Practical Applications of Science of Reading: Teaching Blending and Segmenting in the Classroom

Students who can recognize sounds in words and put them back together to form words move quickly from recognizing phonemes to reading fluently and confidently.

However, these skills don’t always come without explicit, systematic instruction. Some readers, including those with dyslexia and other learning differences, often have difficulty blending and segmenting words. Without support, these students may have trouble decoding, spelling, or comprehending what they read. Later, these weaknesses can have a ripple effect across all academic subjects.

That’s why effective literacy instruction requires an explicit, systematic, and multisensory approach that includes lessons on blending and segmenting. Activities such as Elkonin boxes, finger tapping, “Say It, Move It,” and word chaining exercises make sounds and their corresponding letter patterns more concrete and memorable for all learners. With structured guidance and repeated practice, teachers can build these foundational skills and prepare their students to tackle increasingly complex texts.

In this guide, you’ll discover a variety of activities designed to help students strengthen their blending and segmenting skills, while also addressing common challenges that may prevent them from becoming confident, fluent readers. You’ll find strategies such as onset–rime blending to highlight word patterns, phoneme chaining to build flexibility with sounds, and Elkonin boxes to support sound-by-sound segmentation. Together, these activities provide multiple entry points for practice, giving students the tools they need to connect sounds to print and improve overall reading fluency.

Lexia® Core5® Reading can support blending and segmenting instruction. Personalized pathways, built-in repetition, and real-time progress monitoring provide teachers with actionable data while offering students the explicit practice they need to become proficient readers.

For activities that can help build and reinforce students’ blending and segmenting skills, download this guide.