Structured Literacy 

The skills…

Phonological Awareness - the ability to recognise and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. Examples include being able to identify words that rhyme, recognising alliteration (eg. Dan dived into the dam), segmenting a sentence into words, identifying the syllables within a word (eg. all-i-ga-tor), and blending and segmenting onset-rimes (eg. r-an, f-an, m-an, D-an).

Alphabetic principle - connecting letter sounds with their symbols (letters) so you can read and write.

Syllable types - closed (eg. bet), open (eg. be), magic e (eg. hope), vowel teams (eg. oa, ea, ie), r-controlled (eg. far), diphthongs (eg. team) and consonant le (eg. table). 

Morphology - the knowledge of meaningful word parts in language eg. unreadable - eg. un (not) read (root) able (can be done).

For our youngest learners we teach reading and spelling through Yolanda Soryl Phonics & Little Learners Love Literacy scope and sequence (Stages 1-7.5). This focuses mostly on phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle (see The Building Blocks of Reading Success).  Once students complete this stage and begin to focus more on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension in reading, spelling skills and word knowledge are taught through Liz Kane's ‘The Code’.

Historically, Hukanui has always demonstrated strength in the teaching of literacy. We continue to build on this strength through understanding the science of reading and how structured literacy supports that science. We aim to get all children reading, writing and spelling with confidence by using this research-based approach.