Learning Specialist News

PhOrMeS 

This term, South Melbourne Park Primary School has begun implementing PhOrMeS - a phonics and spelling program. Here is the why, what and how of PhOrMeS. 

Why PhOrMeS? 

PhOrMeS provides a clear whole school curriculum which strengthens the approaches previously being implemented at South Melbourne Park. Through a systematics, synthetic phonics approach it builds students up from learning single letter-sound relationships, blending and reading words, all the way to learning about Latin and Greek root words and how suffixes and prefixes adjust the meaning of words. PhOrMeS addresses key literacy skills and helps improve many elements of the Big 6 of Reading, including Oral Language, Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency and Vocabulary. 

PhOrMeS also strengthens our teaching practices, aligned with evidence-based practices we have been implementing across the school including a wider range of Opportunities to Respond, such as whiteboard responses, and more opportunities to continually Check for Understanding. 

What is PhOrMeS? 

PhOrMeS is a ready-to-teach comprehensive, core literacy skills curriculum covering the key areas of: 

• Phonology 
  • Letter-Sound Relationship
  • Decoding, Blending, Reading
  • Segmenting, Encoding, Spelling 
• Orthography
  • Correct spelling choices
  • Irregular or ‘tricky words’ 
  • Homophones 
• Morphology
  • Meaning of words or word parts
  • Prefixes, suffixes, basses 
• Etymology
  • History of the word 
• Semantics 
  • Meaning and interpreting words and sentences 

How does PhOrMeS work? 

Students participate in multiple PhOrMeS lessons a week, where teachers review previously taught material, before focusing on new content. Lessons are explicitly taught, with students participating orally, through whiteboard responses and pair-shares. Teachers are able to use these responses to continually Check for Understanding and make sure students are understanding the new material. Teachers have begun implementing PhOrMeS lessons over the past few weeks and have reported high levels of engagement and success from students already. We look forward to continuing to update our community on our PhOrMeS journey!