Sense of Sound Spelling® – Units 7-8 and Sound Blitz DIGITAL DOWNLOAD

9 Weeks of Science of Reading-Aligned Spelling, Encoding, Advanced Phonics & Word Study Instruction

Sense of Sound Spelling® teaches students how to encode words by sound, spelling pattern, and structure—so spelling becomes something students understand instead of something they simply memorize.

This 9-Week Bundle includes Units 7–8 plus a cumulative Sound Blitz review week, providing 9 full weeks of explicit, systematic, and engaging spelling instruction designed for upper elementary students.

Perfect for teachers searching for a Science of Reading spelling curriculum, upper elementary word study program, explicit encoding instruction, advanced phonics instruction, morphology activities, spelling intervention, or an alternative to traditional weekly spelling lists, these units take students deeper into the structure of English orthography.

During Units 7–8, students move beyond basic phonics patterns and begin examining some of the spellings that often make English seem “irregular”—including the six jobs of silent E, alternative spellings for sounds, consonant spellings such as PH, GH, and CH, Y as a vowel, and multiple ways to spell long and short /oo/.

Students learn to ask:

What sound do I hear? What spelling could represent that sound? Is there a spelling convention that explains this word? What other words follow the same pattern? How does the word change when I add a prefix or suffix?

Instead of memorizing isolated spelling words, students learn to analyze, encode, sort, manipulate, read, and write words based on patterns they can transfer to unfamiliar words.

Each week includes approximately 10 minutes of explicit spelling instruction per day, making Sense of Sound Spelling® easy to add to an existing literacy block, phonics block, word study routine, intervention group, or MTSS/RTI structure.

WHAT’S INCLUDED – UNITS 7–8 + SOUND BLITZ✔️ Unit 7 — Weeks 28–31

Unit 7 tackles several spelling concepts that can feel unpredictable to students unless they are taught explicitly.

Students learn that silent E does much more than make a vowel say its name, explore less-common consonant spellings, and examine the different jobs letters can perform within English words.

Spelling and phonics focuses include:

• Week 28: Silent E Rules 1–3 
• Week 29: Silent E Rules 4–6 
• Week 30: PH, GH, and Y as a vowel
• Week 31: CH representing /sh/ and /k/

Unit 7 begins with an in-depth look at the six jobs of silent E.

Students first explore how silent E can:

• Make a vowel represent its long sound
• Help C and G represent their soft sounds
• Appear at the end of certain words ending in S

They then continue with additional silent-E conventions, including words such as have, love, breathe, clothe, apple, and jungle. The unit explicitly teaches all six silent-E rules rather than teaching “magic E” as though it has only one purpose. SSOS Unit 7

Students don't simply read a rule and move on. They repeatedly sort, read, encode, analyze, and apply words containing the target spellings. For example, the Silent E Fluency Grid allows students to compare forms before and after an E is added, helping them visually and orally connect spelling changes with pronunciation. SSOS Unit 7

Later in the unit, students study more advanced phoneme-grapheme correspondences, including:

PH → /f/

GH → /f/ or other roles within words

Y functioning as a vowel

CH → /sh/

CH → /k/

Words such as phone, graphic, tough, myth, scheme, chef, orchid, architect, chivalry, and chemistry give students opportunities to recognize that the same sound can be represented by different spellings—and that the same grapheme can function differently across English words. SSOS Unit 7 SSOS Unit 7

Unit 7 includes activities and resources such as:

• Daily structured spelling lesson plans
• Explicit silent E rules
• Student phoneme and spelling reference charts
• Connected reading passages
• Teacher-led and student word sorts
• Silent E Fluency activities
• Guided sentence dictation and writing
• Morphology connections
• Prefix, base, and suffix manipulation
• Polymorphemic word building
• Mini-paragraph writing
• Syntax and sentence-level application
• Interactive spelling games
• Weekly checks for understanding
• End-of-unit assessment

Morphology remains intentionally embedded throughout the unit. Students work with prefixes, bases, and suffixes, analyze which affixes can combine with particular bases, create new words, discuss changes in meaning, and apply those words in authentic writing. SSOS Unit 7

This helps students understand that phonics, spelling, morphology, vocabulary, and writing are interconnected systems—not separate subjects.

✔️ Unit 8 — Weeks 32–35

Unit 8 dives deeply into one of the most important ideas in advanced spelling instruction:

One sound can have multiple spellings.

Students investigate different graphemes that represent long /oo/ and short /oo/ and learn to compare, sort, analyze, and encode words based on spelling patterns rather than memorizing them one at a time.

Phoneme and spelling-pattern focuses include:

• Week 32: Long /oo/ spelled OO and OU
• Week 33: Long /oo/ spelled UE and EW
• Week 34: Long /oo/ spelled UI and EU
• Week 35: Short /oo/ spelled OO and U

For example, Week 32 explicitly teaches students that long /oo/ may be represented with OO or OU, as in words such as school, room, troop, soup, routine, and through. SSOS Unit 8

Students then expand their knowledge to additional long-/oo/ spellings.

They encounter patterns in words such as:

tissue, rescue, argue, screw, threw, preview, and newest;

followed by words such as:

fruit, suit, cruise, feud, Europe, eucalyptus, and euphoria. SSOS Unit 8 SSOS Unit 8

Finally, students compare the short /oo/ sound in spellings such as OO and U, including words like book, hood, cookie, rookie, push, pull, full, and ambush. SSOS Unit 8

This progression is particularly powerful for older elementary students because it moves away from the idea that there is always one letter for one sound. Students instead build a more sophisticated understanding of the English spelling system and learn to consider multiple possible graphemes when encoding unfamiliar words.

Unit 8 includes activities and resources such as:

• Explicit phoneme-grapheme instruction
• Daily structured lesson plans
• Spelling-pattern reference charts
• Connected reading passages
• Teacher-led and independent word sorts
• Sound discrimination activities
• Guided sentence writing and dictation
• Morphology activities
• Prefix, base, and suffix exploration
• Polymorphemic word building
• Paragraph writing
• Sentence and syntax activities
• Interactive games
• Sound mazes
• Phoneme I Spy
• Word-building activities
• Weekly spelling assessments
• End-of-unit assessment

Morphology continues alongside phonics instruction. Students add prefixes and suffixes to target base words and discuss how the structure and meaning of the word changes, strengthening spelling, vocabulary, morphological awareness, and word consciousness simultaneously. SSOS Unit 8

✔️ Sound Blitz: Units 7–8 — Week 36

This is not a filler or worksheet week. Sound Blitz is a strategic cumulative review, application week, and spelling data checkpoint.

After eight weeks of explicit instruction, students revisit the spelling patterns from Units 7–8 through collaborative activities, games, word analysis, sentence application, and cumulative assessment.

The week includes:

• Day 1: Anchor Chart Sorting
• Day 2: Review Game — Delicious Pairs
• Day 3: Sense of Sound Choice Board
• Day 4: Sentence Creation Challenge
• Day 5: Cumulative Assessment + Student Tracking Sheet

The week begins with students sorting words back into the phoneme and spelling categories they have learned. They then move into increasingly independent review through games and application activities. Sound Blitz Units 7-8

The Sense of Sound Choice Board gives students multiple ways to retrieve and apply their learning—including phoneme hunts, word ladders, mystery words, spelling-rule activities, sentence creation, and word manipulation.

Students also complete a Sentence Creation Challenge, requiring them to incorporate specified spelling patterns into complete sentences rather than demonstrating the skill only at the isolated-word level. Sound Blitz Units 7-8

DATA THAT ACTUALLY TELLS YOU WHAT TO TEACH NEXT

One of the most important features of Sense of Sound Spelling® is its approach to spelling assessment and progress monitoring.

Students complete a cumulative assessment covering the spelling concepts taught throughout Units 7–8.

But teachers don't simply receive a total percentage.

The included Student Tracking Sheet breaks performance down by individual spelling focus, including:

• Silent E Rules 1–6
• PH
• GH
• Y as a vowel
• CH representing /sh/
• CH representing /k/
• Long /oo/ spelled OO
• Long /oo/ spelled OU
• Long /oo/ spelled UE
• Long /oo/ spelled EW
• Long /oo/ spelled UI
• Long /oo/ spelled EU
• Short /oo/ spelled OO
• Short /oo/ spelled U

Teachers can immediately identify which phoneme-grapheme correspondences students have mastered and which require additional small-group instruction or intervention. Sound Blitz Units 7-8

Even better, assessment focuses on the specific spelling feature students were asked to encode, providing more precise instructional data than simply placing a red X beside an entire word.

That means your spelling assessment becomes something you can actually teach from.

HOW THE STRUCTURE WORKS

• ⏱ Approximately 10 minutes per day
• 📅 4 weeks per unit
• ✏️ Explicit spelling and encoding instruction
• 🔤 Direct instruction in phoneme-grapheme correspondences
• 🧠 Spelling rules and conventions are explicitly taught—not left for students to discover on their own
• 📖 Reading, spelling, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, and writing are integrated
• 🧩 Students analyze sound, spelling pattern, syllable structure, and morphology
• ✍️ Students apply learning from words → sentences → connected writing
• 📊 Weekly checks and end-of-unit assessments
• 🔁 Sound Blitz cumulative review after Units 7–8
• 🎯 Focus-based assessment data identifies exactly what needs to be retaught
• 👩🏫 Data can immediately inform small-group spelling intervention

WHY TEACHERS LOVE SENSE OF SOUND SPELLING®

✔ Science of Reading-aligned spelling instruction

✔ Explicit, systematic, and cumulative

✔ Focuses on encoding instruction, not memorizing weekly spelling lists

✔ Provides an upper elementary phonics and spelling curriculum for students who are ready for more advanced word study

✔ Explicitly teaches the six jobs of silent E

✔ Teaches multiple spellings for the same phoneme

✔ Helps students understand why English words are spelled the way they are

✔ Connects phonics and morphology

✔ Builds phonemic, orthographic, and morphological awareness

✔ Includes explicit phoneme-grapheme mapping and spelling-pattern instruction

✔ Gives students repeated opportunities to apply skills in multisyllabic words

✔ Integrates spelling with reading, vocabulary, syntax, sentences, and authentic writing

✔ Includes engaging games, sorts, movement, and hands-on activities

✔ Gives teachers built-in spelling assessment and progress-monitoring tools

✔ Focus-based scoring creates more actionable intervention data

✔ Works for whole-group spelling instruction, small groups, RTI, MTSS, and intervention

✔ Requires approximately 10 minutes per day

✔ Eliminates the need to create an upper elementary word study program from scratch

IDEAL FOR:

• 3rd grade spelling
• 4th grade spelling
• 5th grade spelling
• Upper elementary spelling and word study
• Science of Reading classrooms
• Explicit encoding instruction
• Advanced phonics instruction
• Tier 1 spelling instruction
• Tier 2 spelling intervention
• Small-group word study
• RTI / MTSS
• Students who can decode but continue to struggle with spelling
• Students ready to move beyond beginning phonics
• Teachers looking for an alternative to weekly spelling word lists
• Teachers searching for a phonics-to-spelling bridge
• Students needing explicit instruction in silent E rules
• Students learning advanced vowel patterns and alternative spellings
• Morphology and vocabulary instruction
• Spelling remediation
• Homeschool language arts and spelling instruction

FORMAT & DELIVERY

• 📁 Digital PDF download
• 🖨 Print materials as needed
• 💻 Resources can be displayed digitally when appropriate
• 🔒 Licensed for use in one classroom
• 🏫 School and district licensing available separately

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSIs this a Science of Reading spelling curriculum?

Sense of Sound Spelling® is designed around explicit, systematic instruction in the connections among phonemes, graphemes, spelling patterns, morphology, reading, and writing. Students are taught how the English spelling system works and then given repeated opportunities to encode and apply what they learn.

Is this phonics or spelling?

Both are connected intentionally.

Students use their knowledge of sounds and spelling patterns to encode words, while also reading and analyzing words containing those same phoneme-grapheme correspondences. As students progress, morphology, word structure, vocabulary, syntax, and writing become increasingly integrated.

What grade levels are Units 7–8 designed for?

Sense of Sound Spelling® is designed primarily as an upper elementary spelling and word study program, making it especially useful for students in grades 3–6 who are ready to move beyond beginning phonics into more advanced spelling patterns and word structure.

How much time does it take?

Plan for approximately 10 minutes per day.

The goal is focused, explicit spelling instruction that fits into your existing literacy block rather than replacing it.

Do students memorize a weekly spelling list?

No.

Students may encounter focus words throughout the week, but the goal is not to memorize a collection of unrelated words for a Friday test.

Students learn the sound, spelling pattern, or convention, apply it across multiple words, and then demonstrate whether they can transfer that knowledge to unfamiliar words.

Why teach all six silent E rules?

Because silent E does much more than make the previous vowel long.

Unit 7 helps students recognize several functions of final E so they can make sense of words that otherwise appear to “break the rule.”

Instead of telling students, “English is weird,” we give them more information about how the system actually works.

Why are there so many ways to spell /oo/?

Because English phonemes can be represented by more than one grapheme.

Unit 8 helps students compare spellings such as OO, OU, UE, EW, UI, EU, and U, giving them a much stronger foundation for spelling unfamiliar words than memorizing each word individually.

What makes the assessment different from a traditional spelling test?

The assessment is designed to show whether students can encode the specific spelling focus that was taught.

The tracking sheet then separates performance by focus, allowing teachers to identify exactly which spelling patterns require reteaching and form targeted small groups or spelling intervention groups. The Sound Blitz materials specifically direct teachers to revisit phonemes students struggle with for intervention and remediation. Sound Blitz Units 7-8

Do I need to purchase Units 1–6 first?

Units 7–8 are the next nine weeks in the Sense of Sound Spelling® sequence and build upon previously developed encoding, phonics, spelling-pattern, and morphology knowledge.

For the strongest cumulative progression, they are intended to follow the earlier units.

What comes next?

Students continue building an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how sounds, graphemes, spelling conventions, morphology, and word structure work together—with the ultimate goal of creating independent spellers who can approach unfamiliar words strategically.

✨ Stop memorizing. Start encoding.

Students don't need another list of words to memorize until Friday.

They need to understand the system behind the words.

Sense of Sound Spelling® gives students the phonics knowledge, spelling patterns, morphology, and encoding strategies they need to spell words they've never been asked to memorize.

And it gives teachers the explicit lessons, engaging practice, assessments, and actionable spelling data to make that happen.