AC9EFLY12
Official content description
write consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) words by representing sounds with the appropriate letters, and blend sounds associated with letters when reading CVC words
What AC9EFLY12 actually looks like when you teach it
This is the descriptor where reading starts working. Once a child has a handful of letter–sound correspondences, consonant–vowel–consonant words let them do the real thing: blend to read, segment to write. Both directions matter and they are not the same skill — plenty of children can read cat and still not write it. Use magnetic letters and sound boxes so the segmenting is physical. Decodable texts matter here too: asking a child to read a book containing words they have no way of decoding teaches guessing, which is the habit you'll spend Year 2 undoing.
What the class will get wrong — and what to do about it
The error
Sounding out each phoneme accurately and then guessing the word from the first sound and the picture — /c/ /a/ /t/ read aloud, then "kitten", because the illustration shows one.
How to confront it
Cover the picture. Have them say the sounds and then run them together slowly, stretching rather than stopping between each. If the blend still doesn't come, do it with them rather than accepting the guess.
Ready to put on the board
We are learning to read and write CVC words by blending and segmenting sounds.
- I can hear the three sounds in a CVC word.
- I can blend the sounds together to read the word.
- I can write a CVC word by saying the sounds and choosing the letters.
Sound boxes
- Say a word — sun. Children push one counter into a box for each sound they hear.
- Check as a class: three sounds, three counters.
- Now swap each counter for the letter that spells that sound.
- Read the finished word back by blending, pointing to each box.
- Change one letter — sun to sit — and read again. Changing one sound at a time makes the connection between spelling and sound impossible to miss.
Free to use in your classroom. Written for AC9EFLY12, 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 AC9EFLY12
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.