AC9EFLY11
Official content description
recognise and name all upper- and lower-case letters (graphs) and know the most common sound that each letter represents
What AC9EFLY11 actually looks like when you teach it
Twenty-six letters, their names, and the most common sound each one represents. That last phrase is doing careful work: c has more than one sound, and the descriptor asks only for the most common at this stage. Teach names and sounds together but keep them clearly labelled, because children need both and confusing them causes trouble later when they start spelling. Sequence by usefulness, not by alphabet — s, a, t, p, i, n lets children read and write real words in the first fortnight, whereas starting at a and working to z does not.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Using the letter name where the sound is needed when sounding out — reading cat as "see-ay-tee" and then being unable to blend it into anything.
How to confront it
Be explicit that letters have both a name and a job, and name the difference out loud every time: "that letter is called em, and its job is /m/." When blending, ask for jobs, not names.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning the name of each letter and the sound it usually makes.
- I can name upper-case and lower-case letters.
- I can say the most common sound for a letter.
- I can tell the difference between a letter's name and its sound.
Name it, sound it, find it
- Hold up a letter. The class says its name, then its sound, in that order, every time.
- Say a sound and have children find that letter among the magnetic letters on their table.
- Open the big book and hunt for the letter on the page — upper and lower case both count.
- Ask one child to explain the difference between the letter's name and its sound in their own words.
- Keep the day's letters visible and return to them tomorrow before adding new ones.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9EFLY11, 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 AC9EFLY11
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.