AC9E2LY10
Official content description
use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter/s) matches, including vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters and silent letters when reading and writing words of one or more syllables, including compound words
What AC9E2LY10 actually looks like when you teach it
By Year 2 the simple one-letter-one-sound model has run out, and this descriptor is where the more honest picture arrives: vowel digraphs, less common long vowel patterns, consonant clusters, silent letters. Teach these as alternatives rather than exceptions — the long a sound can be spelled ai, ay or a_e, and which one you use depends largely on where it sits in the word. Sorting activities beat rules here. Give children a pile of words with the same sound and let them group them by spelling, and the positional pattern emerges from the sort.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Assuming one sound has only one spelling, so every long a word is spelled with ai — "raik" for rake, "plai" for play.
How to confront it
Build a sound wall rather than a word wall: one column per sound, with every spelling of it collected underneath. When a child asks how to spell a word, send them to the column and ask which spelling looks right — which is the actual skill.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning that one sound can be spelled in more than one way.
- I can find more than one spelling for the same sound.
- I can sort words by the way a sound is spelled.
- I can use a sound wall to help me choose a spelling.
Sort the sound
- Say the words aloud first. Establish that every one contains the same sound.
- Pairs sort the cards into columns by spelling: ai, ay, a_e.
- Compare sorts across the room and resolve disagreements.
- Now ask what they notice about where each spelling sits. ay is nearly always at the end of a word — let them find that rather than telling them.
- Add the sorted columns to a permanent sound wall and keep adding to it all term.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9E2LY10, not adapted from another year level.
Free download
The Year 2 English planning scaffold
A one-page planning sheet with the official achievement standard, every content description grouped by strand, and space for your assessment and week-by-week sequence. Print it and plan on paper, or use it as the skeleton for a unit.
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What Year 2 English students should achieve
Coverage is judged against the achievement standard — not by ticking every content description. These are the official Year 2 English standard sentences this code builds towards:
- They use text structures to organise and link ideas for a purpose.
- They share ideas, topic knowledge and appreciation of texts when they recount, inform or express an opinion, including details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts.
- They write words using consistently legible unjoined letters.
- They create written and/or multimodal texts including stories to inform, express an opinion, adapt an idea or narrate for audiences.
- They use phonic and morphemic knowledge, and grammatical patterns to read unfamiliar words and most high-frequency words.
- They organise and link ideas, and use language features including topic-specific vocabulary and features of voice.
The Literacy progression either side of AC9E2LY10
A class can only meet this descriptor if they were taught the one before it. If yours hasn't, that's where the lesson starts — not here.
Taught before · Year 1
- AC9E1LY01discuss different texts and identify some features that indicate their purposes
- AC9E1LY02use interaction skills including turn-taking, speaking clearly, using active listening behaviours and responding to the contributions of others, and contributing ideas and questions
- AC9E1LY03describe some similarities and differences between imaginative, informative and persuasive texts
Builds towards · Year 3
- AC9E3LY01recognise how texts can be created for similar purposes but different audiences
- AC9E3LY02use interaction skills to contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas
- AC9E3LY03identify the audience and purpose of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts through their use of language features and/or images
Other Year 2 Literacy codes
- AC9E2LY01identify how similar topics and information are presented in different types of texts
- AC9E2LY02use interaction skills when engaging with topics, actively listening to others, receiving instructions and extending own ideas, speaking appropriately, expressing and responding to opinions, making statements, and giving instructions
- AC9E2LY03identify the purpose and audience of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts
- AC9E2LY04read texts with phrasing and fluency, using phonic and word knowledge, and monitoring meaning by re-reading and self-correcting
- AC9E2LY05use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning
- AC9E2LY06create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words
- AC9E2LY07create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations for familiar audiences and purposes, using text structure appropriate to purpose and topic-specific vocabulary, and varying tone, volume and pace
- AC9E2LY08write words legibly and with growing fluency using unjoined upper-case and lower-case letters
Content description and achievement standard © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Australian Curriculum Version 9, used under CC BY 4.0. TeachKoala is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACARA.