2024 Changes- How is PLD's implementation (and manuals) changing for the 2024 school year?
Evidence-based teaching is now the norm within Australian schools. For our education standards to meet national and international benchmarks, schools need to invest in programs that are supported by research.
Changes and upgrades scheduled for 2024 (but being released now)
The PLD staff have reviewed SSP phonic progressions and SSP research in conjunction with the midyear Phonic requirements for WA Ed Dept schools and also the NSW curriculum.
Following this, we have made some changes to the Teaching Sequence Manuals and Screening & Tracking assessment tools.
Changes to Foundation
* Change 1: Removal of Onset and Rime Blending. from Foundation Tier 1, the Teaching Sequence Manual and Screening.
Why? Onset & Rime is incompatible with SSP theory (but still utilised in linguistic theory frameworks)
If students are slow to acquire 3 phonemes blending, then schools may find for these Tier 2 and 3 students the teaching of onset and rime blending is appropropriate.
* Change 2: The presentation of CVC single word reading and spelling within Term 1, alongside pre-CVC teaching.
Why? Research shows that phonological awareness skills should be taught in conjunction with phonics, rather than in isolation. Therefore, adult assisted CVC single word tasks have been introduced in addition to pre-CVC skill teaching (i.e. the alphabet sounds and blending and segmentation).
Term 2 Foundation still works on CVC single word reading and spelling, but also sentence level reading and phonic dictation.
*Change 3: Clarification of and a more defined 3-days-a-week focus on dictation from Term 2.
Why? A downside of Foundation implementation, in our view, is that dictation has not been worked on enough which then means students are not coming into Year 1 strong transference to writing skills.
Change 4: What is Coming? * We are working on releasing an improved lesson format for Foundation in the coming months.
Stage 1: Target 1, 2 and 3 should be completed by the conclusion of Foundation for Tier 1 students.
Other than the above changes, the Foundation outline had not changed at all, just the layout to make it clearer.
Changes to Year 1
Why? Given that Foundation has basically progressed three quarters through Stage 1, Year 1 then needs to move well through Stage 2. Also The Phonics Check (now administered through NSW, SA, TAS & Vic in Term 3 of Year 1) outlines that students need to secure a score of 28. This means that further phonic concepts need to be taught.
Is PLD available to discuss these changes? At this stage no.
PLD staff are busy updating the Teaching Sequence Manuals and the associated implementation materials.
The PD seminars and online courses are scheduled for filming ready for the new school year.
Email newsletters will also be released late in the school year. By the commencement of the 2024 school year, statements and information will be released.
Make sure your staff are registered for e-newsletters HERE.
PLD is continually evolving to ensure we are aligned to current research and national educational standards and, as such, we have begun to implement some changes in preparation for 2024.
Changes and upgrades scheduled for 2024 (but being released now)
The PLD staff have reviewed SSP phonic progressions and SSP research in conjunction with the midyear Phonic requirements for WA Ed Dept schools and also the NSW curriculum.
Following this, we have made some changes to the Teaching Sequence Manuals and Screening & Tracking assessment tools.
It is recommended that schools download the 2024 versions of the manuals (available on the PLD Website) in preparation for next year.
Changes to Foundation
* Change 1: Removal of Onset and Rime Blending. from Foundation Tier 1, the Teaching Sequence Manual and Screening.
Why? Onset & Rime is incompatible with SSP theory (but still utilised in linguistic theory frameworks)
If students are slow to acquire 3 phonemes blending, then schools may find for these Tier 2 and 3 students the teaching of onset and rime blending is appropropriate.
* Change 2: The presentation of CVC single word reading and spelling within Term 1, alongside pre-CVC teaching.
Why? Research shows that phonological awareness skills should be taught in conjunction with phonics, rather than in isolation. Therefore, adult assisted CVC single word tasks have been introduced in addition to pre-CVC skill teaching (i.e. the alphabet sounds and blending and segmentation).
Term 2 Foundation still works on CVC single word reading and spelling, but also sentence level reading and phonic dictation.
*Change 3: Clarification of and a more defined 3-days-a-week focus on dictation from Term 2.
Why? A downside of Foundation implementation, in our view, is that dictation has not been worked on enough which then means students are not coming into Year 1 strong transference to writing skills.
Change 4: What is Coming? * We are working on releasing an improved lesson format for Foundation in the coming months.
What is the same?
Stage 1: Target 1, 2 and 3 should be completed by the conclusion of Foundation for Tier 1 students.
Other than the above changes, the Foundation outline had not changed at all, just the layout to make it clearer.
Changes to Year 1
Change 1: Teaching Sequence Manual introduces more Stage 2 concepts.
Why? Given that Foundation has basically progressed three quarters through Stage 1, Year 1 then needs to move well through Stage 2. Also The Phonics Check (now administered through NSW, SA, TAS & Vic in Term 3 of Year 1) outlines that students need to secure a score of 28. This means that further phonic concepts need to be taught.
Is PLD available to discuss these changes? At this stage no.
PLD staff are busy updating the Teaching Sequence Manuals and the associated implementation materials.
The PD seminars and online courses are scheduled for filming ready for the new school year.
Email newsletters will also be released late in the school year. By the commencement of the 2024 school year, statements and information will be released.
Make sure your staff are registered for e-newsletters HERE.
Updated on: 25/08/2023
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