeated readings
  • Read-alouds
  • Choral reading
  • Partner reading and Reader’s Theater
Alphabet Awareness
  • Recognizing and naming letters
  • Alphabetical order
  • Capital and lowercase letter discrimination
  • Consonant and vowel discrimination
 Vocabulary and Word Analysis
  • Using picture and context clues
  • High frequency words
  • Homophones
  • Contractions and compound words
  • Open and closed syllables
Concepts of Print
  • Concept of word and sentence
  • Track print left to right and top to bottom 
Writing
  • Writing letters of the alphabet
  • Words and sentences
  • Stories and poems
Phonics
  • Sound-to-symbol correspondence
  • Blending onset/rime and phonemes
  • Consonants (initial and final)
  • Digraphs and blends (initial and final)
  • Short and long vowels
  • Vowel digraphs and diphthongs
  • r-controlled vowels
  • y as a vowel and broad a
  • Silent letters
  • Word families
  • CVC, CVVC, and CVCe words
  • Spelling
Comprehension
  • Context clues
  • Think-alouds and visualization
  • Sequencing and predicting
  • Following directions
  • Literal recall and retelling
  • Story structure: beginning-middle-end
  • Critical thinking
  • KWL
  • QAR

Decodable Readers give children a chance to read narrative and expository books and to practice and reinforce their newly acquired phonics and sight word skills in context. Reading these books gives students a chance to enjoy reading at a skills-appropriate level and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
  • 10 readers
  • Individually authored and richly illustrated
  • Reinforcement and review of concepts
  • Practice with comprehension and sight words
Scope and Sequence
  • Initial and final blends
  • Long vowel sounds
  • Hard and soft c and g
  • r-controlled vowels
  • Vowel digraphs
  • Vowel diphthongs
  • Final consonant sounds
  • Medial short vowel sounds
  • Final consonant digraphs
  • Compound words
  • CVC, CVVC, and CVCe words
  • y as a vowel
  • Broad a
  • Silent letters
  • Contractions

Level B

EPS Phonics PLUS B reviews and expands upon concepts covered in Level A with extensive, interactive exercises and activities. Students apply skills to a variety of reading passages, including poems, plays, literature, and multiple selections that feature the recurring characters of Mike and Cate—second grade students.
 
Phonological Awareness
  • Identifying initial, final, and medial consonants and vowels
  • Segmenting and blending phonemes
  • Recognizing and producing rhyme
  • Syllables
  • Identifying and blending onset and rime
Fluency
  • Automaticity practice
  • Repeated readings
  • Read-alouds.Choral reading
  • Partner reading and Reader’s Theater
Phonics
  • Sound-to-symbol correspondence
  • Blending onset/rime and phonemes
  • Consonants (initial and final)
  • Digraphs and blends (initial and final)
  • Short and long vowels
  • Vowel digraphs and diphthongs
  • r-controlled vowels; y as a vowel; broad a
  • Schwa
  • Silent letters
  • Word families
  • CVC, CVVC, and CVCe words
  • CV words
  • Decoding multisyllabic words
  • Spelling
Vocabulary and Word Analysis
  • Sound-to-symbol correspondence
  • Using picture and context clues
  • High frequency words
  • Homophones
  • Contractions and compound words
  • Open and closed syllables
  • Multisyllabic words
  • Stress/accent
Concepts of Print
  • Concept of paragraph
Writing
  • Words and sentences
  • Stories and poems
Comprehension
  • Context clues
  • Think-alouds and visualization
  • Sequencing and predicting
  • Following directions
  • Literal recall and retelling
  •  Story structure: beginning-middle-end
  • Critical thinking
  • KWL
  • QAR

Decodable Readers give children a chance to read narrative and expository books and to practice and reinforce their newly acquired phonics and sight word skills in context. Reading these books gives students a chance to enjoy reading at a skills-appropriate level and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
  • 10 readers
  • Individually authored and richly illustrated
  • Reinforcement and review of concepts
  • Practice with comprehension and sight words
Scope and Sequence
  • CV words
  • Schwa
  • Multisyllabic words
  • Prefixes
  • Suffixes

Level C

EPS Phonics PLUS C emphasizes word study via content area vocabulary, while reviewing and expanding upon concepts covered in Level B. Students apply skills to a variety of reading passages, including poems, plays, informational text, and selections that feature the recurring characters of Roberto, Mei, Jamal, and Sue—third grade students.
 
Phonological Awareness
  • Identifying initial, final, and medial consonants and vowels
  • Segmenting and blending phonemes
  • Recognizing and producing rhyme
  • Syllables
  • Identifying and blending onset and rime 
Fluency
  • Automaticity practice
  • Repeated readings
  • Read-alouds
  • Choral reading
  • Partner reading and Reader’s Theater
Phonics
  • Sound-to-symbol correspondence
  • Blending phonemes
  • Consonants (initial and final)
  • Digraphs and blends (initial and final)
  • Short and long vowels
  • Vowel digraphs and diphthongs
  • r-controlled vowels; y as a vowel; schwa
  • Silent letters
  • CVC, CVVC and CVCe words
  • Decoding multisyllabic words
  • Spelling
  • Words ending in -le
  • Inflectional endings
Vocabulary and Word Analysis
  • Using picture and context clues
  • High frequency words
  • Homophones
  • Plural endings, base words
  • Prefixes and suffixes
  • Compound words
  • Open and closed syllables
  • Multisyllabic words
  • Possessives
  • Synonyms and antonyms
  • Shades of meaning/multiple meanings
  • Latin and Greek roots
  • Irregular past tense verbs
Alphabet Awareness
  • Alphabetizing (2nd & 3rd letter)
Concepts of Print
  • Concept of paragraph
Writing
  • Words and sentences
  • Stories and poems
  • Book reports
  • Point of view
Comprehension
  • Context clues
  • Think-alouds and visualization
  • Sequencing and predicting
  • Following directions
  • Literal recall and retelling
  • Story structure: beginning-middle-end
  • Critical thinking
  • KWL
  • QAR
  • Analogies

Decodable Chapter Books give students the opportunity to practice and reinforce newly acquired phonics and sight word skills in the context of narrative and expository chapter books. Reading these chapter books gives students a chance to enjoy reading text at a skills-appropriate level and to feel a sense of accomplishment.
  • 4 decodable chapter books (28–30 pages)
  • A balance of fiction and nonfiction text
  • Reinforcement and review of concepts
  • Practice with comprehension and sight words
  • Nonfiction text features: Table of Contents, Index, Glossary
Scope and Sequence
  • Au/aw; oy/oi
  • Sounds of ch, sh, tch
  • 3-letter blends
  • r-controlled vowels
  • Open and closed syllables
  • Base words
  • Suffixes: -er, -or, -ist, plurals
  • Prefixes: dis-, un-, mis- re-, in-, im-; numeric prefixes
  • Verb endings -ed, -ing
  • Possessives with apostrophe
  • Final -le
  • Irregular past tense
  • Multisyllabic words