An English/American instructional series available is the "Clusters" series developed by the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). In that series, ordinary letters and other symbols are introduced gradually along with the contractions, so that, for example, the letter "d" (in cluster 9) is introduced after the contraction for "that" (in cluster 3).
Users of this series should keep in mind that the translation table for a particular level takes care to use only the contractions up to that level, but naturally it will still translate all the characters that are in the file, regardless of level. In other words, to follow the clusters completely as designed, one must refrain from using any text containing the letter "d" before cluster 9.
Note that the letter sign, as applied to isolated letters that are not contractions, is not introduced until Cluster 22.
The complete TSBVI "Clusters" sequence is listed below. Note that Cluster 1 is equivalent to grade 1, and Clusters 54 and above are equivalent to grade 2. Those clusters that are omitted in the (DBT) menu are marked with an asterisk (*). Apart from Cluster 54, the reason that the others are omitted is that they introduce no new contractions nor the letter sign:
a, t, m
Cluster *2:
b, g, i
a, that, more, but, go
Cluster *4:
capital, period, I
Cluster *5:
r, f, n
Cluster *6:
x, l, s
rather, from, not
it, like, so
d, do, p, people, k, knowledge
y, you, c, can
h, have, o, question mark
q, quite, u, us, comma
w, will, e, every
v, very, z, as
j, just, and
Cluster *16:
(Reading exercises)
mother, father, right, time, exclamation point
lord, some, day, part, name
know, young, here, one
question, under, work, ever, apostrophe
Cluster *21:
number sign, numerals
hyphen, numeric dates, letter sign
Cluster *23:
comma in large numbers
the, there, braille, ing, him
about, according, after, also, afternoon, afterward
th, this, although, through, across, already
Cluster *27:
(Reading exercises)
almost, always, blind, either, neither, ed
of, by, myself, himself, itself, oneself, yourself
had, quick, its, these, cannot, open quote, closed quote
sh, shall, should, would, could, good, paid
tion, er, herself, perhaps
o'clock, was, con, cc, colon
ou, out, ought, today, tonight, tomorrow
for, ch, child, children, character, such, much
ar, ound, above, en, enough
Cluster *37:
(Reading exercises)
great, together, little, ow, ance
be, bb, semicolon, spirit
because, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond
sion, ble, his, your, friend, letter
less, their, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
with, st, still, first, must, again, against
ount, dollar sign, decimal, cent, many
percent, fraction bar, ity
ence, altogether, immediate, com
Cluster *47:
(Reading exercises)
wh, which, where, world, ea
to, ff, in, into, those, said, ong
word, were, gg, parentheses
ness, ment, necessary, ally
dis, dd, gh, ation, ful
upon, whose, thyself
Cluster *54:
conceive, conceiving, deceive, deceiving, declare, declaring, perceive, perceiving, receive, receiving, rejoice, rejoicing
Cluster *55:
dash, ellipsis, asterisk, italics or underline
Cluster *56:
double dash, brackets, inner quotes, accent sign, termination sign, degrees