What phase of word reading are the students likely beginning to transition to, given their ability to point to words in predictable texts and identify sounds in words?

The transition occurring in students who can point to words in predictable texts while identifying sounds in words indicates that they are likely moving into the partial alphabetic phase. During this phase, students begin to understand that letters represent sounds and can connect some letters to their corresponding phonemes. They are capable of recognizing some words by sight, especially in familiar contexts, and can often rely on context clues and their phonemic awareness to decode new words.

This ability to interact with predictable texts signifies that the students have developed a foundational understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, but they may not yet have a complete grasp of all letter-sound correspondences that characterize the full alphabetic phase. In the full alphabetic stage, students are expected to recognize and read words based on their knowledge of all the letters and sounds, which is a more advanced skill that these emerging readers have not yet fully mastered.

The other options either represent earlier phases, characterized by less ability in recognizing sound-letter connections and word formations, or they indicate a more advanced stage that requires a higher level of proficiency than what is described in the question. Thus, recognizing context clues and some letter-sound relationships appropriately aligns the students with the characteristics of the partial alphabetic phase.