LC004 – Explicit Teaching (Phonology)

Explicitly Teaching Phonology to Support Word Reading and Spelling

 This four-part course develops practical, differentiated approaches to teaching phonology—including syllables, phonemes, segmenting and blending—to strengthen word reading and spelling across the curriculum.

Price: $132 • Access: 90 days

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Course Detail

Grounded in the latest research, this 4-part course provides practical illustrations on teaching the phonological component of word reading and spelling. Phonology is one of the foundational linguistic aspects of English language and literacy. In this course, you will explore the complexities of syllables, vowel phonemes, consonant phonemes and various phonological strategies including segmenting and blending to support word reading and spelling. View a range of classroom demonstration lessons illustrating how to teach phonological skills and strategies to both beginning readers and writers and those who are advanced in their reading and writing. Discover many practical and innovative examples of how to differentiate instruction and how to connect phonological instruction with grammar and vocabulary from a range of texts and subject areas across the curriculum. This course includes four parts:
Part 1: Syllables and Phonemes
Part 2: Phonological skills to teach
Part 3: Instructional considerations for phonology
Part 4: Explicitly teaching the phonological component of word reading and spelling

Course Features

  • Build a clear understanding of phonology as a foundational component of word reading and spelling
  • Explore the complexities of syllables, vowel phonemes and consonant phonemes
  • Learn explicit phonological strategies, including segmenting and blending, to support reading and spelling development
  • View classroom demonstration lessons that illustrate phonological instruction for both beginning and more advanced learners
  • Discover practical ways to differentiate phonological instruction and connect it with grammar, vocabulary and curriculum learning.
  • On-demand videos (4)
  • Follow-up Tasks
  • Includes downloadable lesson materials for the PhOrM Sequence of Lessons

Course Instructor

Dr Tessa Daffern is an experienced educator, researcher and literacy consultant with more than 25 years’ experience across schools, universities and professional learning contexts. Tessa specialises in evidence-based spelling instruction, with particular expertise in phonology, orthography and morphology, and is committed to supporting educators to strengthen language and literacy learning in their classrooms.

This course addresses AITSL standards 1.2.2, 2.3.2, 1.5.2, 2.1.2, 2.2.2, 2.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.2.2, 3.3.2, 3.4.2 and 3.5.2

NESA Registered PD Provider

Course Content

6 sections • 3hr+ total length

Learn the intricacies of syllables and phonemes in Standard Australian English. In Part 1, Dr Daffern unpacks these foundational phonological concepts and highlights why they are essential for effective instruction in phonemic awareness, decoding (when reading words), and encoding (when spelling words). She also draws attention to how dialectal differences and semantic contexts can influence pronunciation. Through clear explanations, demonstrations of syllabification, and precise modelling of phonemes, Dr Daffern illustrates common challenges students may encounter as they learn to blend and segment words into syllables and phonemes. Practical implications for teaching phonology are addressed.

Complete a multiple-choice quiz

Part 2 provides a concise overview of the phonological skills that underpin successful speaking, listening, reading and spelling development. Dr Daffern outlines the continuum of phonological awareness subskills, explaining why some tasks are easier than others and how these skills support students’ growing proficiency with oral language, word reading and spelling.

Part 3 focuses on key instructional practices that strengthen students’ phonological skills. Dr Daffern outlines evidence‑based strategies including explicit, targeted and systematic teaching, contextualised phonemic instruction, integrating handwriting to reinforce grapheme–phoneme connections, and using distributed practice to support long‑term retention of new written words.

Part 4 provides a deep dive into the practical ways to teach students to analyse words accurately and efficiently from a phonological lens. Through authentic classroom lesson vignettes spanning the early, primary and middle school years, Dr Daffern demonstrates how to explicitly teach phonological skills. Practical demonstrations encompass word awareness, syllabification, rhyme, onset–rime awareness, phoneme blending and segmenting, and advanced phoneme manipulation in multisyllabic words. This final course part showcases a wide range of evidence‑based instructional routines, the use of texts for decoding and encoding, engaging interactive activities, scaffolds, and differentiated tasks – all designed to strengthen students’ phonological precision and support transfer to speaking, listening, reading, and writing across the curriculum. Through classroom vignettes, demonstration lessons, and practical examples, participants see how to embed phonological instruction effectively and meaningfully within a range of contexts and curriculum areas.

Download and view lesson materials for the PhOrM Sequence of Lessons (2 PDFs). These lesson materials relate to the final demonstration lesson (analysing words from a literary text, ‘Frank’s Red Hat’), presented in the Part 4 Seminar of this course. In these lesson materials, refer to the lessons that are specific to the phonological component.

Course access: 90 days from date of registration

This course is suitable for school educators in the early, primary and middle years.

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