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September 20, 2025 16 mins

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Should we be teaching phonics beyond the early years? This question lands in my inbox regularly, and for good reason – it touches on critical decisions teachers must make about literacy instruction in upper primary.  In this episode, Jocelyn addresses 

- What research tells us about spelling development
- The ideal scenario vs the reality of the current state of student knowledge
- What it means to be data responsive in spelling instruction
- The most effective path forward in making a data-informed plan

Are your students good readers, but poor spellers? If so, you are not alone. Spelling Success in Action addresses phonics, orthography, and morphology to give students a well-rounded understanding of how our language system works. 

Find out how you can help your students move beyond guessing and memorisation at https://www.jocelynseamereducation.com/spelling2



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Episode Transcript

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Jocelyn (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome to the Structured
Literacy Podcast recorded herein Tasmania, the lands of the
Palawa people.
I'm Jocelyn, and today we'retackling a question that I find
in my inbox reasonably regularly.
Should we be teaching phonicsbeyond the early years?
It's a really importantquestion and one that doesn't

(00:21):
have a simple yes or no answer,I'm afraid.
But let's dive in and have athink about the nuance of
instruction in the three to sixyears.
Before we can answer whether weshould or shouldn't be teaching
phonics in years three to sixand beyond that, we need to
understand what research tellsus about how spelling knowledge

(00:43):
develops.
We know that spellinginstruction includes four key

areas (00:47):
phonics, orthographic conventions, morphology and
etymology.
There are two main theoriesabout how we should approach
this instruction.
Stage theory suggests thatpeople pass through one stage
after another in a hierarchicalprogression, that you have to
learn phonics before you canlearn morphology.

(01:11):
Repertoire theory, on the otherhand, argues that all four areas
should be included ininstruction from the beginning.
The approach that we take inour work is that both of these
things have merit.
Absolutely, Repertoire theory'srecognition, that words are

(01:34):
impacted by many different areasand that we enrich students'
understanding by teaching thatis something that we base our
work on.
But we also consider movingfrom simple to complex concepts,
so we get the best of bothworlds and, dare I say it, take
a balanced approach to choosingcontent in spelling
.
Research by Berninger world, andcolleagues tells us something

(01:58):
really important about spellingdevelopment development.
In their 2009 study, they foundthat growth"should in phonics
knowledge drops off after yearfour, while knowledge of
morphology continues to growthroughout the primary and
secondary years.
This makes perfect sense to me.
Phonics knowledge can beclassified as constrained.

(02:20):
It's finite.
Once students learn thealphabetic principle and can
recognize and recall the variousreign ways phonemes can be
represented by graphemes, thereisn't much more to learn.
However, morphology is closelytied to vocabulary and content
knowledge across the curriculum.

(02:42):
We could say that it'sunconstrained.
It keeps growing all throughthe secondary and tertiary years
, so it makes sense thatmorphology me, becomes the meat
and potatoes, if you like ofspelling instruction in the
older years.
In an ideal honest, wherestudents learn the alphabetic
principle robustly for bothreading and spelling in the

(03:05):
early years, the answer toshould we be teaching phonics
beyond those years wouldprobably be no.
In this ideal scenario, we'vetaught robustly in the early
years and students reach yearthree with well-developed
phonics knowledge.
We spelling, only tap intophonics knowledge as needed.
For example, we might encountera word like rain during a HASS

(03:30):
lesson on monarchies.
We might help students spellthis word by pointing out that
it has the same pattern as inthe word feign meaning to
pretend, and deign meaning tocondescend.
Some programs might includethis in the core scope and
sequence, but for me the thingabout this is that there are so

(03:51):
few words with that particularpattern that there's little
utility in devoting preciousinstructional time to teaching a
whole unit on it.
We are going to address wordslike rain and fane and dane as
we encounter them in context,and we can do that in the older
grades because when studentshave the foundations of the

(04:14):
alphabetic principle, they areable to read well already.
But let's be honest the idealpicture isn't the reality facing
most schools, is"it it?
In most schools, students arearriving in year three and
beyond with limited recall ofphonics for spelling.
In many cases they may be goodreaders, achieving at or above

(04:38):
benchmark on normed readingtests, but when it comes to
spelling they struggle, andhere's why this matters.
Without automatic spelling,student writing will always be
hampered.
In order for students to writemulti-paragraph texts with
confidence and depth, bothhandwriting and spelling must be

(04:59):
automatic.
If students have to devoteconsiderable cognitive energy to
thinking about spelling basics,they don't have the headspace
to think about word choice,language devices or the
sophisticated thinking that wewant to see play out as they
write.

(05:19):
The answer to whether we shouldteach phonics beyond the early
years really is it depends, andI know that's(who not the
clear-cut answer youdifficulties) might have been
hoping for, but stick with me aswe unpack this.
The first thing we need to dois make data-informed decisions
about My view is that we don'twant to camp out in phonics with

(05:45):
older students forever.
We serve them much better byusing data to pinpoint gaps in
their knowledge, fill those gapsand then ensure long-term
retention through short, sharpreview.
Here's something else toconsider.
The approach you take, this theyear or next year should ideally

(06:07):
be different from the approachthat you'll need in two to three
years time.
Why?
Because the goal is that we'regetting better at teaching
phonics in the early years, sothat students don't arrive in
year three with a bunch of gapsto fill.
If your school has been on anexplicit phonics journey for
four to five years and you stillhave students who don't have

(06:30):
significant learningdifficulties coming through the
upper primary years with patchyphonics knowledge, then it's
important to consider whetheryour early years phonics
instructions may need some work.
Your early years phonicsinstructions may need some work.
The nature of instruction andthe intensity of what you
provide to students will dependon your school's context and

(06:52):
student need.
If students are at or aboveneed, that their normed reading
assessment.
but But they're patchy in theirphonics recall, instruction can
be short, sharp and targeted.
For these students.
The purpose is to draw theirconsciousness to the connections
between phonemes and graphemesand give them some practice.

(07:14):
For most students in thisposition, that's enough for them
to say oh.
rightAs yes, I can Upper use Primary
those Literacy graphemes Blockfor spelling as well as I can
for reading, website, word showit to them, you do some review

and components (07:27):
off and away generalisations
If, however, students are atrisk in your normed reading
assessment, phonics instructionisn't just a reminder.
It will likely need to bereasonably intensive and
students will require carefulmonitoring over time to ensure
that learning sticks.
This data-informed approach isexactly the approach that we

(07:51):
take in our work with yearsthree to six.
We want to make sure that everyinstructional minute is
targeted students, at students'point of need.
We don't want to wastestudents' time in lessons
covering content that they don'tneed.
That makes them switch off, butwe also jocelynseamereducation.
com/ waste their time in lessonsthat class, it'll sufficient

(08:13):
intensity to help move themforward, and, as you can see,
there's no one-size-fits-allhere.
Now, time, of but this sitswithin the broader context of
what we know about effectiveupper primary literacy
instruction, as outlined in myupper primary literacy block
guide that you can access forfree on our website.

(08:34):
Word level instruction in yearssomething: teaching six includes
three components phonics,orthographic generalizations and
morphology and normally, formost of the content, the
orthographic generalizations andphonics are connected, and
etymology that fourth part isconnected to morphology.
The key here and I know thatI'm not supposed to use this

(08:59):
word, but I'm going to anywaythe key word is balance.
While we might need to addressphonics gaps for some students,
we skills, cannot let thissqueeze out the rich
morphology instruction thatshould be the backbone of word
level learning in the upperprimary years.
However and this is reallyimportant schools, we should

(09:21):
continue to provide support toolder students who require it
for as long as is needed.
There's no exit point from thatkind of work until students
have learned the foundationalskills they need to be confident
readers and spellers.
o.
So how do you decide whetheryour three to six students need

(09:41):
phonics instruction?
Well, start with assessment.
You here's can't make goodinstructional decisions without
knowing what your students areup to.
We can't also simply say thatevery year three student or
every year five student shouldget the same made according to

(10:03):
the needs of students and if .
you're not sure whether yourstudents have gaps to fill or
what those gaps are, we have afree spelling assessment
available on our website atjocelynsimaeducationcom.
Forward slash free resources.
Deliver this whole class.
It'll take a long time.

(10:26):
But two hours to do that workto save you and your students
hours and hours of wastedinstructional time is well worth
it.
This assessment will also helpyou monitor growth into the long
term.
Let me be clear about somethingTeaching phonics beyond the

(10:47):
early years isn't about givingup on high expectations or
dumbing down the curriculum.
It's about being responsive tostudent needs so that we can get
them where they need to be asquickly and efficiently as
possible.
When students haveautomatic spelling, they can
focus cognitive energy on thesophisticated thinking and

(11:09):
writing we want them to do attheir grade level.
But without those foundationalskills that's just not going to
happen.
So should we be teachingphonics beyond the early years?
The answer is maybe.
And if I'm really honest, formost schools probably.
If students need it, give it tothem for as long as they need

(11:36):
it, but not a day longer and notat the expense of
age-appropriate morphologyinstruction.
The goal isn't to teach phonicsforever.
Thegoal is to identify gaps, fill
them efficiently and then movestudents into the rich
vocabulary and morphology workexclusively.
That will serve them throughouttheir schooling and beyond.

(11:56):
But you don't have to waituntil the phonics gaps are
filled before you begin the workin morphology.
For a little while they willsit side by side in the literacy
block.
When you can, you drop thephonics instruction off so that
you're focusing on morphologyfor its own sake.
Resource room members andpeople using a Spelling Success

(12:21):
in Action program haveeverything at their fingertips
that they need to do this workmeaningfully If you're working
with students in years three tosix, or seven and eight and
wondering about their phonicsneeds.
Here's my plan that you canfollow.
Firstly, assess the students.
Find out what they know andwhat they don't know.

(12:42):
Secondly, if there are gaps,fill them with targeted.
Secondly, if there are gaps,fill them with targeted,
intensive instruction that isappropriate to their learning
need Short and sharp forstudents who just need a
reminder, and targeted for thosewho need that work.
Third, don't camp out in phonicsforever or assume that what you

(13:04):
do now is what you're going toneed into the future, or assume
that what you do now is whatyou're going to need into the
future.
Once students have thefoundational phonics knowledge,
move on and leave it behindwhere it belongs.
And finally, remember that thebest time to teach phonics is in
the early years, and if you'refinding that you need to do a
lot of phonics instruction witholder students year after year,

(13:26):
it is a really good thing tolook at how you're strengthening
your instruction in foundationto year two, and we can help you
there as well if that'ssomething that you need.
Remember you won't break thechildren by being responsive to
their needs, but you also won'tserve them well by giving them
instruction they don't need orinstruction that isn't as

(13:49):
intensive as it has to be tohelp them moving forward.
Keep your eye on the data,focus on what students need and
keep that beautiful vision ofevery child reading and writing
propelling you forward.
It is absolutely possible if wefocus on common sense,

(14:10):
data-informed decision that meetour students right where they
are.
Until next time, happy teachingeveryone.
Bye.
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