Word Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From Level 1
Indicators of Progress
- Students combine letter sound knowledge for reading simple, regular, one-syllable, 2–4 letter words with short vowels in various ways. For example, pin, egg, hop, either: (1) by recoding each letter to its matching sound and then blending the sounds; or (2) by selecting one or more first letters and quickly guessing the word.
- Students match written words with familiar objects and people for a greater range of familiar contexts. For example, they match written names with items in the classroom and show an awareness that a written word can name an object.
- Students continue to build a sight or reading vocabulary. For example, they can read I, here, me, am, with, car, children, not, and, to, will, look, he, up, in, big, go, come, for, you, at, went, get, they, boys. They are less likely to misread frequent words that share one or more letters.
- Students recognise and read words and phrases that are repeated in the text.
- Students combine a knowledge of context (meaning, sentence structure and letters) to read or predict words. For example, they use the context and the initial sounds of a word to predict it when reading aloud. For example, they predict ‘house’ in Sam ran into the house.
Teaching Strategies
During Reading: Tuning in to the text
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is The Best Pizza in the World by Jenny Feely, published by Horwitz Martin Education of Australia.
Completing sentences about the text
Some of the key words are written on the whiteboard and /or on cards and students read them. They can select the words that finish each sentence. For example:
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Luke |
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went |
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He |
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went |
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with |
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his |
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Some of the word cards are arranged into incomplete sentences and students read them silently and suggest or select the missing word.
After Reading: Consolidate and review the text
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is The Best Pizza in the World by Jenny Feely, published by Horwitz Martin Education of Australia.
Reviewing vocabulary
The students review key vocabulary, the new word meanings they learnt and suggest synonyms for them.