Frequently Asked Questions

Our Getting Started Guide is a great place to begin and ensure you have the right materials, resources, & routines in place.

UFLI offers several ways for you to learn how to implement UFLI Foundations. Our free webinar series on UFLI’s You Tube channel is a great way to begin. Watch it on your own, or watch it with colleagues and do a “video study”, complete with opportunities to practice. This is the DIY option, completely free of charge.

If you are a school or district leader and wish to formally train your teams in the implementation of UFLI Foundations, UFLI offers fee-for-service professional development either in person or virtually. Complete this form to request more information and connect with UFLI’s PD team.

Finally, we host UFLI Academy events throughout the year for individuals who wish to deepen their knowledge of effective reading instruction and enhance their skills using UFLI Foundations. From 3-day conferences to 2-day in-person workshops to multi-day facilitated virtual trainings, there is bound to be something for you. There is a registration fee to attend, although we do our best to keep these events reasonably priced. Learn more on UFLI’s Academy web page.

UFLI Foundations was designed for and piloted with whole-class implementation in K-2, as these are the concepts one would expect a child to learn in the primary grades. The lessons include content that can be used for small-group supplemental support and can also be used as intervention with older students who still need the skills addressed in the scope and sequence.

We recommend teaching grade-level lessons separately, as each Scope & Sequence is designed for that grade. Use small groups for remediation or enrichment, mixing grades as needed to target individual student needs more effectively.

Yes, absolutely! There are many educators using the program in these and other contexts. Join our Facebook Group, UFLI Foundations Community: Building Strong Readers to connect with others who are implementing UFLI Foundations outside of the traditional classroom setting.

We do not recommend combining two phonics programs with different scope and sequences and routines, as it can confuse students. If your current program effectively supports at least 80% of students, use it consistently, including in small groups. If not, consider substituting the phonics portion of your current ELA curriculum with UFLI Foundations.

If you are using UFLI Foundations for whole-group instruction, it is essential you follow the lesson plans in the order they are presented in the manual. All of the steps play a critical role in the lesson. 

• Steps 1-4 are intended to provide automaticity of previously learned grapheme-phoneme correspondences. 
• Step 5 explicitly teaches the new concept.
• Steps 6-7 are opportunities for students to have lots of practice encoding and decoding with that new concept. 
• Step 8 is where they apply the new concept in context by reading sentences, spelling sentences, and reading a decodable passage. 

It is also important to stick to the recommended pacing for each lesson step to ensure all steps are addressed in the recommended 30 minutes. This pacing can be found on page 21 of the manual and at the beginning of each lesson slide deck.

If you are using UFLI Foundations for whole group instruction, please don’t. There is intentional interleaved practice built in across lessons to support students with extra practice.

We recommend displaying all of the picture cards during the Getting Ready lessons (Lessons A-J) then adding the grapheme cards as you teach them. You can find sound printable wall materials in the Printable Resources section of the UFLI Foundations Toolbox. Printed materials are also available for purchase from Ventris Learning.

Data usually speaks for itself. Share the report from our Pilot Study or this article from Reading Research Quarterly.

Some other resources to share with your school’s leadership include our program overview document and quick overview video. The longer, more detailed overview video reviews data from the pilot district at the beginning (~6:39)  which you may also find useful.

The best place to ask specific questions is through our Facebook group, the UFLI Foundations Community: Building Strong Readers. This group is moderated by our team, and functions as “PD on demand.”

Word Origins is a word study program that expands students’ understanding of the English language. By teaching etymology and morphology, Word Origins provides instruction in reading, writing, spelling, and vocabulary for students in grades 3 and up.

In a word, no. Here’s the story:

Shortly after UFLI Foundations was published, we began working with the Dyslexia SPELD Foundation (DSF) to bring the program to Australia. DSF helped us to create an Australian version of the manual.  At the same time, they were engaged in developing Word Origins, an incredible word study program for grades 3 and up. 

Its explicit and systematic framework and emphasis on orthography, morphology, semantics, and syntax makes it a natural next step for UFLI Foundations learners as they advance to third grade and beyond, and we are proud to have collaborated with DSF to adapt Word Origins for use in the U.S. 

In addition to viewing the overview video on UFLI’s You Tube channel, you can also join UFLI’s Word Origins Community on Facebook.

Project Read is a mission-driven company that partners closely with UFLI on a variety of research and development initiatives.

This includes the co-development of the UFLI Assessment and Planning Portal, an educator-facing tool designed to help streamline progress monitoring, small group planning and data tracking related to assessment within the UFLI Foundations program. Teachers can enter or scan student spelling work and get their small groups automatically planned, in addition to GPC-level breakdown of exactly a student’s granular concept accuracy over time.

It also includes research on the Project Read Tutor, a UFLI-aligned student digital practice program that uses cutting-edge speech and handwriting recognition to deliver targeted practice and corrective feedback to students in real time. A recent study conducted by UFLI showed that 15-30 minutes of weekly usage was associated with significantly (~2-4x) higher probability of reaching Spring EOY benchmark on DIBELS for K-2 students who started Below Benchmark in the Fall (link to brief for now).

The collaboration between UFLI and Project Read on the Tutor is part of an ambitious moonshot effort funded by LEVI Literacy (https://learning-engineering-virtual-institute.org/literacy-team/project-read/) to reduce the number of struggling K-2 readers in the US by half.

Individual educators can sign up for a free trial of Project Read. There here is a free version with access to teacher tools like Project Read’s Decodable Generator in perpetuity. Paid individual plans offered beyond the trial period are available for purchase with a credit card in the app.

School and district plans bring additional data visibility, training and rostering integrations to support wider implementations. To get a quote for a school or district, please visit www.projectread.ai/pricing.

The word work mat is intended to be used by students to complete step six of the program. For this step, it is important that students have access to manipulative letters so they can make changes to words as the teacher presents prompts using the word chain. If you are working with younger students, we recommend using the primary word work mat that has just the alphabet letters. If you are working with older students, we have an intermediate word work mat that has more advanced graphemes.

The digital blending board is intended to be used by the teacher to complete the blending drill during step four of the program.

To remove the plural -s on the blending board, you must select the blank tile located in the pink section when setting up the blending board.

Yes! The UFLI Games Generator lives on the UFLI Foundations Toolbox. View the tutorial to see the different ways the games can be used.

Other than the teacher’s copy of the UFLI Foundations manual, not much else is needed. Students just need a whiteboard (or something to write on), dry erase marker (or something to write with), manipulative letters, and eraser. Online companion resources are found in the UFLI Foundations Toolbox. 

Many classrooms already have these items, so use what you have! However, if you are going to purchase them, you can find them everywhere. Here are some of our favorites (not sponsored).

• Magnetic letters: Abecedarian ABC, LLC (note: they sell magnetic and non-magnetic letters)
• Magnetic trays: Range Kleen burner covers

Pro tip: while not essential, many teachers have found it helpful to have a presentation clicker and some way to time lesson steps.

The printed Word Origins Level 1 materials you order from Ventris Learning include:

• 4 Unit Teacher Manuals
• 1 Implementation Guide
• 1 set of printed Morpheme Tiles

Aside from this, not much else is needed to implement Word Origins in your classroom. Using the URL and pass code printed inside the Implementation Guide, you can access companion resources including lesson slide decks, passages, and printable morpheme tiles. Prefer to hit the easy button? You can buy pre-printed morpheme tiles from Ventris Learning instead. (note: you will need 1 set of tiles for every 2 students).

Finally, each student will need a composition book, spiral notebook, or some kind of bound journal, a whiteboard, and a dry erase marker.

In the United States, manuals can ONLY be purchased directly from the publisher, Ventris Learning. We do not sell on Amazon or other online platforms.

• • UFLI Foundations manuals and sound wall materials
  • Word Origins manuals and morpheme tiles

In Canada: Ventris Learning does ship to Canada so you may order directly from them. Alternatively, you may purchase manuals from one of these authorized dealers in Canada:

• • Caversham Booksellers
  • Saunders Book Company
  • Tattletales Books 

In Australia and New Zealand: Purchase the Australian version of the UFLI Foundations manual directly from Auspeld

In Ireland: Register with An Post AddressPal and order from Ventris Learning.

Other International Countries: Ventris Learning does not ship overseas, with the above exceptions. Consider using a U.S. freight forwarding service.

You can request one from Ventris Learning.

NO. The UFLI Foundations manual is copyright-protected and may not be duplicated. For the full copyright statement and guidelines for use, visit UFLI’s copyright information page.

No. The Word Origins manual is copyright-protected and may not be duplicated.

UFLI does not hire frequently, but when we do have open positions, they are posted on the University of Florida’s employment portal.

CEU certificates are issued by the University of Florida Conference Department. They are sent directly to the email address you used to register. If you do not receive yours within 2-3 weeks of the Academy, please email the UF Conference Department.

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