1. Sacred Heart
Spelling Workshop
Phonemic Awareness
Program
22nd March 2012

2. Why?
 NAPLAN results – Whole school
approach needed
 Feedback and observations from
Emma and Cassie – referrals
 Observations and concerns from upper
primary teachers

3. Background information about
spelling
 Importance of Oral Language
development in pre school years
 “Reading and writing float on a sea of
talk” James Britton
 Spelling is a strategy for writing
 When we spell we draw on our
knowledge of phonics and phonemic
awareness

4. Phonics:
 Refers to the relationships between letters
and sounds, or between letter patterns and
sound patterns (Emmitt & Hornsby, 1996).
Phonemic Awareness:
 Relates specifically to the working
knowledge of the individual phonemes that
form the words of Australian English.
 Incorporates the ability to segment words
into their component sounds.

5. Strategies used to spell
 Sound out the phonemes
 Memorisation
 Looks right
 Sounds right – as it articulates
 Syllables
 Analogy
 Mnemonics
 Rule or pattern
 Context
 Etymology- origin of words
 Dictionary/ thesaurus/ resource /ask a friend

6. Spelling Knowledge
Strategies
Phonemic- segmenting sounds / Visual – how words look
articulating
Morphemic – meaning Etymological – origin of
based words

7. Sound Waves
 Uses a sound to letter strategy –
acknowledges sounds can be represented in
different ways
Example – f, ff, ph
 Firstly focus on the basic units of sound and
then the letters that represent them
 Segmenting for writing – s/o/ck/s
 Blending for reading

8. Sound Waves
 The idea is that children will be better
equipped to ‘have a go’ at spelling because
they will be aware of the many different
options for each sound as presented on the
Sound Waves charts.
 Kindergarten - Jolly Phonics Program which
teaches the most common sounds and options
before beginning Sound Waves in Year 1

9. How we use Sound Waves
 Whole school scope and sequence –
focus sound of the week
 Lessons over the week
• Introduce sound and brainstorm
• Singing/chant
• Large posters with sounds and options – reading
and writing
• Segmenting list words – word strips
Year 1 Blog - http://year1od.blogspot.com.au/
Year 5 online - ....Yr 5Year 5Yr 5
2012LiteracyLiteracySpellingUnit 8 'f ff ph'list words
segmenting.pdf

10. How we use Sound Waves
• Sound Waves Online
http://tlc.fireflyeducation.com.au/program/soundwaves5/units
• Flipchart activities
..Spelling Flipcharts 2012Year 1Spelling Unit 8 f ff.flipchart
..Spelling Flipcharts 2012Year 5Year 5 Unit 8 'f' fish.flp
• Other spelling strategies and grammar activities
• prefixes, suffixes, root words, word beginnings
and endings, rhyme, word families, tense
• Student workbook - homework
• Extension words and challenge activities
• Review and discuss
 Have a go at spelling your name!

11. Learning Support
 Children are supported in small groups with similar
needs (6 max)
 Focus on the most commonly used sounds for
longer to ensure these are secure
 Multi sensory activities
 Links with real reading and writing activities
 Good communication with home so skills can be
practised
 Referral to specialist therapist if problems persist eg
Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist