Structured Literacy

13 February 2025

Kia ora Parents/caregivers & whānau

Structured Literacy at Broadlands School 

From 2024, Broadlands School began following a Structured Literacy approach to teaching early (foundational) literacy skills up to Year 3. This page aims to give you more information about Structured Literacy and the Decodable texts we use to teach reading.

 

What can you expect from a Structured Literacy Approach?

We are excited to be helping children learn to read using a fun, engaging and evidence-based programme.  We teach using the Little Learners Love Literacy decodable books and resources. These are structured and explicit programmes with multisensory activities to reinforce learning.

The programme is carefully sequenced in seven stages to teach children the 44 sounds of the English Language and the principles of the alphabetic code (that each speech sound can be represented by different groups of letters, such as the long vowel sound /i/ as in I, sky, pie, ice, cycle and that a letter (or group of letters) can represent different sounds, such as the letter ‘y’ in yes, gym, funny and sky.

We start by teaching the simple code in Stages 1-4. We focus on phonics (matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters) and phonemic awareness (helping the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds) to build the strongest foundations for reading and spelling success. We also focus on building vocabulary and oral language skills to develop equally strong foundations for comprehension and writing.

 

What are Decodable Books?

Therearegenerally two types of levelled books given to beginner readers – decodable (books that require children to read words by sounding out, using lettersand soundsthat they have been taught) and predictable (repetitive texts that encourage children to look at the picture, use their knowledge of high-frequency words and other strategies to ‘read’ the text).

The books we use are decodable books that are carefully written to follow our teaching sequence. Children experience success right from the start by sounding out and blending the words in the books using the sounds and letters they have learnt so far. Generally speaking, the Structured Literacy approach, using decodable texts, is only needed until the middle to the end of Year 3. 

However, as we know, all children progress at different rates and some children may complete the stages earlier or later than others. 

We use the Little Learners Love Literacy Scope and Sequence at Broadlands School. This consists of the sounds we teach, and the order we teach them. Children who are learning the alphabetic code (predominantly the first two years at school) are learning to be able to hear, decode (read), encode (write) and blend these sounds at letter, word and sentence level. A rich oral language environment is important for the approach to be effective and for students to thrive. 

 

What are Heart Words?

In the Little Learners decodable books, there are a few high-frequency words that children can not decode yet. We call these ‘Heart Words’ because children need to learn them by heart to read them. Many Heart words become decodable later in the programme when children have more knowledge of the alphabetic code. A few Heart words will not become decodable – they are irregular or use uncommon phoneme-grapheme correspondences. 

 

Why do we teach Heart words?

Heart words are a combination of high-frequency words that are needed to create a story. At Stages 1 and 2, the Heart words ‘the’ and ‘I’ allow children to read and write whole sentences and stories.

 

The Code

Children who are learning the Extended Alphabetic Code (predominantly from Year 3 to the end of Year 8) are learning to be able to hear, decode (read), encode (write) and blend these sounds at letter, word and sentence level.

Here, you will see a shift to ‘Spelling’ as a focus instead of a ‘Reading’ focus. You will see a variety of different spelling patterns that make the same sound, morphology (how words are formed and their relationship to other words), and syllable patterns. We use a programme called ‘The Code’ to teach these things.

 

How can you support your child at home?

Reading to your Child

Read many books to your children and talk about what you have just read. This is crucial for building vocabulary and comprehension skills. Choosing a quiet time, such as bedtime, can build an easy and fun reading routine.

Oral Language

Oral language is the most important gift we can give our children. Help children to understand their world by talking about what they see, feel and do. Share experiences with children by having rich discussions to further develop vocabulary and continually extend oral language. All of this will support the reading and writing process. 

 

Play with sounds

Home learning may include saying sounds, blending sounds to read words and breaking words into individual sounds to accurately write words and or sentences. These activities support the development of phonemic awareness. 

At this stage we are unable to send decodable books home as we have limited numbers of each text, and they are costly to replace. However, we may photocopy these texts to send home for you to read with your child OR we may also send home a text (unseen) that can also be read with/to your child. This provides children with ‘reading mileage’ and develops reading for pleasure.

Remember that this is the beginning of your child’s learning-to-read journey and, just as when they were learning to walk, your child will need support to build confidence. 

 

Want to know more?

If you would like more information about our Structured Literacy programme you can ask your child’s teacher for more information or email/talk to Kylie.

 

Teachers’ Professional Learning

Through this process, the teaching staff have been involved in professional development with the support of Kirsty Tatere from Liz Kane Literacy. Below are some links which will  help you further understand the ‘science of reading’ and Structured Literacy.

 

The Science of Reading: Evidence for a New Era of Reading Instruction by Laura Stewart

 

Building a Strong Foundation for Learning to Read by Kathy Barclay

 

Building the Reading Brain by Kathy Barclay and Laura Stewart

 

Ngā mihi nui.   

 

Kylie Parkes

Literacy Lead Teacher

kylie@broadlands.school.nz