There are four main stages in the Word Study program. Students who are not ready for the letter name stage are in stage known as the Early Letter Name. Letter Name Stage Students have a stable concept of word and a small store of sight words. Strategy is to match sounds of a word with the letter name that has the same sound or the closest to it. Within Word Stage These spellers spell most short vowel sounds correctly and are representing blends, digraphs, and pre-consonantal nasals more completely.
Spellers begin to include silent vowels to mark long vowel sounds.
This stage is similar to syllable juncture in that spellers are dealing with words with two or more syllables with prefixes and suffixes. What distinguishes this stage is the understanding that meaning, as well as sound and pattern, governs the spelling of English.