First Grade

First grade students are taught phonics rules using direct, multisensory instruction. Instruction is guided by the students’ progress, but in general, the consonant letter sounds, the digraphs (sh, th, ch, etc.),  and short vowels,  are reviewed, and the silent-e syllable, and the common vowel combinations, including r-controlled vowels, are taught in the first grade. Students work on building fluency, recognizing sight words, and basic comprehension skills such as retelling and finding information in the text.