Reading: Recognising letters and words

A letter pattern like ‘ow’ may sound different in different words. As in ‘slow down’, where it sounds like 'oh'.

Quick tips for tutors

Recognising letters and words includes:

  • The importance of alphabetic sequence in accessing indexed information (as in dictionaries, phone books)
  • Using common letter patterns to support reading fluency
  • Understanding the contributions of other languages to the English language

Downloadable Factsheets

Alphabetical order

Alphabetical order

An introduction to recognising the importance of alphabet sequence.

Recognising letter patterns

Recognising letter patterns

An introduction to recognising common letter patterns.

Downloadable Worksheets

Alphabet pairs

Alphabet pairs

An activity in matching upper case and lower case letters to make pairs.

Common word bingo

Common word bingo

A bingo activity to match common words.

Spot the short words

Spot the short words

Spotting familiar short words in text.

Alphabetical order: names 1

Alphabetical order: names 1

Exercise in sorting family names using first letter only.

Alphabetical order: names 2

Alphabetical order: names 2

Exercise in sorting family names using first, second and third letters.

Alphabetical order: businesses

Alphabetical order: businesses

Exercise in sorting types of business using first, second and third letters.

Reading for fluency

Reading for fluency

Exercise in reading for fluency.

Words from French

Words from French

Exercise in recognising words that derive from French.

More from Skillswise

The sounds of English

The sounds of English

English has about 40 sounds. Each can be written in several ways. For instance ‘f’, ‘ff’ or ‘ph’.

Types of texts

Types of texts

Why learn about types of text?

Dictionaries and Indexes

Dictionaries and Indexes

Why use dictionaries and indexes? Use alphabetical order to look up words quickly in dictionaries and indexes.