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How to use a scope and sequence to decide what to teach next.
A scope and sequence is the order reading skills are taught, arranged so each new one only uses what came before. Its real job is day to day: it tells you where a reader is, what to teach next, and where to look when progress stalls. Here is how to put one to work.
Place a reader by walking the order.
To find a starting point, move down the sequence and have the reader read a few words at each stage until they stop being easy. The first stage that is shaky is where to teach, not the grade on a form. Our scope and sequence lays out the stages in order, each grounded in public sources.
Teach the next skill, not the interesting one.
The sequence protects you from jumping ahead. If short vowels are not solid, vowel teams will not hold, however ready the reader seems. Teach the very next stage, secure it, and only then move on. A reader who has every step under them reads new words instead of memorising them.
When progress stalls, look one step back.
A reader who stalls on long words is often missing an earlier piece, not the hard one in front of them. The sequence gives you a checklist to walk backward: is the closed syllable secure, silent-e, the vowel teams? The gap is almost always behind the wall, not on it.
Pair it with the right words.
Once you know the stage, you need words that stay inside it. Our free decodable word lists are grouped to match each stage of the sequence, so the practice never runs ahead of the teaching.
See it in the app
The sequence, built in.
Every level in Lillory is a step of this sequence, from Sound Garden to the vowel and word-building worlds. Placing a reader, teaching the next step, and finding a gap all follow the same order you see here.
In the app: ten levels, in order, from sounds to multisyllable words.
Open LilloryRead next: How to teach a closed syllable, step by step