Learning and Teaching

SPELLING (Years 1-6)

Over the last few years, we have been using Sound Waves resources to support our teaching of spelling. Sound Waves covers the Victorian Curriculum and aligns with current scientific evidence on how children best learn to spell and read. Our staff had a recent  professional development and as a result we are stopping the pre and post testing model and replacing it with explicit teaching of the sound of the week which is now considered best practice.

What will children learn in Sound Waves?

In Sound Waves, children are gradually taught a range of skills and strategies that promote a deeper understanding of words and how they work. 

At the core of Sound Waves, children learn about speech sounds (phonemes) and the different letters (graphemes) that represent these sounds in writing. For example, children learn that the same sound is used at the start of the words cat, king and chemist, but that the sound can be represented in different ways (c, k or ch). As part of this learning, children are also taught to break words into individual sounds (a prerequisite for spelling) and blend sounds together to form words (a prerequisite for reading). 

In addition, Sound Waves helps children understand the meaningful parts of words, such as prefixes, suffixes and roots. For example, they learn that the prefix ‘re’ means again in words such as replay, reheat and recycle. 

Upper primary students also learn about where words come from to help them understand and remember unusual or complex words. For example, they learn that the words architect and orchestra originate from Greek. 

This layered and comprehensive approach sets students up for spelling success.

How is teaching in Sound Waves organised?

For children to learn how to spell and read, they must be systematically taught sound–letter relationships. For example the words tea, bee, honey, taxi and sixty all end with the same sound, but the sound is represented using a different letter or letter combination in each word. 

The Sound Waves Spelling program covers the 43 sounds of Australian English in 36 units of work. Each unit is centred around one or two sounds referred to as ‘focus sounds’ or ‘focus phonemes’. In each unit, children are taught how to:

• articulate and identify the focus sound 

• show the focus sound in writing using single letters or combinations of letters 

• spell words with the focus sound 

• read words with the focus sound. 

This way of learning to spell may differ from how you were taught at school. However, this approach (also known as synthetic phonics) is backed by research and has a proven track record in helping students achieve a higher level of success in both reading and spelling compared to other methods.

Teachers undergo in-depth professional development to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills they need to explicitly teach spelling using this method, and to do so in a way that’s easy for children to understand.

Did you know? 

We put speech sounds together to produce speech. Australian English is produced using 43 speech sounds. English uses the 26 letters of the alphabet to represent 43 sounds in spoken language. This mismatch between letters and sounds means sometimes more than one letter represents a sound. For example, the sh in ship and the igh in high are examples of more than one letter representing just one sound.

How can you support learning at home with Sound Waves Spelling? 

While there are many ways to support your child’s learning at home, here are two of the most useful strategies: 

1. Find out what the focus sound is for the week 

Each week your child will focus on one or two of the 43 sounds of Australian English known as ‘focus sounds’. 

Once you know which sound your child is learning each week, you can look for opportunities to identify words containing that sound. If you have multiple children across Years 1 to 6, they’ll be working on the same focus sound each week. 

2. Read, talk and listen 

Reading and spelling go hand-in-hand. Reading stories with your child helps them to learn about books, words and texts before formal instruction. It fosters language development and vocabulary, which contributes to the ease and efficiency of reading and spelling in the future. It is also fun and enjoyable, transporting them to different worlds and places to hear stories from different people. 

SPELLING IN PREP (FOUNDATION)

What will children learn in Sound Waves Spelling? 

Sound Waves Spelling Foundation has two phases of teaching that run across the year. Children build their knowledge and learn different skills in each phase.

Phase 1 

In Phase 1, children are introduced to the 43 sounds of spoken English. They participate in a whole-class lesson on the sound, followed by lots of fun sound-based games and activities throughout the day. 

This phase focuses on establishing children’s ability to work with sounds in the English language.

You can support your child’s progress throughout this phase by asking them to teach you the catchy little Chant and Action for each new sound they learn.

Phase 2 

In Phase 2, students learn how to represent the 43 sounds of spoken English using the letters of the alphabet. 

Each day, they participate in a whole-class lesson where their teacher models forming letters, and spelling and reading words. 

These lessons are followed by fun hands-on activities in which children practise their new spelling and reading skills. 

Lessons in this phase are taught in a very specific order to minimise confusion for students. At first, students learn to use a single letter for one sound. For example, they learn to read and spell words like top, pin and hen. After that, students learn that some sounds are represented by two letters. For example, they learn to read and spell words like ring, fish and moth. They also learn that some sounds can be represented in different ways. For example, they learn that the sound we hear at the end of bee, can be shown in writing using ea as in beach or ee as in keen. 

This order of teaching ensures students are ‘up and running’ with the essentials of reading and spelling by the end of their first year. 

You can support your child’s progress throughout this phase by listening to them read and reading stories with them. 

Mrs Margie Maher

Learning and Teaching Leader