Welcome to Literacy

Overview

In this first lesson of Growing Readers and Writers, students establish respectful talk, listening, reading and writing routines through a quality picture book. The teacher gathers baseline information about phonological awareness, oral language, letter–sound knowledge and sentence writing to form flexible support groups for future lessons.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• listen attentively and respond to a picture book.
• take turns, speak clearly and contribute relevant ideas.
• orally add, delete and substitute sounds in simple words.
• use known letter–sound relationships to read and write words.
• write a sentence that communicates a complete idea.

Success criteria

• I can listen, take turns and respond to someone else’s idea.
• I can change sounds in a word to make a new word.
• I can use sounds and letters to read and write words.
• I can write a sentence that begins with a capital letter and ends with punctuation.

Curriculum links

• English — oral phoneme manipulation through addition, deletion and substitution.
• English — using short vowels, common long vowels, blends and digraphs to write and read words.
• English — reading texts with developing phonic knowledge, phrasing, fluency and meaning-making.
• English — interaction skills, including turn-taking, active listening and responding to others; reading and writing high-frequency words.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Welcome and routine. Teacher welcomes students at the meeting area, introduces the class routine “listen, think, speak and build”, and displays the welcome and listening routine slides. Students practise facing the speaker, keeping hands still, taking turns and using a clear voice with a partner.

2. 5–22 min · Interactive read-aloud. Teacher reads a carefully selected quality picture book, showing the illustrations and pausing at three planned points to ask prediction, vocabulary and meaning questions from the picture-book discussion slides. Students turn and talk, use the stem “I think … because …”, and share ideas while the teacher reinforces listening, eye contact, relevant responses and respectful disagreement.

3. 22–32 min · Oral sound play. Teacher explains that words are made from sounds and models stretching and blending three-phoneme words such as map, sit and sun. Using the prompts on the sound-play slides, the teacher asks students to orally change one sound at a time: map to mop (medial substitution), map to mat (final substitution), map to cap (initial substitution), and map without /m/ to make ap (deletion). Students respond together, then take turns explaining which sound changed; the teacher records accurate responses and notes students needing support.

4. 32–47 min · Individual diagnostic check. Teacher explains that this is not a test and that the information helps plan the right learning for everyone. Students complete the literacy baseline check independently while the teacher quietly observes and conferences with individuals. The worksheet includes: naming or matching selected letters and sounds; reading a small set of decodable words and high-frequency words; orally responding to two sound-change prompts; and writing one sentence about the picture-book character, setting or event. Students who finish reread their sentence and check for a capital letter, spaces and punctuation.

5. 47–55 min · Partner reading and response. Teacher displays the partner-reading routine slides and models how to sit beside a partner, share the book, point to words, reread a tricky sentence and ask for help when meaning breaks down. Pairs reread a short, accessible page or excerpt from the selected book, or a teacher-prepared decodable passage, then tell each other one important event using “First …” or “The character …”. Students practise turn-taking and self-correction rather than guessing from pictures alone.

6. 55–60 min · Share and close. Teacher revisits the closing routine slide and asks, “What helps our classroom become a strong literacy community?” Students share one listening or reading routine they will use and complete a brief oral sound challenge chosen from the diagnostic prompts. Teacher collects worksheets and explains that the class will use the information to work in purposeful groups.

Resources

• Selected quality picture book with clear illustrations and rich opportunities for discussion
• Welcome to Literacy slide deck
• Literacy baseline check
• Pencils, erasers and clipboards or writing boards
• Teacher observation checklist or class list
• Short decodable passage or a photocopied page from the selected text
• Visual timer
• Carpet or meeting-area seating

Assessment

• During partner talk and read-aloud discussion, record students’ turn-taking, listening, vocabulary, clarity and ability to respond relevantly.
• During sound play, note whether students can manipulate initial, medial and final phonemes orally without visual letters.
• Analyse the baseline check for letter–sound knowledge, word reading, high-frequency word recognition, phoneme manipulation and sentence writing. Use the evidence to create flexible Groups 1–4, with students grouped by identified need rather than a fixed ability label.

Differentiation

• Support students with picture cues, repeated modelling, counters or fingers for each sound, oral rehearsal before writing, sentence stems and a scribed response where required.
• Provide an alternative quiet space, shorter turns and additional processing time for students with communication, attention or sensory needs; accept pointing or gesture before expecting oral responses.
• For EAL/D learners, preteach important book vocabulary with illustrations, demonstrate responses, allow partner rehearsal and value home-language connections while modelling Australian English.
• Extend confident students by asking them to generate several valid words after changing a sound, explain the position of the changed phoneme, or write two connected sentences about the book.