California Teacher Credentialing Examination (CSET) Practice Test

The stage at which learners begin to recognize chunks or phonograms in their reading is the Middle and Late Alphabetic stage. During this phase, students move beyond simple letter-sound correspondences and start to identify groups of letters and common spelling patterns. This ability to recognize phonograms allows them to read more fluently and decode words more efficiently because they begin to see familiar patterns in different contexts. In contrast, the Pre Alphabetic stage is characterized by learners recognizing some words visually without understanding the associated phonemes, while the Early Alphabetic stage involves the initial understanding of letter-sound relationships but not yet the recognition of larger chunks. The Orthographic stage involves the development of sight word recognition and patterns, but it typically occurs after the Middle and Late Alphabetic stage. Therefore, the accurate identification of phonograms signals a pivotal step in reading development that corresponds with the characteristics of the Middle and Late Alphabetic stage.