What is English Automaticity for reading and spelling and how is it best achieved?

Automaticity in any activity is the ability to do something without thinking, without conscious thought or analysis. We only spell well and read fluently after we have learned to spell the words by actual study and cemented this learning with years of occasional exposure through reading so that all words become "sight words."

Some poor spellers and hesitant readers were taught phonics, some have memorized countless spelling words. Many were taught to read with phonics and to perform well on spelling tests but are very poor spellers because they don't remember which puzzle piece of our fractured language to use in the words they must write. More crucial in this age of spell-check is the embarrassment of poor reading aloud.

In traditional phonics reading instruction, students learn dozens of letter combinations that make several sounds and a bunch of rules. Students may recognize a phonics pattern for reading, but that does not help them pick the correct one for spelling or instantly know how to pronounce the word. Weekly spelling lists may group words with common sounds and several possible spellings, or, worse yet, words with one phonetic pattern and several pronunciations!

The MASTERY LEVEL English Phonics Stories were written and published to overcome this problem. With this resource, it may be unnecessary to belabor phonics. When students of phonics learn the phonogram ou and its many sounds, they can also learn all the words which use each of these sounds: the ou of round, four, you and young (preferably separated by a week or two. The intensive exposure and memory hook saves years.