At St Paul’s, we pride ourselves on providing quality education to our students as well as quality professional learning experiences for our teachers. Ongoing professional learning is provided throughout each year for teachers to continue to develop their growing knowledge and skills in delivering quality teaching and learning programs. This professional development is often led by members of the leadership team who are experts of the field. This ongoing teacher training is usually done through half day or full day workshops at the school. 

This professional learning for English consists of developing knowledge of Synthetic Phonics using the ‘Letters and Sounds’ program, CEO developed program ‘Teaching Reading Strategies grades 2-6’, Spelling program ‘Words Their Way’ for grades 4 - 6  and almost all staff have been trained in the Understanding Dyslexia and Significant Reading Difficulties course. 

The National Literacy Learning Progressions were developed by ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority). It provides a comprehensive view of literacy learning and how it develops over time. The Literacy Learning Progressions support the explicit and systematic teaching of synthetic phonics including the use of decodable readers in Kindergarten, Year 1 and into Year 2, rather than predictable readers. The teaching and learning at St Paul’s reflects this as outlined below;

• From Kindergarten to Year 2, children are explicitly taught how to read and write by learning the ‘code’ of the English language through Letters and Sounds. As research and evidence outlines, synthetic phonics “...offers the vast majority of young children the best and most direct route to becoming skilled readers and writers” (Rose Report, 2006). 
• Children in Year 3 have a year of revision of Letters and Sounds to ensure that these skills are secured in order to read more complex texts, involving increasingly complex  content and vocabulary.
• Children in grades 4 - 6 are reading to learn and so teachers explicitly teach more complex spelling skills and continue to build vocabulary knowledge through small group instruction using the program ‘Words Their Way’. 
• From Year 2 onwards, children are also explicitly and systematically taught about the 7 comprehension strategies through the program ‘Teaching Reading Strategies grades 2-6’. Children engage with a variety of types of texts when learning about the comprehension strategies, for example, children may read a decodable text, a magazine article, a picture book or view a short video clip online. Through engaging  with a variety of texts, children are supported to learn how to apply their knowledge of phonics and comprehension strategies to a ‘wide’ range of texts in order to become competent and successful readers. 

There are some common misconceptions about the teaching of synthetic phonics that I would like to address;

1. Do you teach synthetic phonics all day, every day?

No. Student’s from Kindergarten to Year 3 participate in an explicit lesson of Letters and Sounds for approximately 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. Children may also complete a practise activity (something that has already been taught) during their literacy learning centres. 

2. Do children read decodable texts only?

No. Decodable texts are used from Kindergarten to Year 2 during small group instruction when learning how to read. Throughout the rest of the day, teachers from Kindergarten to Year 6 expose children to, and use, a wide variety of texts across all Key Learning Areas. Decodable readers are provided via Bug Club for home reading from Kindergarten to Year 3 to allow the student’s to apply what they have learnt in class. Children are encouraged to also read other types of texts such as library books or other texts of interest.  

3. Do you teach writing? 

Yes. Children are also taught how to spell through the Letters and Sounds program. There is a daily writing component in every Letters and Sounds lesson where children write a dictated sentence. Teachers also then explicitly teach writing as part of the Literacy block. 

4. Do decodable texts help children develop comprehension skills? 

Yes. Decodable readers have a clear storyline and plot. They also contain comprehension questions in which the teacher will engage in with the students during these teaching episodes. The importance of using a decodable text from Kindergarten to Year 2 is that foremost, it allows children to develop their decoding skills and then begin to develop reading comprehension skills. 

5. Why doesn’t my child bring home a levelled reader for home reading from Kindergarten to Year 2? 

A students’ reading ability is not determined by a reading level. Students reading ability is measured based on the 6 components of reading which are; phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, oral language and comprehension. A decodable reader allows students to develop all of these necessary skills and ensure success when reading independently. This is because the decodable texts for home reading incorporate the letters and sounds that have been explicitly taught in class. 

Mrs Angela Mourinho
Literacy Coach