These books are designed to support teachers in developing phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension in early readers.
A secure and automatic left-to-right eye movement is essential for accurate decoding and word recognition, particularly for words that are visually similar or easily reversed. Explicit attention to directional tracking supports students as they develop efficient reading behaviours.
Strong oral and aural phonemic awareness, combined with consistent left-to-right processing, underpins fluent reading for meaning in both aloud and silent reading. The visual cue of fish swimming from left to right on each page reinforces correct tracking and supports developing print concepts and reading accuracy.
How to use these books
The importance of regular reading practice, repetition, oral sentence creation, copying, and writing from memory cannot be over-emphasised in effective literacy teaching. These practices align with evidence-based approaches to early reading instruction and support the gradual development of automatic word recognition.
Students are encouraged to re-read the text independently across multiple sessions, in much the same way a musician practises a piece of music. Re-reading in varied ways helps consolidate learning, build fluency, and develop the ability to recognise words quickly and automatically.
Vocabulary development and meaning-making are supported through structured oral language activities. Teachers or reading coaches model sentence construction using target words, followed by students creating and orally rehearsing their own sentences. This explicit modelling supports comprehension and expressive language development.
Multiple sessions of teacher-guided demonstration show students how to write words, phrases and sentences, drawing on shared oral sentence examples. This process strengthens decoding, spelling prediction, visualisation of words, and overall word recognition.
Regular writing practice reinforces letter formation, supports tactile memory, and helps lock in spelling patterns. Dictation and creative writing provide a purposeful and motivating culmination of these integrated reading and writing experiences, allowing students to apply their developing skills in meaningful contexts.
NOTE: Spelling errors should be unknown. Good teaching and repetition will make this possible.
Enjoy the journey!
Australian Curriculum (English) – Foundation to Year 2
Curriculum Alignment
- Phonics and phonemic awareness:
(AC9EFLY06), (AC9E1LY08), (AC9E2LY09) - Concepts of print and left-to-right directionality:
(AC9EFLY04), (AC9EFLY05) - Reading fluency through practice and re-reading:
(AC9EFLY07), (AC9E1LY06), (AC9E2LY06) - Oral language and vocabulary development:
(AC9EFLY01), (AC9E1LY02), (AC9E2LY02) - Comprehension through oral sentence modelling:
(AC9EFLY08), (AC9E1LY05), (AC9E2LY05) - Spelling, handwriting and sentence construction:
(AC9EFLY10), (AC9E1LY09), (AC9E2LY10) - Writing, dictation and creative text creation:
(AC9EFLY11), (AC9E1LY10), (AC9E2LY11)