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How are phoneme–grapheme relationships introduced in the Foundation year?

Sound Waves Literacy 23/6/21

In the Foundation year of Sound Waves Literacy, phoneme–grapheme relationships are introduced in a very specific order. This minimises confusion for students and ensures they are up and running quickly with reading and spelling.

This order is based on the following four principles:

• Teach phoneme–grapheme relationships in an order that allows children to immediately begin reading and spelling lots of words.
• Teach simple phoneme–grapheme relationships before more complex relationships. For example, teach single letter graphemes like a for /a/ as in apple before teaching digraphs such as ai, ay and a_e for /ai/ as in snail.
• Separate graphemes that look similar. For example, do not introduce b and d in close proximity.
• Separate phonemes that sound similar. For example, do not teach /f/ and /v/ in close proximity.

The Sound Waves Foundation program begins with five weeks of purely oral-focussed phonemic awareness lessons (no graphemes are formally introduced in these lessons). Phonics teaching begins in Week 6 of Term 1 and continues for the remainder of the year. In these lessons, phoneme–grapheme relationships are introduced in a carefully controlled manner.

In Term 1, students are taught six graphemes:

m for /m/ as in moon
a for /a/ as in apple
t for /t/ as in tiger
s for /s/ as in seal
i for /i/ as in igloo
d for /d/ as in duck

After learning these graphemes, students can read and spell multiple CVC words including: am, at, it, did, dam, mad, mat, sad, sat, sit, dad, Tam, Sam, Tim and Sim.

At the start of Term 2 the teaching of graphemes continues. In the first three weeks students will learn:

f for /f/ as in fish
n for /n/ as in net
p for /p/ as in pig
o for /o/ as in orange
r for /r/ as in robot
g for /g/ as in girl

After learning these graphemes, students can read and spell many additional CVC words including: if, an, in, fat, fit, fan, fin, tin, man, nan, map, dip, pan, pin, pad, nip, nit, nap, tip, pat, sap, pit, tap, sip, on, not, dot, pop, pod, pot, mop, nod, top, rot, rat, rod, rad, rip, rap, ram, rid, ran, tag, sag, got, gas, dog, pig, gap, fog, fig, dig, rag, Tan, Nat, Nam, Dan, Pip, Pam, Dom, Tom, Tod, Don, Raf and Ron.

By this point students are also taught a handful of Special Words: I, a, is and off.*

This means after only six weeks of learning phoneme–grapheme relationships, students are able to read and spell a large bank of words. When writing, students can use learned graphemes to represent phonemes in words they are attempting to spell. When reading, students are able to decode words rather than guessing them from pictures or context. The Sound Waves lessons from Term 2 Week 3 (r for /r/ as in robot) onwards also include Decodable Readers so students can apply their phoneme–grapheme knowledge directly to targeted reading practice.

This carefully structured Sound Waves Foundation sequence facilitates positive and successful early reading and spelling experiences, and ensures students develop appropriate strategies for reading and spelling.

To see the entire scope of phoneme–grapheme relationships taught in Sound Waves Foundation view the Scope and Sequence document. The sequence is not only based on the essential principles for introducing phoneme–grapheme relationships, it is also fully supported by a suite of Sound Waves resources, including Decodable Readers that exactly match the sequence. These resources are easy to use, allow for explicit teaching and engage students.

* Special Words are taught throughout the Foundation program. Special Words are high-frequency words containing unusual phoneme–grapheme relationships, or words containing phoneme–grapheme relationships not yet taught in the sequence. To find out more about Special Words read our article.

Why do systematic synthetic phonics programs have different sequences?

High-quality systematic synthetic phonics programs carefully sequence the teaching of phoneme–grapheme relationships. The programs all use a slightly different order to get started. Sound Waves introduces the graphemes m, a, t, s, i, d (MATSID) first. Another common starting order is s, a, t, p, i, n (SATPIN).

These two sequences only differ slightly as four of the six graphemes are the same. This difference does not impact students’ learning. Both sequences adhere to the essential principles for the initial introduction of phoneme–grapheme relationships. Both result in students being able to read and spell about 20 CVC words. In addition to this, both sequences are more productive and appropriate than using the first six letters of the alphabet, which results in children being able to read just 10 CVC words.

Keep in mind it is not just the first six phoneme–grapheme relationships that matter in a synthetic phonics teaching sequence. Although some programs share the common starting point of s, a, t, p, i, n (SATPIN), the sequence of teaching all the remaining phoneme–grapheme relationships varies widely across programs. It’s important to evaluate an entire program beyond just the first six graphemes.

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