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English / Foundation / Literacy / Phonic and word knowledge

Curriculum content descriptions

use knowledge of letters and sounds to spell words (AC9EFLY13)

Elaborations
  • making plausible spelling choices using letter–sound correspondences and morphemic knowledge
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Phonemes,  Word stems

Video

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.

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.

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Planning resources

This webpage provides information on how to scope specific literacy content, and to plan what to teach and how to teach it. It provides links to further information and quality resources to support teacher planning.

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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.

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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: 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.

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.

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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.

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/.

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 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

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.