Phonograms

Here is the final list of phonograms. Remember, most word families are usually rhymes and only require a beginning consonant sound, or consonant blend. For instance: "ill", add p and you have pill, or add sk and you will have skill. Really, word family endings are phonograms.

Teaching word families strikes a balance between whole to part and part to whole phonics instruction. As children encounter common root words, prefixes, and suffixes again and again they begin to recognize these alphabet combinations instantly and no longer need to sound out each letter.

To get started teaching word families take a large piece of poster board. Create a chart by listing the word endings below down the left side of the poster board.

Beginning with "ear" have students think of all the words they know that end in "ear", For example: near fear, clear. Next, list these new words next to the phonogram ending. Repeat this exercise for each word family.

-ear -ice
-eat -ick
-ed -id
-ee -ide
-eed -ies
-eek -ig
-eep -ight
-ett -ile
-ell -ill
-end -ime
-ent -in
-ess -ine
-est -ing
-et -ink
-ew -int

Source: Reading Instruction that Works - Michael Pressley 1998