English / Foundation / Language / Phonics and word knowledge

Curriculum content descriptions

Understand how to use knowledge of letters and sounds including onset and rime to spell words (ACELA1438)

Elaborations
  • recognising the most common sound made by each letter of the alphabet, including consonants and short vowel sounds, for example ‘p-op’
  • breaking words into onset and rime, noticing words that share the same pattern, for example ‘p-at’, ‘b-at’
  • breaking words into onset and rime to learn how to spell words that share the same pattern, for example ‘p-at’, ‘b-at’, ‘t-all’ and ‘f-all’
  • building word families using onset and rime, for example ‘h-ot’, ‘g-ot’, ‘n-ot’, ‘sh-ot’
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Spelling,  Syllables

Assessment

Progress monitoring tool Tracker Phases 11-15

This spreadsheet assists teachers to analyse the data collected in progress monitoring tools, to plan next steps for student learning. This file aligns with Phases 11-15 of the Literacy Hub phonics progression.

Downloadable

Phonics pair-game template

The pair games and activities in this document can be used as part of your systematic synthetic phonics program to encourage students to develop their phonics skills with peers during independent practice.

Downloadable

Steps to spelling accuracy infographic

This infographic highlights the knowledge and skill areas students need to develop for early spelling accuracy, and the key role of spelling generalisations in this development.

Video

Teaching tips for phonics related skills

This short video (2 minutes and 54 seconds) shows two teachers discussing strategies that can be used to support students when they are developing phonics-related skills.

Online

Daily review example

This slide pack provides a sample daily review lesson which is a key component of teaching phonics using a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) model that follows evidence-based research. It can be adapted to follow any phonics progression or lesson.

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Progress monitoring tools Phases1-5

These tools support teachers to monitor individual and whole-class student progress in Phases 1-5 of the Literacy hub phonics progression, and instructional notes for the teacher are provided. Each phase has a student reference page and a teacher marking sheet.

Assessment

Progress monitoring tools Tracker Phases 16-20

This spreadsheet assists teachers to analyse the data collected in progress monitoring tools, to plan next steps for student learning. This file aligns with Phases 16-20 of the Literacy Hub phonics progression.

Image

Gradual release o f responsibility and response to intervention inforgraphic

This infographic shows the gradual release of responsibility model and how it aligns with the level of support needed following a Response to Intervention (RTI) model.

Assessment

Progress monitoring tool tracker Phases 6-10

This spreadsheet assists teachers to analyse the data collected in progress monitoring tools, to plan next steps for student learning. This file aligns with Phases 6-10 of the Literacy Hub phonics progression.

Video

Q&A session: Making a start with a phonics progression and phonological awareness instruction

This recording of a 30-minute Q&A session supports schools in choosing and following a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) progression, including phonological and phonemic awareness instruction.

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Assessment and intervention for an SSP approach

This self-paced learning module outlines the specific areas of knowledge and skills that are assessed for a systematic synthetic phonics approach to teaching reading and spelling. It explains how this approach to assessment is helpful to identify student needs across the Response to Intervention framework. It contains a ...

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Fluency and progress monitoring

This self-paced learning module explains fluency at the letter-sound correspondence level, word, sentence and whole-text level, and explains how to use a progress monitoring tool. It contains a webinar, free downloadable resources and further professional reading. It is the fourth of seven professional learning modules ...

Assessment

Progress monitoring tool tracker Phases 1-5

This spreadsheet assists teachers to analyse the data collected in progress monitoring tools, to plan next steps for student learning. This file aligns with Phases 1–5 of the Literacy Hub phonics progression.

Assessment

Progress monitoring tools Phases 21-24

These tools support teachers to monitor individual and whole-class student progress in Phases 21-24 of the Literacy hub phonics progression. Each phase has a student reference page and a teacher marking sheet, and instructional notes for the teacher are provided.

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For school leaders: Using data-informed instruction

This webpage provides information and resources for school leaders on how to facilitate the use of data to track student progress and inform instruction.

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Student learning support

This webpage provides information and resources to support teachers to target specific student learning needs and create an inclusive classroom. It discusses differentiation and inclusion.

Assessment

Progress monitoring tool Tracker Phases 21-24

This spreadsheet assists teachers to analyse the data collected in progress monitoring tools, to plan next steps for student learning. This file aligns with Phases 21-24 of the Literacy Hub phonics progression.

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Overview of assessment for phonics knowledge and skills

This document helps teachers create an assessment schedule that includes all the early phonics-related skills necessary for reading and spelling development from Foundation to Year 2.

Downloadable

Phonics lesson slides: Spelling generalisation for soft g and soft c

This sample slideshow presents a ready-to-use phonics lesson to teach the spelling generalisation for the soft g and soft c sounds (sometimes known as the ‘Gentle Cindy’ rule), with teacher notes indicating how to teach each part of the lesson.

Downloadable

Phonics lesson slides: Syllable division: two-syllable words with a VC/CV pattern

This sample slideshow presents a ready-to-use phonics lesson to teach the syllable division for two-syllable words with a vowel-consonant/consonant-vowel (VC/CV) pattern, with teacher notes indicating how to teach each part of the lesson.