English / Year 1 / Literacy / Phonic and word knowledge

Curriculum content descriptions

understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound (AC9E1LY12)

Elaborations
  • recognising that letters can have more than one sound; for example, the letter “u” in “cut”, “put”, “use” and the letter “a” in “cat”, “father”, “any”
  • recognising sounds that can be produced by different letters; for example, the “s” sound in “sat” and “cent”
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Phonemes

Video

Teaching spelling generalisations: Eat bread - multiple sounds of ea

This short video (8 mins 18 seconds) explains how to teach the spelling generalisation known as eat bread, which examines the two most common sounds made by the digraph ea.

Video

Teaching spelling generalisations: Gentle Cindy - soft g and soft c

This video (11 mins 24 seconds) explains how to teach the spelling generalisation known as gentle Cindy, which explains when the letters g and c make their soft sounds, /j/ and /s/.

Video

Teaching spelling generalisations: Floss rule - ff, ll, ss or zz.

This short video (5 mins 32 seconds) explains how to teach the spelling generalisation known as the floss rule so that students learn when to use the letters ff, ll, ss and zz to represent the sounds /f/, /l/, /s/, and /z/.

Video

Teaching spelling generalisations: Sail away - ai/ay for long a sound

This video (12 mins 44 seconds) explains how to teach the spelling generalisation known as sail away so that students learn when to use the letters ai and ay to make the long a vowel sound in words.

Video

Year 1 Phonics Check: Responding to group analysis findings

This short video (8 minutes and 25 seconds) shows how to interpret data from the Year 1 Phonics Check’s group reports, and how to respond to student needs using the tiers of intervention model.

Video

Year 1 Phonics Check: Responding to analysis findings for individual student reports

This 18-minute video explains how to respond to analysis of individual student reports for the Year 1 Phonics Check.

Video

Year 1 Phonics Check: Analysing individual student reports

This video (14 minutes and 51 seconds) explains the components of an individual student report for the Year 1 Phonics Check.

Video

Year 1 Phonics Check: Understanding individual student reports

This short video (4 minutes and 35 seconds) explains the components of an individual student report for the Year 1 Phonics Check.

Downloadable

Year 1 Phonics Check and the Australian Curriculum

This document outlines how the types of words assessed in the Year 1 Phonics Check (a free 7-minute assessment to assess students' decoding skills across words of increasing complexity) align with descriptors in the Australian Curriculum V9 and with indicators of literacy development described in the National Literacy Learning ...

Downloadable

Year 1 Phonics Check Analysing and responding to results

This guide explains how to analyse data from the Year 1 Phonics Check, and how to use it to inform instruction. The Year 1 Phonics Check is a free, 7-minute assessment that assesses students' decoding skills across words of increasing complexity.

Downloadable

Year 1 Phonics Check: Administration guide

This guide provides detailed information for school leaders and teachers on what the Year 1 Phonics Check is (a free, 7-minute assessment that assesses students' decoding skills across words of increasing complexity). The guide contains information on delivery modes and key materials, administering the Check, recording ...

Video

Explicit instruction for phonics - an instructional model: coaching webinar questions

Literacy specialists Rebecca McEwan and Elaine Stanley present this question and answer session about using explicit instruction principles within your phonics lesson.

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Demonstration of a daily review

This video provides a demonstration of a phonics daily review using explicit instruction principles. It is presented by literacy specialists Elaine Stanley and Rebecca McEwan.

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.

Downloadable

Phonics lesson student worksheet: Spelling generalisation for soft g and soft c

This worksheet is for independent student practice of concepts taught in the phonics lesson for the soft g and soft c sounds (sometimes known as the ‘Gentle Cindy’ rule).

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.

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.

Video

Demonstration of a phonics lesson

This video provides a demonstration of a phonics lesson using explicit instruction principles. It is presented by literacy specialists Elaine Stanley and Rebecca McEwan.

Video

Explicit instruction for phonics overview

This video provides an overview of a phonics instructional model for reading and spelling. It is presented by literacy specialists Elaine Stanley and Rebecca McEwan.

Downloadable

Phonics Check answer sheet

A downloadable answer sheet for the offline mode of the Year 1 Phonics Check (a free assessment of students' decoding skills).