EDEE352

English in the Primary Years:

Focus on Teaching Early Reading

Assignment 1

STUDENT NAME: Deborah White

STUDENT NO: 220257982
 Christianne and Sean represent students who may be found in any typical Year 1 class -

with signi cantly di erent backgrounds in terms of exposure to language and literature,

and consequently very di erent levels of ability, and attitudes to learning to read. This

essay will identify their particular needs, and outline teaching approaches that aim to

capitalise on their individual strengths.

Christianne grasped the alphabetic principal very early on in her learning journey, having

learnt the alphabet before beginning school, showing an interest in writing words, and

being able to read simple readers aloud from the beginning of school (Hill, 2021).

Sean, by contrast, has struggled. This may have begun with his slow development of

verbal communication, suggesting a lack of phonemic awareness. Being able to

recognise a few high-frequency words after several months at school suggests that he

was recognising the whole word rather than individual letters, so it appears he is still not

making the connection between letters and their corresponding sounds (Hill, 2021). Cox

et al (2019) rightly points out that grasping this relationship is an essential step at the

beginning of a child’s literacy learning, so a focus on phonological awareness is a priority

for Sean in Year 1.

Sean has had limited exposure to literature in early childhood, being more in the habit of

watching television and drawing, than enjoying books. His oral language development at

preschool age was limited, speaking in short phrases and having di culty making himself

understood. Oral language and vocabulary knowledge are the essential foundation on

which reading skills are built - even with some decoding ability, students cannot

comprehend the meaning of a written word unless they possess that word in their oral

vocabulary (Hill, 2006; Such, 2021). Consequently, Sean made little headway in literacy

learning during his rst year of formal schooling (Hill, 2021).

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 There has been a longstanding trend in Australia for girls to outperform boys in

standardised literacy testing, and low socio-economic status seems to be the most

signi cant factor in boys’ lack of achievement (Alloway & Gilbert, 1997; Comber, 2004).

Gender and family circumstances are contributing factors to Sean’s lack of achievement

in literacy learning compared to Christianne.

Sean requires signi cant focus on systematic phonics instruction to build his decoding

ability, which appears to be negligible (Hill, 2021). In terms of Freebody & Luke’s (1990)

“four resources model”, Sean is still learning the role of code breaker. His behaviour at

school re ects the sort of “cascade of avoidance strategies” (Freebody & Luke, 1990) that

can result when students fail to master the alphabetic principle early in their schooling.

Sean’s mother seems very motivated to help her son learn, but may lack direction or

con dence in supporting his learning outside of school (Hill, 2021). Encouraging her to

consistently ensure Sean has access to age-appropriate books at home, does his home

reading, and has adults reading engaging texts aloud to him, would support his learning

at school. Verbal a rmation from his parents that he is making progress, would build

Sean’s con dence that he is capable of learning to read and write (Comber, 2004).

Comber (2004) suggests that introducing more “active and embodied” literacy practices

in the classroom may bene t boys. Combining this idea with subject matter that is

appealing to Sean - in particular cartoons, sound e ects and slapstick humour (Hill, 2021)

- may be e ective in engaging his interest, and giving him opportunity to succeed.

Sean is engaged and interested when the subjects of stories interest him (Hill, 2021), so

using a text in line with Sean’s interests, the class could be guided through a “Reader’s

Theatre” activity (Everett, 2022) that would provide an active, physical response to the

text and allow Sean to play to his strengths.

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Sean’s interest in cartoons and talent for cartooning could also be harnessed to motivate

him and give him a chance to excel. Given the task of creating his own cartoons, Sean

would likely be quite motivated and could be encouraged to add speech bubbles and

captions to his drawings, providing a multi-media literacy experience, focused on content

that interests him (Comber, 2004).

Christianne has been exposed to signi cantly more literature and language interaction

during her pre-school years than Sean (Hill, 2021). This resulted in her starting school

with a signi cant head-start on phonological knowledge compared to Sean, and being

highly motivated to improve her reading and writing skills.

However, Christianne’s progress in literacy skills during the rst year of school was mixed,

and by the end of Kindergarten she lacked con dence when reading even simple texts.

Christianne’s strength when reading is decoding, but relying too heavily on this strategy

makes comprehension of more complex texts di cult (Hill & Louden, 1999).

Christianne’s accuracy with decoding is already good, but she needs to build her

automaticity in order to improve her uency and comprehension. This can only be done

frequent practice, preferably both at school and at home. Plenty of practice with

decoding, coupled with repeated readings of familiar texts, will build automaticity (Such,

2021).

To focus on the NSW Syllabus Outcomes for Year 1 (NESA, 2023), oral language (EN1-

OLC-01) is a priority as the starting point for comprehending orthography (Hill, 2006;

Such, 2021). Christianne’s oral language is already well developed - she is con dent

conversing with adults and asking them for help (Hill, 2021). Sean, on the other hand,

lacked verbal communication skills when he commenced school. Year 1 students are

required to communicate e ectively in social and learning interactions (NESA, 2023), and
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 plenty of opportunity for developing these skills should be provided in the classroom.

Learning activities may include games that involve describing pictures, dramatising a

story that has been read to the class, thinking of rhyming words, and breaking familiar

words down into syllables (Hill, 2006).

Developing and using an increasing vocabulary is another Year 1 outcome (EN1-

VOCAB-01). Both Sean and Christianne would bene t from being exposed to Tier 2

vocabulary in read-aloud texts and class discussions (NSW Centre For E ective Reading,

n.d.), even if they are not yet capable of using them when composing texts. Whenever

interesting words appear in books being read aloud to the class, the teacher should

pause and explain the de nition.

For Christianne, a focus on word families and morphemic knowledge, and precise

subject-speci c vocabulary would provide opportunity to expand her vocabulary (NESA,

2023). This could be achieved through careful choice of texts for home readers and

guided reading.

Hill (2021) notes that Sean has a large vocabulary, but does not always use it. Given that

he responds well to one-on-one sessions with teachers with a sense of humour, Sean

may bene t from regular tuition using multi-modal texts and riddles that play on words, to

encourage use of his vocabulary.

Year 1 students’ phonic knowledge (EN1-PHOKW-01) is expected to develop to the point

of decoding words with trigraphs, quadraphs, vowel digraphs, multisyllabic words and

dipthongs (NESA, 2023). For Christianne, her established phonics knowledge should

enable her to progress con dently, following a standard phonics package such as InitiaLit

(MultiLit, 2023). Regular daily phonics practice as a whole class can bene t students of

varying abilities, by enabling more advanced students to develop uency, while at the
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 same time giving less capable students practice in basic letter-sound correspondence,

building familiarity with decoding and encoding simple words. Such programs also build

the spelling skills required in Year 1 (EN1-SPELL-01), and accompanying worksheets

support the Year 1 handwriting (EN1-HANDW-01) outcome, as well as consolidating

phonics learning.

Sean may require revision of content covered in Early Stage 1. Given his liking for videos,

watching online content such “Australian Phonics Song” (The Blueberry Classroom, 2019)

regularly at home could help build Sean’s knowledge of letter-sound correspondence.

Letter knowledge is the most fundamental skill in learning to read (Hill, 2006), and

becoming uent in recognising all the letters of the alphabet will greatly bene t Sean.

Literacy rotation groups are a common practice in Year 1, and provide opportunity to

di erentiate activities, with students grouped according to ability. Phonics activities using

onset and rime to create similar words, matching letters to initial sounds of pictures, and

word sorts looking for particular letters or digraphs within words are examples of activities

that might bene t Sean (Hill, 2006). Substituting nal blends, word bingo, and pattern

word sorts are examples of more challenging activities that might suit Christianne (Hill

2006).

Reading uency (EN1-REFLU-01) is an outcome where Christianne needs practice to

build her capacity (NESA, 2023). Reading aloud to parents and teachers will build

Christianne’s uency. Sean will not be able to develop uency until his decoding skills

have improved. One literacy rotation activity may involve guided reading with the teacher

- using basic decodable readers for Sean, and more challenging texts for Christianne.

For both students, building knowledge of automatically recognised sight words will assist

with developing uency (Hill, 2006).

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 Reading comprehension (EN1-RECOM-01) is an area that both Christianne and Sean are

capable of working towards in Year 1, albeit in di erent ways (NESA, 2023). As

Christianne’s uency develops, her comprehension of independently read texts will

improve. Sean’s comprehension at this stage will consist primarily of listening

comprehension, when the teacher reads aloud to the class. When reading aloud,

periodically pointing to each word will help embed students understanding of the ideas of

print orientation and printed words (Such, 2021). Asking Sean to orally recount ideas,

interpret patterns, predict, and make text-to-self connections will allow the teacher to

assess his comprehension of read-aloud texts (NESA, 2023). This will also equip Sean to

comprehend written texts as his decoding skills develop (Such, 2021).

For all students, development of reading comprehension is supported by the teacher

reading aloud a variety of genres (e.g. narrative, information, persuasive text), which each

generate di erent types of discussion and activities, and make di erent contributions to

the development of comprehension (Hill, 2006).

When creating written texts (EN1-CWT-01), Christianne and Sean will require signi cantly

di erent levels of support. Modelled writing (teacher “thinking aloud” while

demonstrating the process of writing) and shared writing (ideas being contributed by the

whole class while the teacher and more con dent writers scribe) are suitable for the whole

class to undertake together. Christianne could then undertake an independent writing

task, while Sean could work with the teacher on a guided writing activity, with small group

or individual instruction (Hill, 2006). For Sean, this may involve the teacher scribing his

ideas for him to copy.

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Creating written texts is an opportunity for meaningful practice of handwriting, and could

also incorporate the outcome of understanding and responding to literature (EN1-

UARL-01).

Christianne and Sean’s strengths and weaknesses are signi cantly di erent, however the

foregoing discussion demonstrates how the learning needs of a varied group of students

may be addressed in the same classroom, following a mainstream literacy program and

using learning activities di erentiated for their needs.

REFERENCES

Alloway, Nola & Gilbert, Pam (1997). Boys and Literacy: Lessons From Australia. Gender

and Education, 9(1), 49-60.

Comber, B. (2004). Three little boys and their literacy trajectories. Australian Journal of

Language and Literacy, 27(2), 114–127.

Everett, L. (2022). EDAE303—Creative Arts Key Learning Areas (Zoom Workshop 2:

Reader’s Theatre). University of New England.

Freebody, P & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural

context. Prospect: an Australian journal of TESOL, 5(3), pp. 7-16.

Hill, S. (2006). Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching. Eleanor Curtain

Publishing.

Hill, S. (2021). Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching (3rd ed). Eleanor

Curtain Publishing.
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Hill, S., & Louden, W. (1999). Literacy development in the rst year of schooling. ACER

Research Conference October 1999: Improving Literacy Learning, 1, 1–21.

MultiLit. (2023). InitiaLit. https://multilit.com/programs/initialit/

NSW Centre For E ective Reading. (n.d.). Vocabulary—Selecting Words to Teach. (n.d.).

Retrieved 1 August 2023, from https://cer.schools.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/doe/

sws/schools/c/cer/localcontent/selecting_words_ nal.pdf

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). (2023). English K–10 Syllabus. https://

curriculum.nsw.edu.au/learning-areas/english/english-k-10-2022

Such, C. (2021). The art and science of teaching primary reading. Sage.

The Blueberry Classroom. (2019). Australian Phonics Song. https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=8Q0VDDMFhvQ
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