Purpose: decide what to teach next after Days 11–20. This is a local formative sample, not a standardised test, diagnosis, whole-year Foundation judgment or comparison between children. Proposed ACARA v9 Foundation English links: AC9EFLE02, AC9EFLY05, AC9EFLY09, AC9EFLY10, AC9EFLY11, AC9EFLY12, AC9EFLY13, AC9EFLY06, AC9EFLA09. Human educator review is pending.
A feasible collection plan
Collect the adult-read story and sentence-making evidence with the class in the 25-minute Day 20 lesson. Letter, oral-sound and unseen-word evidence needs a private response without copying peers. Schedule roughly five learners per day for a 5–6-minute check during the ordinary independent-work period on Days 16–20; use another school-approved time if that period is not available. This individual check is in addition to, rather than magically contained within, the 25-minute whole-class mini-lesson. If the schedule slips, record “not yet observed” and finish on another day rather than inventing a score.
Read directions aloud. Say an item once, repeat the same direction on request, and note the repeat. Do not provide a content hint during the first attempt. After recording, give feedback and a new practice attempt labelled after teaching. Record the route used: speech, AAC, pointing, movable letters, tactile letters, typing or writing. Do not score fine-motor access as sound–letter knowledge. If hearing or speech access changes what a sound task can show, co-plan interpretation with the learner, family and relevant specialist.
Exact prompts and answer notes
A · Listening, meaning and response
Read The Missing Brush twice with the print hidden. Ask:
- “Who looked for the brush?” June and Eli (a clear reference to both is acceptable).
- “What was missing?” The wide paintbrush.
- “Where was it, and what did they do next?” Behind the water tray; they rinsed it and started painting (either sensible next action from the text is acceptable).
Offer three blank event boxes or classroom props without giving the answer. Speech, AAC, drawing, acting and pointing to the learner's own sequence are valid meaning routes. Record whether an adult supplied answer choices or cues.
B · Spoken sound awareness, with all print hidden
- “Which rhymes with log: fog or sit?” Expected fog.
- “How many beats in garden?” Expected two; accept two taps or counters.
- “Say the sounds in fit, in order.” Expected /f/ /ɪ/ /t/.
- “Put these sounds together: /l/ /æ/ /p/.” Expected lap.
- “Say cat. Change the first sound /k/ to /ɹ/. What new word?” Expected rat.
Use a locally clear pronunciation. If an accent or access route makes an item ambiguous, annotate and repeat with a documented equivalent; do not silently change the item or call a communication barrier an error.
C · Taught letter–sound links
Shuffle the 15 lower-case cards m, a, s, t, p, i, n, c, e, r, d, o, g, l, f. Show one at a time. Ask: “What common sound did we practise for this letter?” Expected, respectively, /m/, /æ/, /s/, /t/, /p/, /ɪ/, /n/, /k/ in our ca/co words, /ɛ/, /ɹ/, /d/, /ɒ/, /g/ in this set, /l/, /f/. Note any consonant response with an added “uh” and reteach a clean sound later. Letter names and capital C/D can be observed separately; do not add them to this 15-link score.
D · Transfer to unseen printed CVC words
Show rod, den, cog, lip, fig, one at a time, without a picture. These exact printed words do not appear on the lesson word cards. Every grapheme and sound value was taught, including c → /k/ before o in cog and g → /g/ at the end. Ask: “Touch each letter, say or select its sound, then slide the sounds together.” Note whether the learner sounded through, guessed, self-corrected or needed a content cue. Give a meaning explanation after the attempt if a word is unfamiliar; meaning is not this item's decoding score.
For a learner still using two-sound blends, record a separate supported am observation. It is useful planning evidence but does not count as an independent CVC result.
E · Encoding from speech, with printed words hidden
Dictate cat, red, fog one at a time: “The word is ____. Say its sounds. Put down or write one letter for each sound. Read what you made.” Repeat the whole word once on request. Accept tiles, tactile symbols, accessible typing or pencil. Record the exact sequence, prompt level and whether the learner reread it. These words use only taught correspondences.
F · Short created sentence and print check
Provide the taught word tiles Cam / Sam / Tom / Pat / met / ran / sat / let / felt / sad / .. Ask: “Make a sentence that tells an idea. Read or explain it to me. Show where it starts and stops.” Examples of valid child-made sentences are Sam ran. and Cam met Tom. Do not give an example until after the independent attempt. A teacher-scribed idea in unrestricted vocabulary is recorded separately as creative oral language. Record whether the learner composed a meaningful word order, used a capital name and a full stop, and independently decoded their own sentence.
Analytic rubric
Use each domain separately. Do not add a total score or make a pass/fail line. “Independent” means after the standard direction and any non-content access support, without a hint about the answer. Keep prompted and adult-read evidence in the record.
| Domain | 0 · Not yet observed | 1 · Emerging | 2 · Developing | 3 · Secure in this small sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Story meaning | No usable response through the available route. | One of three elements identified with options or a content prompt. | Two of three elements independent; another needs a prompt. | People, missing object and location/next action communicated independently in a coherent response or sequence. |
| B. Spoken sound awareness | 0 correct of five independent. | 1–2 of five independent. | 3–4 of five independent. | All five independent. |
| C. Letter–sound links | 0–5 of 15 independent. | 6–10 of 15 independent. | 11–14 of 15 independent. | All 15 independent in this sample. |
| D. Unseen CVC decoding | 0 of five words independently sounded and blended. | 1–2 of five independent. | 3–4 of five independent. | All five independent, with self-correction noted. |
| E. CVC encoding | 0 of three sound–letter sequences correct independent. | 1 of three correct independent. | 2 of three correct independent. | All three correct independent; rereads at least one made word. |
| F. Created sentence | No meaningful sentence demonstrated through the available route. | Makes a meaningful sentence only after an adult model or content hint. | Makes a meaningful sentence independently, with a prompt to add a capital/stop or check word order. | Makes and explains a meaningful sentence independently, with appropriate capital name/start and full stop. |
Local individual record
Learner code: __ Date(s): _ Teacher:
Response route / access supports: ______
Adult-read story: The Missing Brush (original; print hidden)
| Evidence | Exact response or marked items | Independent, repeated direction, or content prompt? |
|---|---|---|
| A1 people; A2 missing object; A3 location/action | ||
| B1 rhyme; B2 syllables; B3 segment; B4 blend; B5 change first sound | ||
| C 15 lower-case sound cards | ||
| D rod / den / cog / lip / fig | ||
| E cat / red / fog | ||
| F learner-made sentence; capital; full stop |
Domain levels A–F: __ / _ / / / /
One exact strength shown: ______
Next teaching move and planned recheck: ______
Access or source question needing human review: _____
Act on the pattern
| Observed pattern | Next teaching move |
|---|---|
| Story meaning not clear, but sound/print work accessible | Check the communication route; reread an original oral story and explicitly model people → problem → solution with props, then fade prompts. |
| Spoken sound items weaker than card recognition | Work with counters and mouth/sound models on two then three phonemes; blend orally before adding print. |
| Earlier m a s t p i n links uncertain | Revisit the first-fortnight set; keep independent word cards inside the secure set rather than pushing all eight new letters. |
| New vowel e/o confused with a/i | Teach one contrast at a time with clear spoken words and a one-letter switch; recheck an unseen regular word. |
| c/g values uncertain | Model /k/ in ca/co and /g/ in the taught g set; use concrete words such as cat, cot, gap, dog, then test fresh words. Avoid claiming the full English spelling pattern is mastered. |
| Letter sounds secure but unseen words guessed | Model touch–say–sweep left to right, cover pictures, and retry with an unseen CVC word. |
| Decoding stronger than encoding or sentence-making | Segment a word with counters, replace with letters, reread; then build a meaningful short sentence with a name, action and stop mark. |
| All samples secure | Add new regular CVC combinations and a new original teacher-read text; plan explicit instruction before consonant clusters, irregular high-frequency words or new vowel values. Do not assume the whole Foundation standard is complete. |
The official framework source is the ACARA v9 workbook. The check–respond teaching cycle is informed by AERO Monitor progress. Mappings and assessment design remain pending human review for local classroom use.