This article outlines the progression of skills, concepts, and learning objectives integrated into Ignite™ and Key Foundations™ to support educators and administrators in delivering explicit and systematic literacy supports.
Ignite™ Literacy and Language & Communication Development Scope and Sequence
Literacy Framework
Ignite’s literacy framework includes the following strands, subdomains, and skills.
Listening Comprehension Strand
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Key Ideas and Details |
1 |
Listens to fictional texts with simple details and story elements |
Key Ideas and Details | 2 |
Listens to nonfiction texts with simple structures and elements |
Key Ideas and Details | 3 |
Identifies the main character(s) in a story |
Key Ideas and Details | 4 |
Recalls the order of events in a story |
Key Ideas and Details | 5 |
Recalls several facts from expository text |
Key Ideas and Details | 6 |
Draws a picture to summarize text and labels key details |
Key Ideas and Details | 7 |
Makes text-to-text connections |
Key Ideas and Details | 8 |
Draws a picture to summarize text and labels key details |
Key Ideas and Details | 9 |
Identifies the main topic of a text |
Key Ideas and Details | 10 |
Retells a story, demonstrating an understanding of the central message or lesson |
Key Ideas and Details | 11 |
Identifies settings and major events in a story using key details |
Key Ideas and Details | 12 |
Describes how two individuals, events, or pieces of information in a text are connected |
Phonics Strand
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Alphabet Knowledge |
2 |
Listens to alphabet chants and songs |
Alphabet Knowledge | 3 |
Recognizes 10 uppercase letters |
Alphabet Knowledge | 4 |
Recognizes 18 uppercase and 15 lowercase letters |
Alphabet Knowledge | 5 |
Recognizes 26 uppercase and 20 lowercase letters |
Alphabet Knowledge | 6 |
Identifies all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters |
Alphabet Knowledge | 7 |
Rapidly identifies all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters |
Decoding |
6 |
Decodes CVC words with short vowel sounds |
Decoding | 7 |
Decodes CCVC words with consonant diagraphs |
Decoding | 8 |
Decodes CVCe words with long vowel sounds |
Decoding | 9 |
Determines the number of syllables in a printed word |
Decoding | 10 |
Decodes two-syllable words that follow basic patterns |
Decoding | 11 |
Reads words with inflectional endings |
Decoding | 12 |
Reads grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words |
Letter–Sound Correspondence |
3 |
Identifies less than 10 letters based on their sounds |
Letter–Sound Correspondence |
4 |
Identifies 10 uppercase letters based on their sounds |
Letter–Sound Correspondence |
5 |
Identifies 15 uppercase and 10 lowercase letters based on their sounds |
Letter–Sound Correspondence | 6 |
Identifies all uppercase and 20 lowercase letters based on their sounds |
Letter–Sound Correspondence | 7 |
Identifies all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters based on their sounds |
Letter–Sound Correspondence | 8 |
Identifies vowels based on long vowel sounds |
Phonological Awareness Strand
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Alliteration |
1 |
Listens to songs and chants that have repeating initial sounds |
Alliteration |
2 |
Recognizes when groups of words begin with the same onset |
Alliteration | 3 |
Distinguishes if two words start with the same onset |
Alliteration | 4 |
Isolates the onset in words |
Alliteration | 5 |
Sorts words by onset |
Alliteration | 6 |
Sorts words with initial diagraphs by onset |
Blending |
1 |
Combines two words to make a compound word |
Blending | 2 |
Adds a missing word to form a compound word |
Blending | 3 |
Combines syllables to form words |
Blending | 4 |
Blends onsets and rimes to make one-syllable words |
Blending | 5 |
Blends phonemes to form simple words |
Blending | 6 |
Blends phonemes to form simple words quickly |
Blending | 7 |
Blends phonemes to form a one-syllable word with consonant digraphs |
Blending |
8 |
Blends phonemes to form one-syllable words with consonant blends |
Rhyming |
1 |
Listens to a variety of rhymes (songs, chants, etc.) |
Rhyming |
2 |
Determines if two words rhyme |
Rhyming | 3 |
Matches rhyming words |
Rhyming | 4 |
Determines which word does not rhyme |
Rhyming | 5 |
Sorts words by rhyme |
Rhyming | 6 |
Fills in rhyming words |
Segmenting |
1 |
Identifies separate words within a sentence |
Segmenting | 2 |
Segments compound words into two words |
Segmenting | 3 |
Deletes a word from a compound word |
Segmenting | 4 |
Segments words into syllables |
Segmenting | 5 |
Explores segmenting simple words into individual phonemes |
Segmenting | 6 |
Isolates final sounds in CVC words |
Segmenting | 7 |
Isolates medial vowel sounds in CVC words (short vowels only) |
Segmenting | 8 |
Identifies consonants that are combined to form a consonant blend |
Phoneme Manipulation |
6A |
Adds an initial phoneme to a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 6B |
Adds a final phoneme to a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 6C |
Adds a medial phoneme to a word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 7A |
Deletes an initial phoneme from a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 7B |
Deletes a final phoneme from a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 7C |
Deletes a medial phoneme from a word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 8A |
Substitutes an initial phoneme in a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 8B |
Substitutes a final phoneme in a given word to create a new word |
Phoneme Manipulation | 8C |
Substitutes a medial phoneme in a given word to create a new word |
Reading Strand
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Comprehension - Fiction |
5 |
Interacts during a read-aloud with call and response or movements |
Comprehension - Fiction |
6 |
Answers simple recall questions about a text with short, predictable sentences that directly relate to illustrations |
Comprehension - Fiction | 7 |
Recalls the order of events after reading a text |
Comprehension - Fiction | 8 |
Makes simple predictions and inferences about a text |
Comprehension - Nonfiction | 6 |
Answers simple recall questions about texts with short, predictable sentences that directly relate to illustrations |
Comprehension - Nonfiction | 7 |
Demonstrates an understanding of content-specific vocabulary used in a text |
Comprehension - Nonfiction |
8 |
Recalls the order of procedures after reading a procedural text |
Concepts of Print |
1 |
Identifies appropriate book orientation |
Concepts of Print | 2 |
Distinguishes print from pictures |
Concepts of Print | 3 |
Demonstrates an understanding of print directionality |
Concepts of Print | 4 |
Identifies book parts and features |
Concepts of Print | 5 |
Distinguishes letters from words |
Concepts of Print | 6 |
Distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase letters |
Concepts of Print |
7 |
Tracks written text along with spoken text |
Concepts of Print |
8 |
Identifies features of nonfiction texts |
High-Frequency Words |
6 |
Identifies the following sight words: the, can, is, a, I, see, on, he, she, at |
High-Frequency Words | 7 |
Identifies the following sight words: to, in, you, it, was, that, his, and, for, are |
High-Frequency Words | 8 |
Identifies the following sight words: of, with, they, be, this, have, from, we, look, my |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas |
6 |
Describes the relationship between illustrations and a story |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas | 7 |
Compares and contrasts the experiences of characters in a story |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas |
8 |
Describes the characters, setting, or events in a story using illustrations and/or details |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas | 9 |
Describes the characters, setting, or events using illustrations and details in a story |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas | 10 |
Describes the key ideas of a text using illustrations and text details |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas | 11 |
Identifies the reasons an author gives to support points in a text |
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas | 12 |
Identifies similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic |
Craft and Structure |
6 |
Answers questions about words in a text |
Craft and Structure | 7 |
Recognizes common types of texts |
Craft and Structure | 8 |
Names the author and illustrator of a text and defines the role of each |
Craft and Structure |
9 |
Identifies words or phrases in poems or stories that indicate feelings or appeal to the senses |
Craft and Structure | 10 |
Identifies who is telling the story at different points in a text |
Craft and Structure | 11 |
Identifies whether information has been provided by pictures or illustrations or by the words in a text |
Craft and Structure | 12 |
Uses various text features (e.g., headings, glossaries, tables of contents) to locate key facts or information in a text |
Writing Strand
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Writing Development |
1 |
Makes scribble marks |
Writing Development | 2 |
Draws pictures to convey meaning |
Writing Development | 3 |
Writes shape-like symbols |
Writing Development | 4 |
Writes letter strings |
Writing Development | 5 |
Writes letter strings with spaces |
Writing Development | 6 |
Labels a picture with at least the initial sound |
Writing Development | 7 |
Uses invented or phonetic spelling |
Writing Development | 8 |
Uses capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and ending punctuation |
Language & Communication Development Framework
Ignite’s Language & Communication Development framework includes the following subdomains and skills.
Subdomain |
Level |
Skill Descriptor |
Receptive Language |
1 |
Shows an understanding of basic words |
Receptive Language |
2 |
Responds to "what" questions |
Receptive Language | 3 |
Responds to "where" questions |
Receptive Language | 4 |
Demonstrates an understanding of complex and compound sentences |
Receptive Language | 5 |
Responds to "how" questions |
Listening and Understanding |
1 |
Responds to one-step requests or questions |
Listening and Understanding |
2 |
Carries out a one-step request that relates to a new or unfamiliar activity or situation |
Listening and Understanding | 3 |
Follows two-step, oral directions that relate to familiar activity or situation |
Listening and Understanding | 4 |
Carries out two-step requests that involve a new or unfamiliar activity or situation |
Listening and Understanding | 5 |
Carries out multistep requests that relate to familiar activities or situations |
Listening and Understanding | 6 |
Attends to multiple details in directions |
Listening and Understanding | 7 |
Carries out multistep directions with multiple details |
Listening and Understanding | 8 |
Carries out multistep directions with multiple details that involve a new or an unfamiliar activity or situation |
Academic Vocabulary |
4 |
Applies an understanding of cross-curricular, prekindergarten-level Tier 2 words |
Academic Vocabulary |
5 |
Applies an understanding of some cross-curricular, kindergarten-level Tier 2 words |
Academic Vocabulary |
6 |
Applies an understanding of more cross-curricular, kindergarten-level Tier 2 words |
Academic Vocabulary | 7 |
Applies an understanding of a range of cross-curricular, kindergarten-level Tier 2 words |
Academic Vocabulary | 8 |
Applies an understanding of some cross-curricular, first-grade-level Tier 2 words |
Vocabulary |
1 |
Understands color words |
Vocabulary | 2 |
Sorts words into categories |
Vocabulary |
3 |
Demonstrates an understanding of comparative adjectives |
Vocabulary | 4 |
Demonstrates an understanding of common antonyms |
Vocabulary | 5 |
Demonstrates an understanding of cross-curricular words |
Vocabulary | 6 |
Demonstrates an understanding of basic multiple-meaning words |
Vocabulary | 7 |
Makes connections between shades of verbs and adjectives |
Vocabulary |
8A |
Uses sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase |
Vocabulary | 8B |
Identifies real-life connections between words and their uses |
Vocabulary | 9 |
Sorts words into categories in order to understand the concepts the categories represent |
Vocabulary |
10 |
Use frequently occurring prefixes as a clue to the meaning of a word |
Vocabulary | 11 |
Use frequently occurring suffixes as a clue to the meaning of a word |
Vocabulary | 12 |
Identifies frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms |
Conventions of Language |
3 |
Demonstrates an understanding of regular plural nouns |
Conventions of Language |
4 |
Demonstrates an understanding of simple past, progressive present, and simple future verb tenses |
Conventions of Language |
5 |
Demonstrates an understanding of question words (who, what, where, when, why, how) |
Conventions of Language |
6 |
Demonstrates an understanding of prepositions within sentences |
Conventions of Language |
7 |
Demonstrates an understanding of irregular plural nouns |
Conventions of Language |
8 |
Demonstrates an understanding of matching verbs to singular and plural nouns in basic sentences |
Key Foundations by Hatch™ Scope and Sequence
Lesson Book
The Key Foundations Lesson Book provides scaffolded phonics and word study instruction with 114 lessons. For each letter, teachers lead children through a Sound Hunt, a Letter Hunt, a Word Game, and a Sound Game. These lessons can be taught in any order or sequence and folded into a classroom's existing literacy curriculum.
Lesson Type |
Activities |
Sound Hunt |
Children practice finding sounds in names and then finding those same sounds in words. For example, in the lesson that focuses on the letter F, children practice finding the /f/ sound in names (e.g., So-/f/-ia or /f/-rancis), then they work on finding the /f/ sound in other words (e.g., /f/-rog or /f/-ox). |
Letter Hunt |
Children practice linking sounds to letters, recognizing letters of the alphabet, and writing or printing letters. For example, the teacher helps children understand how the sound /f/ links to the letter F. The teacher writes down names and words that include the /f/ sound to model how the sound links to the letters used to write it, then they encourage children to practice writing or printing the letter F (uppercase and lowercase). |
Word Games |
Children practice building knowledge and vocabulary, blending syllables, matching letters and sounds, describing, comparing, categorizing, and creating. Using Picture Cards, children play a guessing game where they use four language clues to guess a word that begins with the /f/ sound. For example, the teacher will say “I’m thinking of a word that starts with /f/, that’s part of the body, that’s joined to your leg, that you can put a sock on, and that you can put a shoe on.” Next, children practice categorizing other picture cards (e.g., finding all the cards that show parts of the body). |
Sound Games |
Children practice segmenting syllables and recognizing and producing rhymes. Using words that start with the target sound, children practice clapping syllables, rhyming, and demonstrating other phonics skills, like blending, segmenting, sorting by sound, discriminating sounds, deleting syllables, isolating sounds. |
Game Book
The Key Foundations Game Book provides targeted support for oral language development and phonological and phonemic awareness skills with 45 small-group games. Children use the Picture Cards and Cue Cards to build language and sound analysis skills. The games are sequenced according to how children learn and develop these skills and should be played in order, beginning with Game 1.
Oral Language Games
Competency |
Game Numbers |
Activities |
Vocabulary and background knowledge |
1-4 |
Children practice naming a range of items to show an understanding of them, finding things that have the same and opposite qualities, discussing everyday things, and thinking of adjectives and using them to describe different living or nonliving things. |
Describing |
5-8 |
Children practice describing things in different ways: animals (where they live, what covers their bodies, what they eat, etc.), everyday things (their size, what they are made from, how they are used, what makes them work, etc.), and food (color, shape, size, etc.). |
Comparing |
9-12 |
Children practice describing and comparing living and nonliving things (by size, shape, use, color, etc.) that have similar and different qualities and generating a variety of words to describe and compare what is the same and what is different in a group of cards. |
Categorizing |
13-16 |
Children practice comparing and grouping living and nonliving things according to shared qualities. They also find things that don’t fit in the group because these things don’t share a particular quality. |
Sound Games
Competency |
Game Numbers |
Activities |
Syllables |
17-20 |
Children practice sorting picture cards by the number of syllables, matching pairs of words with the same number of syllables, finding one word from a set of three words that has a different number of syllables, and breaking words into syllables and then pronouncing the word made by deleting the last syllable. |
Rhyming |
21-24 |
Children practice matching pairs of Picture Cards that have words that rhyme, finding one word in a set of three that does not rhyme, completing a sentence with a rhyming word, and generating groups of rhyming words. |
Blending |
25-28 |
Children practice blending sound chunks (onset and rime) and individual sounds to pronounce words. They then use the words they have made to generate rhyming words and to sort words by their initial sound. |
Segmenting |
29-32 |
Children practice segmenting words into individual sounds, matching words that have the same number of sounds, finding the word in a group that has a different number of sounds, and sorting words into groups according to the number of sounds they contain. |
Initial sounds |
33-36 |
Children practice identifying, discriminating, and deleting initial sounds in words. They match initial sounds, identify and discriminate between similar initial sounds, delete the initial sound and pronounce the word that remains, and swap the initial sound for another sound and then pronounce the word that is made. |
Final sounds |
37-40 |
Children practice identifying, discriminating, and deleting final sounds in words. They match final sounds, identify and discriminate between similar final sounds, delete the final sound and pronounce the word that remains, and swap the final sound for another sound and then pronounce the word that is made. |
Long and short vowel sounds |
41-45 |
Children practice identifying and matching the long and short vowel sounds in words. |