English / Year 2 / Literacy / Phonic and word knowledge

Curriculum content descriptions

use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter/s) matches, including vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters and silent letters when reading and writing words of one or more syllables, including compound words (AC9E2LY10)

Elaborations
  • reading words with digraphs where one letter is not pronounced; for example, “knife” and “thumb”, when reading and using them in writing
  • providing the sounds for less common letter–sound matches; for example, “ight”, and using them in writing
  • reading words with vowel digraphs (“ee”, “oo”, “ai”, “ay”, “ea”)
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Reading,  Phonemes,  Spelling

Video

Teaching syllable types: Two syllable words - emu words, galah words and turtle words

This video (12 mins 03 seconds) explains how to teach spelling generalisations related to a range of two-syllable word types to support students' reading and spelling. Word types explained in the video include words known as emu words, galah words and turtle words.

Video

Explicit instruction of phonics - an instructional model Q&A

This Q&A webinar extract answers questions from teachers and school leaders about explicit instruction for phonics instruction.

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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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For school leaders: Understanding the evidence

This webpage provides information and resources for school leaders about the evidence and research on how students learn to read. It discusses cognitive load theory, explicit instruction, a whole-school curriculum approach, the Big Six of literacy and using a systematic synthetic phonics approach to instruction.

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For school leaders: Leading effective practice

This webpage provides information for school leaders on how to drive quality instruction and improve student literacy outcomes. It recommends a range of resources that can be used to support leaders in coaching and mentoring staff in best practice literacy instruction.

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: Syllable division: two-syllable words with VC/CV

This worksheet is for independent student practice of concepts taught in the phonics lesson for syllable division for two-syllable words with a vowel-consonant/consonant-vowel (VC/CV) pattern.

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 lesson student worksheet: Spelling generalisation for ff ll ss zz

This worksheet is for independent student practice of concepts taught in the phonics lesson for the ff ll ss zz spelling pattern (sometimes known as the ‘floss’ rule).

Downloadable

Phonics lesson student worksheet: Spelling generalisation for letter-sound correspondences ai and ay

This worksheet is for independent student practice of concepts taught in the phonics lesson on the ai ay spelling pattern.

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.

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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.

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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 template

This Word template assists teachers to create their own progress monitoring tools to align with a school's phonics progression.

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.

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.

Assessment

Progress monitoring tools Phases 16-20

These tools support teachers to monitor individual and whole-class student progress in Phases 16-20 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.

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.

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Phonics lesson planner example and template

This Word document can be used to plan for the specific words and sentences teachers will use when teaching new phonics content. It includes a worked example of a completed lesson and a blank template.

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.