Here at Wodonga West we know the impact that reading and writing have in our everyday lives. In order to ensure our students receive all the skills that need to be life long readers and writers we have implemented the Sounds Write approach to teaching phonics in our school.
Starting in Foundation and working up through to Year 2, each day students are given 30 minutess of explicit instruction in the sounds from the English language and how letters can represent these sounds. The structure of the prorgam means that sounds are taught in small groups beginning with initial sounds (e.g. a as in apple g as in girl d as in dog) and then applied to reading/writing and spelling tasks.
They are also taught how to bend sounds together to read a word and how to manipulate sounds in words e.g. change cat to cap
The teaching sequence for initial sounds is as follows:
Unit 1: a, i, m, s, t
Unit 2: n, o, p
Unit 3: b, c, g, h
Unit 4: d, f, v, e
Unit 5: k, l, r, u
Unit 6: j, w, z
Unit 7: x, y, ff, ll, ss
As children master the basic sounds they are then taught other key concepts such as that 2 letters can make 1 sound e.g. ch (chin), sh (shell), ll (bell) or ss (miss) or that one sound can be represented by more than one spelling. e.g. the /a/ sound can be written as ai (snail) ay (play) ea (great) or a-e (game). These ideas are reinforced through daily word building activities in whole class and small group sessions.
Daily classroom writing tasks and reading sessions also build on the knowledge presented in Sounds Write sessions to link all learning together for students
For more information about the program head to https://www.sounds-write.co.uk/
To access the parent training session to help support your child at home please use this link https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/