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ARTICULATION ORAL LANGUAGE VOCABULARY PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING
We perceive and break up sentences intowords, words into syllables and syllablesinto sounds. This includes:• Segmenting words into “syllables”or “beats” e.g. cat-er-pill-ar,aer-o-plane• Segmenting syllables intophonemes e.g. m-a-t,c-a-tch, c-l-a-p• Familiarity with rhymeand recognisingsyllable endings e.g.sit-fit-pit. We need to understand the“Alphabetic principle”.English speech sounds(phonemes) are representedby one or more letters(graphemes). When we spellwe choose the most likelyrepresentation.e.g. the /k/ sound issometimes spelledwith a ‘c’ (e.g. cat),the /o/ soundis sometimesspelled ‘oa’(e.g. boat). We learn rules about :• Acceptable letter combinations andsequences (e. g. we never use ‘ih g’ or ‘hc’ to gether)• Positional Constraints – the position of a sound in a word relates to the spelling pattern(e.g. words never start with ‘ck’ or ‘ss’;’gh’ represents the /f/ sound at the end of a word only after ‘ou’ and ‘au’ as in ‘rough’and ‘laugh’). We write (and read) words asa combination of meaningful parts(morphemes). These include:• Prefixes/Suffixes/Base Words• Grammatical function – addinflectional suffixes to changetense, degree, number (e.g.skipped, slow ly, ponies ) or add derivational suffixes to change part of speech (e.g. description/descriptive)• Semantic function – add prefix to change meaning (e.g. unhappy, disprove). Word meaning and origin impacts on spe lling choices.• Base words – many words are built up from a base word (particularly Latin and Greek)e.g. script/descriptive/description (L),photosynthesis, thermometer (G),• Word meaning – necessary to spellhomophones (e. g. their/there/they’re)• Word meaning often informs spelling,regardless of pronunciation(e.g. musician). We problem solve or use memory ‘tricks’ to remember irregular words and complex patterns.These include:• Over-articulation to inform orthographic choices (e.g. Wed/nes/day; iSland)• Word Families, including letterpatterns in common (e.g. question words:when, who, what, why; words with links in meaning: two, twin, twice) and commonmonorthographic patterns (e.g. “Bears Eat Apples Under Trees: for ‘ beautiful’)• Does it look right? (e.g. frend/friend;teech/teach). Phonological Awareness Skills Phonics Spelling Conventions + Patterns Metacognitive + Memory Skills Syntax + Morphology Semantic Knowledge and Etymology
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Students use one or more of these strategies at any one time. Beginning spellers rely on phonological awareness skills and phonic knowledge as the most important strategies for spelling.

Slide to see skills used at different ages
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Age:

Year:

Kindy Pre-primary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Adult
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