Reading Horizons Discovery™
Content and Sequence (Grades 1-3)
Chapter 1
• Lesson 1: Letter Group 1. This lesson teaches the name, sound, and letter formation of
the vowel A/a and the consonants B/b, F/f, D/d, and G/g and introduces and practices
the slide.
• Lesson 2: Most Common Words List 1. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
1: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it
• Lesson 3: Building Words. This lesson teaches how to form short words and mark
vowels in words.
• Lesson 4: Nonsense Words. This lesson teaches how to test understanding of concepts
taught thus far with words that have no meaning.
• Lesson 5: Capitalization. This is a Reference Lesson that teaches students how to
capitalize properly.
• Lesson 6: Letter Group 2. This lesson teaches the name, sound, and letter formation of
the vowel E/e and the consonants H/h, J/j, L/l, and M/m and practices the slide and
forming words.
• Lesson 7: Most Common Words List 2. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
2: he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, I
• Lesson 8: Letter Group 3. This lesson teaches the name, sound, and letter formation of
the vowel O/o and the consonants N/n, P/p, R/r, and S/s and practices the slide and
forming words.
• Lesson 9: Most Common Words List 3. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
3: at, be, this, have, from, or, one, had, by, word
• Lesson 10: Letter Group 4. This lesson teaches the name, sound, and letter formation
of the vowel U/u and the consonants T/t, V/v, W/w, X/x, and Y/y and practices the slide
and forming words.
• Lesson 11: Punctuation. This Reference Lesson teaches students how to punctuate
properly.
• Lesson 12: Most Common Words List 4. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
4: but, not, what, all, were, we, when, your, can, said
• Lesson 13: Letter Group 5. This lesson teaches the name, sound, and letter formation
of the vowel I/i and the consonants Q/q, Z/z, C/c, and K/k and practices the slide and
forming words.
• Lesson 14: Spelling with C and K. This lesson teaches how to spell with c and k.
• Lesson 15: Most Common Words List 5. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
5: there, use, an, each, which, she, do, how, their, if
• Lesson 16: Alphabetical Order. This Reference Lesson presents alphabetical order.
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Chapter 2
• Lesson 17: Most Common Words List 6. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
6: will, up, other, about, out, many, then, them, these, so
• Lesson 18: L-Blends. This lesson teaches the six l-Blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl), practices
sliding from an l-Blend to a vowel, and demonstrates how to mark and read l-Blend
words.
• Lesson 19: R-Blends. This lesson teaches the seven r-Blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr),
practices sliding from an r-Blend to a vowel, and demonstrates how to mark and read rBlend words.
• Lesson 20: S-Blends. This lesson introduces eight two-letter s-Blends (sc, sk, sl, sm, sn,
sp, st, sw) and five three-letter s-Blends (scr, spr, str, spl, squ), practices sliding from an
s-Blend to a vowel, and demonstrates how to mark and read s-Blend words.
• Lesson 21: Commas. This Reference Lesson teaches proper use of commas.
• Lesson 22: Two Extra Blends. This lesson introduces two extra Blends (dw, tw),
practices sliding from an extra Blend to a vowel, and demonstrates how to mark and
read words with extra Blends.
• Lesson 23: Double S, F, and Z and Plurals. This lesson teaches how to spell singlesyllable words that end in s, f, and z. This lesson also teaches students how to create
plurals from singular nouns.
• Lesson 24: Most Common Words List 7. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
7: some, her, would, make, like, him, into, time, has, look
• Lesson 25: Special Vowel Combinations. This lesson teaches the sounds and spellings
for Special Vowel Combinations that include -ll (-all, -ell, -oll, -ull, -ill), -ng (-ang, -ong, ung, -ing), and -nk (-ank, -onk, -unk, -ink).
• Lesson 26: Compound Words. This Reference Lesson teaches about compound words.
• Lesson 27: Voiced and Voiceless and the TH Digraphs. This lesson introduces the
concept of voiced and voiceless sounds in English. This lesson also teaches the TH
consonant combinations that produce two new sounds: voiced TH and voiceless TH.
• Lesson 28: Digraphs CH, SH, WH, and PH. This lesson introduces four consonant
combinations that produce Digraph sounds. The Digraphs CH, SH, and WH create three
new sounds, while PH is a new spelling for the /f/ sound already learned in Letter Group
1.
• Lesson 29: Most Common Words List 8. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
8: two, more, write, go, see, number, no, way, could, people
• Lesson 30: Contractions. This Reference Lesson teaches that words can be made
shorter by combining and removing letters. An apostrophe is used to show that a letter
(or letters) is missing.
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Chapter 3
• Lesson 31: Short and Long Vowels. This lesson teaches the sounds and markings of
short and long vowel sounds.
• Lesson 32: Phonetic Skill 1. This lesson teaches that when a vowel is followed by one
guardian consonant and nothing more, the vowel will be short, e.g., met. Students learn
how to read and prove Phonetic Skill 1 words.
• Lesson 33: Phonetic Skill 2. This lesson teaches that when a vowel is followed by two
guardian consonants and nothing more, the vowel will be short, e.g., jump. Students
learn how to read and prove Phonetic Skill 2 words.
• Lesson 34: Nouns. This Reference Lesson teaches about nouns, including plural nouns
and possessive nouns.
• Lesson 35: Spelling with -CK. This lesson teaches how to spell words that end in the
/k/sound using -ck.
• Lesson 36: Most Common Words List 9. This lesson teaches Most Common Words List
9: my, than, first, water, been, call, who, oil, now, find
• Lesson 37: Adding Suffixes to Phonetic Skills 1 and 2. This lesson teaches how to prove
and spell Phonetic Skill 1 and Phonetic Skill 2 words that have added suffixes. For
Phonetic Skill 1, double the final consonant before adding the suffix. For Phonetic Skill 2,
simply add the suffix.
• Lesson 38: Three Sounds of -ED. This lesson teaches how to pronounce the suffix -ed.
• Lesson 39: Verbs. This Reference Lesson teaches about verbs, including subject/verb
agreement, present tense, past tense, and future tense.
• Lesson 40: Vowel Families O and I. This lesson teaches the sounds and markings of
some vowel-consonant patterns that do not follow Phonetic Skill 2, including -old, -olt, ost, -ind, and -ild.
• Lesson 41: Most Common Words List 10. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 10: long, down, day, did, get, come, made, part, over, friend
• Lesson 42: Phonetic Skill 3. This lesson teaches that when a vowel stands alone
without any guardian consonants, it will be long, e.g., me. Students learn how to read
and prove Phonetic Skill 3 words.
• Lesson 43: Phonetic Skill 4. This lesson teaches that silent e makes the first vowel long,
e.g., hope. Students learn how to read and prove Phonetic Skill 4 words.
• Lesson 44: Adjectives. This Reference Lesson teaches about adjectives, including
comparative and superlative adjectives.
• Lesson 45: Spelling with -KE. This lesson teaches how to spell words that end in the
/k/sound using -ke.
• Lesson 46: Most Common Words List 11. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 11: new, sound, take, only, little, work, know, place, year, live
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• Lesson 47: Another Sound for C and G. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and
mark the soft sounds of c and g. Students learn that the letter c before vowels e and i
makes the sound /s/, and g before these vowels makes the sound /j/.
• Lesson 48: Adding Suffixes to Phonetic Skills 3 and 4. This lesson teaches how to prove
and spell Phonetic Skill 3 and Phonetic Skill 4 words that have added suffixes. For
Phonetic Skill 3, simply add the suffix. For Phonetic Skill 4, remove the silent e, and add
the suffix.
• Lesson 49: Adverbs. This Reference Lesson teaches about adverbs, including
comparative and superlative adverbs.
• Lesson 50: Phonetic Skill 5. This lesson teaches that when two vowels stand together,
the second vowel is silent, and the first vowel is long, e.g., boat. Students are introduced
to the nine most common adjacent vowel combinations: ai, ea, oa, ui, ay, ee, ie, oe, and
ue. Students learn how to read and prove Phonetic Skill 5 words.
• Lesson 51: Most Common Words List 12. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 12: me, back, give, most, very, after, thing, our, just, name, good, sentence, man,
think, say
• Lesson 52: Spelling with -K. This lesson teaches how to spell words that end in the
/k/sound using -k.
• Lesson 53: Digraph Blends. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and prove words
with Digraph Blends (shr, thr, phl, phr, chl, chr, sch).
• Lesson 54: Sentence Structure. This Reference Lesson teaches about several different
sentence types.
• Lesson 55: Adding Suffixes to Phonetic Skill 5. This lesson teaches how to prove and
spell Phonetic Skill 5 words that have added suffixes. Students learn to simply add the
suffix.
• Lesson 56: Most Common Words List 13. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 13: great, where, help, through, much, before, line, right, too, mean, old, any, same,
tell, boy
• Lesson 57: Sounds of GH, IGH, and IGHT. This lesson teaches the sounds of gh, igh, and
ight. Students learn that in most patterns with igh, the i will be long.
• Lesson 58: Most Common Words List 14. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 14: following, came, want, show, also, around, form, three, small, set, put, end,
does, another, well
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Chapter 4
• Lesson 59: Many Jobs of Y. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and mark the
different sounds of y.
• Lesson 60: Most Common Words List 15. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 15: large, must, big, even, such, because, turn, here, why, ask, went, men, read,
need, land
• Lesson 61: Decoding Skill 1. This lesson teaches how to decode and prove words that
have more than one syllable, using Decoding Skill 1. A syllable has one working vowel or
vowel sound. Decoding Skill 1 teaches that in a multi-syllabic word, if the vowel has one
guardian consonant, that consonant will move to the next syllable, e.g., protect.
• Lesson 62: The Schwa. This lesson teaches that the vowel sound in unaccented
syllables is frequently the schwa. Students practice recognizing and marking the schwa
sound in multi-syllabic words.
• Lesson 63: Determiners. This Reference Lesson teaches about determiners, including
demonstratives and articles.
• Lesson 64: Last Job of Y. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and mark the last
sound of y.
• Lesson 65: Most Common Words List 16. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 16: different, home, move, try, kind, hand, picture, again, change, off, play, spell, air,
away, animal
• Lesson 66: Decoding Skill 2. This lesson teaches how to decode and prove words that
have more than one syllable, using Decoding Skill 2. Decoding Skill 2 teaches that in a
multi-syllabic word, if the vowel has two guardian consonants, those consonants will
split. The first consonant stays in the same syllable as the first vowel, and the second
consonant goes on to the next syllable, e.g., campus.
• Lesson 67: Conjunctions. This Reference Lesson teaches about coordinating,
correlative, and subordinating conjunctions.
• Lesson 68: Double Consonants. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and prove
words that contain double consonants.
• Lesson 69: -LE at the End of a Word. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and prove
words that end in -le. Students learn that when -le is found at the end of a word, it
causes the consonant l to have the sound /ull/, e.g., bubble.
• Lesson 70: Most Common Words List 17. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 17: house, point, page, letter, mother, answer, found, study, still, learn, should,
America, world, high, every
• Lesson 71: Adding Suffixes to Words Ending in Y. This lesson teaches how spelling is
affected when adding suffixes to word that end in y.
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• Lesson 72: Antonyms, Synonyms, and More. This Reference Lesson teaches about
antonyms, synonyms, homophones, homonyms, heteronyms, and palindromes to build
vocabulary.
• Lesson 73: Decoding Two-Syllable Words. This lesson provides opportunities to
practice decoding two-syllable words using the skills learned up to this point of
instruction.
• Lesson 74: Spelling with -C. This lesson teaches how to spell words that end in the
/k/sound using -c.
• Lesson 75: Most Common Words List 18. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 18: near, add, food, between, own, below, country, plant, last, school, father, keep,
tree, never, start, city, earth, eye, light, thought
Chapter 5
• Lesson 76: Murmur Diphthong AR. This lesson teaches how to pronounce, prove, and
add suffixes to words that contain the ar Murmur Diphthong. Students learn that when
a is followed by r, it says /ar/. It sounds like the name of the consonant r.
• Lesson 77: Murmur Diphthong OR. This lesson teaches how to pronounce, prove, and
add suffixes to words that contain the or Murmur Diphthong. Students learn that when
o is followed by r, it says /or/. It sounds like the word or.
• Lesson 78: Murmur Diphthongs ER, UR, and IR. This lesson teaches how to pronounce,
prove, and add suffixes to words that contain the er, ur, and ir Murmur Diphthongs.
Students learn that when e, u, or i is followed by r, it says /er/. Because all three
combinations make the same sound, students must memorize the spelling of these
words.
• Lesson 79: Root Words, Prefixes, and Suffixes. This Reference Lesson teaches about
root words and provides meanings and examples of several of the most frequent
prefixes and suffixes.
• Lesson 80: Exceptions to Murmur Diphthongs. This lesson teaches how to read and
pronounce words that contain exceptions to Murmur Diphthongs.
• Lesson 81: Most Common Words List 19. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 19: head, under, story, saw, left, don’t, few, while, along, might, close, something,
seem, next, hard, open, example, beginning, life, always
• Lesson 82: Decoding Multi-Syllabic Words. This lesson provides opportunities to
practice decoding multi-syllabic words using the skills learned up to this point of
instruction.
THIS POINT MARKS THE END OF FIRST GRADE INSTRUCTION.
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• Lesson 83: More Digraphs. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and prove words
with five Digraphs (ph, gn, kn, ck, and wr) that are not part of the 42 Sounds because
they are new spellings for sounds already learned. Two Digraphs (ph and ck) are
reviewed, and three new Digraphs are introduced (gn, kn, and wr). Ph says /f/, gn and
kn say /n/, ck says /k/, and wr says /r/.
• Lesson 84: Digraphs with Plural Endings and Multi-Syllabic Words with Digraphs. This
lesson teaches how to pronounce, spell, and prove Digraph words that have plural
endings. To form the plural with words that end in /ch/ or /sh/, add -es. To form the
plural with words that end in any other Digraph, add s. This lesson also provides
opportunities to practice decoding multi-syllabic words with Digraphs.
• Lesson 85: Most Common Words List 20. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 20: those, both, paper, together, got, group, often, run, important, until, children,
side, feet, car, mile, night, walk, white, sea, began
• Lesson 86: Special Vowel Sounds AU/AW. This lesson teaches how to pronounce, spell,
and prove words that have the Special Vowel Sound au/aw. Students learn that au and
aw both say /au/. When /au/ is at the end of a word, it is spelled aw.
• Lesson 87: Special Vowel Sounds OU/OW. This lesson teaches how to pronounce,
spell, and prove words that have the Special Vowel Sound ou/ow. Students learn that ou
and ow both say /ou/, although ow also says /ō/ in some words. When /ou/ is at the end
of a word, it is spelled ow.
• Lesson 88: Special Vowel Sounds OI/OY. This lesson teaches how to pronounce, spell,
and prove words that have the Special Vowel Sound oi/oy. Students learn that oi and oy
both say /oi/. When /oi/ is at the end of a word, it is usually spelled oy. When /oi/ is in
the middle of a word, it is spelled oi.
• Lesson 89: Special Vowel Sounds OO and OO. This lesson teaches how to pronounce,
spell, and prove words that have the Special Vowel Sound oo. The vowel combination oo
says two different sounds: the sound in look and the sound in zoo. Students must
memorize which words use each sound.
• Lesson 90: Spelling with -KE, -CK, -K, and -C. This lesson reviews the spelling skills for
the /k/ sound learned in previous lessons.
• Lesson 91: Decoding Exceptions. This lesson teaches how to decode and prove
exception words. Students learn that the first vowel of some two-syllable words is
followed by only one consonant, but the vowel is not long. It is short.
• Lesson 92: Most Common Words List 21. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 21: grow, took, river, four, carry, state, once, book, hear, stop, without, second, later,
miss, idea, enough, eat, face, watch, far
• Lesson 93: Other Suffixes: -TION, -SION, and -OUS. This lesson teaches how to
pronounce, spell, and prove words that contain other suffixes, including –tion, -sion, tial, -us, -ous, -ist, and -est.
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• Lesson 94: Letter Combinations That Split. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and
decode words that contain Blends, Digraphs, and Special Vowel Combinations that split
in multi-syllabic words.
Chapter 6
• Lesson 95: Other Sounds for EA and IE/EI. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and
prove words that contain ea and ie/ei.
THIS POINT MARKS THE END OF SECOND GRADE INSTRUCTION.
• Lesson 96: Reversed Vowels. This lesson teaches how to pronounce, prove, and
decode words that contain adjacent vowels and Special Vowel sounds that reverse.
Vowels that reverse include ai, oe, oa, ui, au, and oi. They become ia, eo, ao, iu, ua, and
io.
• Lesson 97: Sounds of EU and EW. This lesson teaches how to pronounce and spell
words that contain eu and ew. Students learn that the vowel combinations eu and ew
both have two sounds: /yu/ and /oo/, as in zoo.
• Lesson 98: Most Common Words List 22. This lesson teaches Most Common Words
List 22: real, almost, let, above, girl, sometimes, mountain, cut, young, talk, soon, list,
song, begin, leave, family, color, afternoon, music, body
• Lesson 99: Practicing Multi-Syllabic Words. This lesson provides opportunities to
practice decoding multi-syllabic words using all the skills and sounds learned.
• Lesson 100: Spelling With -SS, -CE, or -SE. This lesson teaches how to spell words
ending in -ss, -ce, and -se.
THIS POINT MARKS THE END OF THIRD GRADE INSTRUCTION.
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