Use: combine fresh Day 50 evidence with at least two dated portfolio samples: one child-made information page from Day 44/45 and one Day 47/49 story or edited sentence. This is a formative end-of-term teaching decision, not a standardised test, diagnosis, report-card grade or claim that the whole Foundation achievement standard is met. Proposed ACARA v9 Foundation links: AC9EFLA09, AC9EFLE05, AC9EFLY01, AC9EFLY03, AC9EFLY04, AC9EFLY05, AC9EFLY06, AC9EFLY07, AC9EFLY09, AC9EFLY10, AC9EFLY11, AC9EFLY12, AC9EFLY13, AC9EFLY14. Human educator, local curriculum and accessibility review remain pending.
Administration and fairness
The 25-minute Day 50 class lesson collects new listening, meaning, spelling and reflection evidence. Schedule a private cumulative print-link and unseen-word check during ordinary independent-work periods across Days 46–50, about 7 minutes per learner. Five learners a day require roughly 35 additional minutes daily for a class of about 25; extend the window if that cannot be protected. Do not claim all children were individually heard during the five-minute class reading block. A missed or inaccessible check is not observed, not zero.
Read directions aloud. Repeat the same direction once on request and note the repeat. Record the first independent attempt before an answer hint, then teach and retry separately. Offer large/tactile print, movable/digital letters, a quiet setting, speech, AAC, pointing, typing, drawing or handwriting as appropriate; note the exact route. If hearing or speech access changes a phoneme task, plan its interpretation with the learner, family and relevant specialist. A decoded word, a teacher-read fact and an adult-scribed sentence are different forms of evidence. Keep identifiable samples in the school's approved local system.
Fresh texts and exact prompts
A · Teacher-read information and fiction pair
Keep print hidden. Read each original text twice.
Short report: “At the making table, an adult placed three small wooden cubes in a paper box. The box sat on a mat. The adult lifted one side of the box, and the cubes fell onto the mat. The adult counted three cubes again.”
Short imagined story: “That night, the paper box dreamed it was a bus. The three cubes became passengers going to the moon. The box waved to the stars and promised to bring them home.”
The report is an original fictional account of a possible observation, not an observation actually made by this class. The second passage is openly imaginary. Ask:
- “Which passage tells a test or observation someone could check?” Expected the short report. Accept a clear pointer plus explanation.
- “What happened to the three cubes when the adult lifted one side?” Expected they fell onto the mat.
- “Which passage has an impossible imagined event?” Expected the box dreamed/was a bus/waved, with a clear example.
- “If we wanted to say the box in our room did the same thing, what would we need?” Expected try a safe test or observe it, not merely copy the teacher-read passage or picture.
No child handles a heavy or sharp object for this assessment. Blank counters/cards can support retell without giving the answer.
B · Oral sound awareness; all print hidden
- “Which rhymes with box: fox or fish?” Expected fox.
- “How many beats in paper?” Expected two syllables, shown by voice, taps, objects or an agreed response route.
- “Say the sounds in brush, in order.” Expected /b/ /r/ /ʌ/ /ʃ/; sh is one phoneme.
- “Put /tʃ/ /ɛ/ /s/ /t/ together.” Expected chest.
- “Say fish. Change its first sound /f/ to /d/. What word?” Expected dish.
Use a locally clear pronunciation. If a spoken response route is not valid, mark the inaccessible item not observed and plan an equivalent; do not infer a deficit.
C · Taught print links and the two new small words
Show a as a separate little word in a bag and ask for the word. Show is alone and in A hat is in a box. Expected careful a /ə/ and is /ɪz/. Ask once where a has /æ/ inside bag and where it is the whole unstressed word. Do not require a child to say the letter name as a reading answer. The sentence is new in this pack but uses taught values; record whether each word and the whole sentence were independently read.
Separately shuffle the 25 taught lower-case single-letter links m, a, s, t, p, i, n, c, e, r, d, o, g, l, f, b, u, h, k, v, w, j, z, y, x and the two taught teams sh, ch. Ask for the value practised in the controlled set. For final x, expect /k/ then /s/; for sh/ch, one phoneme each. Record the actual response and a count out of 27 as continuity information, not a pass criterion. q/qu, standalone I /aɪ/, alternative values of y/ch, and all other untaught patterns are excluded. Capital recognition and school handwriting can be observed separately, not hidden inside this score.
D · Five unseen printed transfer words
Present tax, mend, brush, chest, nest separately, without pictures. These exact printed words have not appeared on the child-reading lesson cards. Ask “Touch each letter or team, say the practised sound or sounds, and blend.” Explain an unfamiliar meaning after the attempt.
| Word | Sound path | Meaning after blend |
|---|---|---|
| tax | /t/ /æ/ /k/ /s/ | Money collected for public services; one x prints the last two sounds. |
| mend | /m/ /ɛ/ /n/ /d/ | Repair something. |
| brush | /b/ /r/ /ʌ/ /ʃ/ | A tool, or the action of using it; sh is one sound. |
| chest | /tʃ/ /ɛ/ /s/ /t/ | Part of the body, or a storage box; ch is one sound. |
| nest | /n/ /ɛ/ /s/ /t/ | A place an animal builds or uses for eggs/young; do not suggest all nests look alike. |
The five words sample transfer to known values and adjacent consonants; they do not cover every spelling in English. Record sounding through, guessing, self-correction and content hints.
E · Four exact dictations
Keep print hidden. Dictate in these contexts, then say the target word once more without segmenting it for the learner:
- “One hat: a hat. Write the little word a.” Expected a; the article is /ə/, distinct from the letter name.
- “The box is on a mat. Write is.” Expected i s, with s /z/ in this word.
- “The word is fish. Write fish.” Expected f i sh, three phonemes and four letters.
- “The word is pond. Write pond.” Expected p o n d, four phonemes and four letters.
Allow tiles, tactile letters, accessible typing or pencil. Ask the learner to reread at least one made word. Record exact sequences and support; do not count adult-spelled letters as independent encoding.
F · Portfolio creation, retell and revision
Look at a dated information page and a dated controlled story/edited sentence. Ask:
- “Read or show one line you made. Was its fact checked by looking/testing or by an adult-read source? Point to the evidence note.” For a box page, verify the actual setup; for the fish page, distinguish museum background from the invented drawing.
- “Retell the Kit/Jem short story or show its three printed events. What did you change in your version?” Accept voice, AAC, ordered objects, drawing or a verified home-language interpretation; note which details came only from the adult story.
- Show unedited sam got a box. Ask the learner to fix the capital and full stop, then read Sam got a box. Record whether both changes were independent.
- “What can you read or explain now that was harder at the start? What is one exact sound, word or page skill to practise next?” Compare with a dated earlier sample; do not invent a baseline.
If a required dated page is absent, gather one in a later teaching session and mark the portfolio domain not observed until it exists. Do not reconstruct a child's work from memory.
Analytic rubric
Mark domains separately; do not sum levels or set a pass line. “Independent” means after the standard direction and non-content access route, without an answer hint. Zero is reserved for a completed accessible check with no independent evidence; not observed means it was missed or lacked a valid route. Keep item records and support notes beside the level.
| Domain | 0 · No independent evidence in completed check | 1 · Emerging | 2 · Developing | 3 · Secure in this small body of work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Text type and fresh listening meaning | 0 of four prompts independent. | 1 of four independent. | 2–3 of four independent. | All four independent, including observation versus imagined event and need for a real check. |
| B. Spoken sound awareness | 0 of five items independent. | 1–2 of five independent. | 3–4 of five independent. | All five independent. |
| C. a/is and taught links | Neither small word read in context independently. | One small word read independently; the other needs a model. | Both a and is read independently but the a contrast or a key new team needs a prompt. | Both read in context with article-versus-internal a distinguished; use the separate 27-link record to target any missed correspondence. |
| D. Unseen-word decoding | 0 of five independently sounded and blended. | 1–2 of five independent. | 3–4 of five independent. | All five independent in this sample; note any self-correction. |
| E. Dictated encoding | 0 of four correct written sequences independent. | 1 of four correct independent. | 2–3 of four correct independent. | All four correct independent and at least one made word reread. |
| F. Information page and evidence | No dated page with a claim and route independently shown. | Page/claim only after adult content choices, or source route not clear. | A meaningful controlled page independently assembled; observation/source route needs a prompt. | A dated, meaningful two-line page with a matching representation and a correctly named observation or adult-read source; exact adult help recorded. |
| G. Story revision and reflection | No dated revision or usable retell independently shown. | Retell or edit only after adult content model. | Retell and one print change independent; a boundary or next step needs a prompt. | Dated story revision maintains meaning, capital and full stop; learner identifies one specific improvement and next step with a supported comparison to an earlier sample. |
Local evidence record
Learner code: __ Date(s): _ Teacher:
Formats and access routes: ______
Dated information page: __ Dated story/edit: _ Earlier comparison: ___
| Evidence | Exact response / marked items | Independent, direction repeat, content hint or adult scribe? |
|---|---|---|
| A1 report; A2 cubes; A3 imagined event; A4 real check | ||
| B1 rhyme; B2 syllables; B3 segment; B4 blend; B5 sound change | ||
| C a; is; contrast; taught-link count ___/27 | ||
| D tax / mend / brush / chest / nest; sentence | ||
| E a / is / fish / pond; reread? | ||
| F page claim, image, observation/source route | ||
| G story retell, revision, capital/stop, next step |
A–G levels or not observed: __ / _ / / / / /
Exact strength and evidence: _____
Next teaching move and recheck date: ______
Access, source or review question: ______
Choose next teaching
| Evidence pattern | Responsive move |
|---|---|
| a as article is read like internal /æ/ or letter name | Contrast a bag with bag using separated cards; read a fresh phrase a map, then a sentence after a model. Keep /ə/ tied to this taught little word. |
| is is guessed or its s read /s/ | Build i s, say /ɪz/ and reread it in A hat is in a box. Then check it in another controlled sentence. Do not tell learners every s says /z/. |
| Specific earlier letter, x, sh or ch is uncertain | Return to the actual missed grapheme, model its practised value in two known words, then test a new regular word. Do not replace an item-level diagnosis with a total score. |
| Adjacent sounds collapse in mend/brush/chest/nest | Use four counters for the actual word, then match print units left to right. Recheck a fresh word from the secure grapheme set. |
| The learner reads but treats an invented drawing as a real observation | Compare the illustration with a safe actual box test or the named adult-read museum source. Ask “What was observed? What is a model?” and revise the page's evidence note. |
| Story detail from the adult passage is credited to the child's shorter print | Lay out two texts separately; highlight what each actually says. Ask a literal question before inviting an inference. |
| Page or revision is meaningful but not yet bounded clearly | Model capital name/start and full stop on one sentence, then edit a different controlled sentence independently. |
| Partner report is hard to show | Check language and communication access; rehearse one fact and source using AAC, verified interpretation or a private listener. Keep the child's own content separate from adult supplied wording. |
| Samples are secure | Continue with the next explicit regular sound/spelling sequence and richer source-supported texts. Keep review and portfolio comparison; this end-of-term check does not certify the entire Foundation English curriculum. |
Sources: ACARA v9 curriculum workbook, ACARA English, Australian Museum fish background and AERO Monitor progress. Local curriculum fit, sample design and accessibility still require human review.