AC9EFLY09
Official content description
recognise and generate rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (phonological awareness)
What AC9EFLY09 actually looks like when you teach it
Phonological awareness is oral. No letters, no print, eyes closed if you like — this is entirely about what children can hear and do with sounds in spoken words. It fits in the gaps of the day: lining up, packing away, waiting for the bell. Rhyme first, then alliteration, then syllables, then individual phonemes, roughly in that order of difficulty. Songs and nursery rhymes do a great deal of the work, but the deliberate part matters too: asking a child to give you a word that rhymes with cat, rather than just enjoying a rhyme someone else wrote.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Producing a word that starts the same rather than one that rhymes — asked for a rhyme for cat, a child offers "car". They are attending to the beginning of the word, which is what they've been taught to notice.
How to confront it
Exaggerate the ending and clap on it. Give three examples in a row — cat, hat, mat — before asking for a fourth, so the pattern is audible. Rejecting "car" without demonstrating the ending teaches nothing.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning to hear and play with the sounds in spoken words.
- I can say a word that rhymes with a word you give me.
- I can clap the syllables in my name.
- I can tell you the first sound in a word.
Sound of the day
- Choose one sound for the day and say it, don't spell it — /s/, not "ess".
- Going around the circle, each child offers a word that begins with it. Repeats are allowed; participation matters more than novelty.
- Switch to clapping syllables in the words offered.
- Finish with rhyme: you say a word, the class calls back a rhyme.
- Return to the same sound at three other points in the day — lining up, before lunch, home time.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9EFLY09, not adapted from another year level.
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The Foundation 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 Foundation English students should achieve
Coverage is judged against the achievement standard — not by ticking every content description. These are the official Foundation English standard sentences this code builds towards:
- They use language features including words and phrases from learning and texts.
- They share thoughts and preferences, retell events and report information or key ideas to an audience.
- They name the letters of the English alphabet and know and use the most common sounds (phonemes) represented by these letters (graphs).
- They listen for and identify rhymes, letter patterns and sounds (phonemes) in words.
- They retell, report information and state their thoughts, feelings and key ideas.
- They orally blend and segment phonemes in single-syllable words.
The Literacy progression either side of AC9EFLY09
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.
Builds towards · 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
Other Foundation Literacy codes
- AC9EFLY01identify some familiar texts, such as stories and informative texts, and their purpose
- AC9EFLY02interact in informal and structured situations by listening while others speak and using features of voice including volume levels
- AC9EFLY03identify some differences between imaginative and informative texts
- AC9EFLY04read decodable and authentic texts using developing phonic knowledge, and monitor meaning using context and emerging grammatical knowledge
- AC9EFLY05use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising and questioning to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently
- AC9EFLY06create and participate in shared editing of short written texts to record and report ideas and events using some learnt vocabulary, basic sentence boundary punctuation and spelling some consonant–vowel–consonant words correctly
- AC9EFLY07create and deliver short spoken texts to report ideas and events to peers, using features of voice such as appropriate volume
- AC9EFLY08form most lower-case and upper-case letters using learnt letter formations
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.