Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

Orchard Park Central School District has adopted a comprehensive approach to early literacy education in our K-3 classrooms by implementing the UFLI Foundations program. UFLI Foundations is an explicit and systematic program created by the team at the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI—pronounced “you fly”). The program introduces students to the foundational reading skills necessary for proficient reading. It follows a carefully developed scope and sequence designed to ensure that students systematically acquire each skill needed and learn to apply each skill with automaticity and confidence. This program places a strong emphasis on explicit phonics instruction, providing students with a structured and systematic approach to learning how to read. Through UFLI Foundations, young learners in the district are equipped with the foundational phonics skills necessary for effective reading and language development. This initiative underscores the district's commitment to fostering strong literacy skills in its youngest students, setting a solid foundation for their future academic success.

UFLI Foundations targets the following foundational reading skills:

• Phoneme blending and segmentation practice
• Accuracy and automaticity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences
• Decoding automaticity of words with previously learned concepts
• Explicit introduction of new concepts
• Decoding and encoding practice
• Reading and spelling irregular words
• Reading and spelling connected text

In addition to UFLI, our teachers are all trained in the 30-hour Orton-Gillingham instructor training. The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia.  It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system.