Phonics progressions and phonemic awareness: coaching webinar questions transcript

Elaine Stanley:

Q: What advice can you give if students understand concepts during phonics lessons, but are not transferring their knowledge to reading and writing in the classroom?

Rebecca McEwan:

Great question. The first thing that that tells us is that the students need more repeated practice, more guided practice, more independent practice, on really targeted tasks. If they're still working at word level, then we're just looking at words containing those letter–sound correspondences. Lots and lots of guided and independent practice there. Might be at sentence level, if they're ready to be using that knowledge within sentences, or potentially getting up to that continuous text level or book level. But it sounds like in this question, that's where they're not applying it, so go back to lots of practice, guidance, feedback, at that word and sentence level.

Elaine Stanley:

I think also if you think about all the processes that actually have to happen for a child, for even the word reading or spelling. For reading, they have to identify the letter, then attach the correct sound, then actually blend those sounds to read a word. All of that has to be happening at once to lift that word off the page. For writing, they have to think of the word, isolate the phonemes, then identify which letter matches the phonemes, even think about how to form each of those letters. There's a lot going on for students at the word level, let alone the text level.

I always explain it as trying to get all these things happening and automatic, it's like trying to cross a field with long grass. If you're doing it for the first time, it's really hard to make your way through and find your way across, but if you do it every day, you'll wear a path. You'll build those pathways where things become automatic. I think that's something to think about with this as well, because it just takes time to make that retrieval automatic to apply it to your reading and writing.

Rebecca McEwan:

I think the keys to success there in answer to that question would be slow down the pace, don't keep moving forward if we're not seeing that transference, and lots of repeated practice to make that lovely pathway through the grass.

Elaine Stanley:

Q: We've had some questions come through about how these resources will work with students with a range of diverse needs. One person has asked about special needs classrooms, and we've had a couple of questions about using the resources with students who have English as an additional language.

Rebecca McEwan:

Those two examples are two very different examples of needs, but like you said, diverse needs. Explicit instruction is certainly indicated for both of those groups of students, and in phonics, that explicit instruction can be really supportive and successful with students with some additional needs or different needs, because it breaks things down so finely into those small steps, then it builds on that knowledge really, really, really sequentially and carefully. We think about the pace. We bring down the pace for some of those groups of students, because either they need more repetition, or in the case of students with an EAL background, they might be reading and spelling in their first language, so they're bringing this whole kit of skills already. What we need to do for them is to unlock the new code, and it's through using a progression, being really sequential and systematic in that phonics instruction, that we can help them to apply what they have already with this new code.

We actually have a colleague who's used the Literacy Hub progression in specialist school settings as well, with some really good success there. The pace is what comes down, and the repetition is what comes up, and the monitoring and the feedback is what's really important for students who might need that extra time to work through it.

Elaine Stanley:

In our Topic 2, we are going to introduce a lesson format. I think the fact that the lessons are really structured with a set format supports students who need that extra level of support. The lesson structure becomes so routine that students know what's coming next in the lesson, so it doesn't take up their cognitive load thinking about what's going to happen next in a lesson, that's really supportive. They get to know that routine, and can just focus on what the learning is.

I think all of those things are pace, repetition, the structure, the routines all help those groups of students.

Rebecca McEwan:

I think I said before when we were looking at the slides as well, but for students with an EAL background, then particularly that clear articulation, mouth placement for speech sounds, and associating that with the letters as well, that's really important, and the clear pronunciation.

Elaine Stanley:

Some of those sounds of English are not in their first language.

Rebecca McEwan:

And they'll have some sounds that are not in the English language.

Elaine Stanley:

Q: My school only has books that are non-decodable. How do I support my students to use their phonics knowledge?

Rebecca McEwan:

First thing that we would say is that decodables really are the best text, when they're matched to your progression, they're the best text for early readers because they're directly practising exactly what you've just taught them. I think we're on repeat here about repeated practice, but that's what it gives to your students.

In the short term, if you don't have access to decodable texts, big books that you can pick up and work with, start off with some words and some sentences, because again, that gives repeated practice. Really you want to build from word to sentence and then up to continuous text level when you're supporting those beginning learners.

In Topic 3 actually in our PL series, we're going to focus on decodables, so we'll have some resources in that topic and lots of advice about how to go about using decodables or introducing decodables, as it may be. You can still support your students. Just start at that word and sentence level to begin with.

Elaine Stanley:

I think in the long term, it's worth considering buying sets of decodables or accessing free sets of decodables, because you will need those in place to build those decoding muscles for students. SPELD South Australia have sets of free decodables, which are really good to look at.

https://www.speldsa.org.au/SPELD-SA-Phonic-Readers-New-Series

Rebecca McEwan:

Spelfabet has a list as well.

https://www.spelfabet.com.au/phonics-resources/07-decodable-books/

Elaine Stanley:

Q: What's the best way to tackle a phonic sequence in a multi-age classroom, for example, a 1–2 classroom?

Rebecca McEwan:

It really comes back to your data. Your data might tell you in a multi-age classroom that you do have that really diverse range of phonics skills. If SSP (systematic synthetic phonics) hasn't been used up until that point, you might actually find that across that cohort, your Year 1s and your Year 2s or whichever year levels they are, there are some gaps that are quite persistent across both groups. In that case, finding where to start and having a similar starting point for your group could work, again relying on the data.

But you might also find that you do have two quite diverse sets of students. It might be year-level based, or it might be that there are some students who've been exposed to some instruction and some not. In that case, you might consider doing your reviews altogether. Whatever you've taught, you can review together as a whole group, but then when it comes to introducing new content, you can start at different points in the progression. It's a bit of a logistical puzzle.

But really, if you have those diverse split groups of students who need this and need this, your best bang for buck will be to give these students some of your time for explicit instruction and really target those skills.

Elaine Stanley:

The other side of that, if it's not a really diverse group to that extent, sometimes it's more effective to teach the same letter–sound correspondence but differentiate what you are asking students to do with that code. Some students might still be working at the CVC word level, whereas others might be working with that letter–sound correspondence in more complex words. The application can change rather than the content that you are teaching.

Rebecca McEwan:

That comes back to that word level, sentence level, continuous text level we were talking about before. Where is it that these students need support?

Elaine Stanley:

And how can you differentiate within that class lesson?

Rebecca McEwan:

I should say as well, it comes back to the data. A suggestion for some data that you could use to find out more about your students' phonics knowledge in a multi-age class or whichever class really, from Year 1, is the Phonics Check. You can look on the Literacy Hub website, and there is a Phonics Check on there, that could help to figure out where you are needing to pitch for whole class or your separate groups of students.

Elaine Stanley:

Q: The progression I'm following matches a set of decodables, but there are no lesson plans to teach the phonics. What do I do then?

Rebecca McEwan:

It's tricky, because like Elaine said, that instructional model, or the phonics lessons, the explicit teach, is that bridge to what we're teaching, and then actually having our students apply that. You'll need an instructional model. Ideally, that's a consistent instructional model that you use across your levels and classes. Luckily Topic 2 is all about instructional models, so we will have an example instructional model for you. We'd really encourage you, if that's your case, to come along to our next coaching session and look at our next topic web content as well, because that should be exactly what you are looking for.