Prep Teachers SSP Handbook 2015

The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Why is SSP so successful? What are some of the things we know about teaching reading, writing and spelling?
USA
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/Pages/nrp.aspx/ In 1997, Congress asked the NICHD, through its Child Development and Behavior Branch, to work with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in establishing a National Reading Panel that would evaluate existing research and evidence to find the best ways of teaching children to read.
The 14-member Panel included members from different backgrounds, including school administrators, working teachers, and scientists involved in reading research.
On April 13, 2000, the National Reading Panel concluded its work and submitted its final reports.
The National Reading Panel’s analysis made it clear that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates: The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

• Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
• Systematic phonics instruction
• Methods to improve fluency
• Ways to enhance comprehension
The Panel found that a combination of techniques is effective for teaching children to read:
• Phonemic awareness—the knowledge that spoken words can be broken apart into smaller segments of sound known as phonemes. Children who are read to at home—especially material that rhymes—often develop the basis of phonemic awareness. Children who are not read to will probably need to be taught that words can be broken apart into smaller sounds.
• Phonics—the knowledge that letters of the alphabet represent phonemes, and that these sounds are blended together to form written words. Readers who are skilled in phonics can sound out words they haven't seen before, without first having to memorize them.
• Fluency—the ability to recognize words easily, read with greater speed, accuracy, and expression, and to better understand what is read. Children gain fluency by practicing reading until the process becomes automatic; guided oral repeated reading is one approach to helping children become fluent readers.
• Guided oral reading—reading out loud while getting guidance and feedback from skilled readers. The combination of practice and feedback promotes reading fluency.
• Teaching vocabulary words—teaching new words, either as they appear in text, or by introducing new words separately. This type of instruction also aids reading ability.
• Reading comprehension strategies—techniques for helping individuals to understand what they read. Such techniques involve having students summarize what they've read, to gain a better understanding of the material.
The findings of the National Reading Panel were highlighted in President George W. Bush’s plan for improving education—the No Child Left Behind Act— signed in 2001. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

The NICHD, the National Institute for Literacy, and the ED also united to form the Partnership for Reading, an effort to distribute evidence-based reading research—such as the findings of the National Reading Panel—to those who could benefit the most from it. The Partnership aimed to ensure that the methods of reading instruction used in the classroom reflect evidence-based methods, such as those put forth by the National Reading Panel. Publications developed under this partnership are still relevant and available.
The big five as they were called included Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.
These have since been revised to include Early Literacy Skills including oral language and the concepts of print.
1. Early Literacy Skills - including oral language and concepts of print
2. Phonemic Awareness
3. Phonics to Spelling
4. Fluency
5. Vocabulary
6. Comprehension Links with Australia - See Government of South Australia www.decd.sa.gov.au/northernadelaide

UK
The Independent review of the teaching of early reading was an influential report by Sir Jim Rose, former HMI director of inspection at Ofsted, into the teaching of reading in primary schools in England.
For a summary of the Rose review visit
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/rosereview/finalreport/.
The report recommended that systematic (referred to as synthetic phonics and since challenged) approach to the teaching of phonics "should be taught as the prime approach in learning to decode (to read) and encode (to write/spell) print". Phonics should be taught systematically and discretely, however, it should be set within a "broad and rich" "multisensory" curriculum. The report stressed the importance of language development (including speaking and listening). The report also recommended that the "searchlights" model of reading (the three cueing system) should be replaced with the simple view of reading.
“ … attention should be focused on decoding words rather than the use of unreliable strategies such as looking at the illustrations, rereading the sentence, saying the first sound or guessing what might ‘fit’. Although these strategies might result in intelligent guesses, none of them is sufficiently reliable and they can hinder the acquisition and application of phonic knowledge and skills, prolonging the word recognition process and lessening children’s overall understanding. Children who routinely adopt alternative cues for reading unknown words, instead of learning to decode them, later find themselves stranded when texts become more demanding and meanings less predictable. The best route for children to become fluent and independent readers lies in securing phonics as the prime approach to decoding unfamiliar words (Primary National Strategy, 2006b, p.9).” The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

(Please see www.rethinkingbenchmarks.com for references to PM Benchmarking in Australia, a system based on the Three Cueing System)
As a formula, The Simple View of Reading (SVR) presents Reading Comprehension (RC) as the product of Listening Comprehension (LC) and Decoding (D). That is, RC = LC x D. as demonstrated in the diagram in Figure 1. HOWEVER this ‘simple view’ has been since picked apart, and models such as the Big Six developed to more effectively meet the needs of all learners. Why ? See http://www.webcitation.org/61BGXkjv4
There have been significant advances in studies of decoding, which is taken here to refer to the identification of English words, rather than the pseudo words with ‘phonic’ spelling. A number of studies have proposed a ‘dual route’ model of reading (e.g., Castles, 2006). In this model, the straightforward phonological path (‘sounding out’) is supplemented by an additional ‘orthographic’ path for reading English.
Researchers such as Plaut (2005) have shown that word recognition in English is influenced by morphology and semantics, as well as phonology and orthography. Our knowledge of morphology (units of word meaning) aids our recognition of complex words such as ‘misled’.
Yetta Goodman and colleagues have much to tell us from decades of observational studies of children in ordinary classrooms, tackling normal classroom texts. They have shown that, to identify problem words, children learning to read supplement the information from the letters with semantic (meaning) and syntactic (grammar) cues from the surrounding text (Goodman et al., 2005). This is not random guessing.
Over thirty years ago, Rumelhart conceptualised the act of reading written texts as “simultaneous, multi-level interactive processing” (1976). In a dynamic and robust mediation between the ‘top-down’ whole language advocates and the ‘bottom-up’ proponents of synthetic phonics, Rumelhart argues that, for both experienced readers and novices, important influences operate in both directions. Semantic knowledge aids identification of words and letters, while through perception of letters and words, the reader builds expectations about meaning.
Written language differs in a number of important respects from spoken language. The vocabulary and syntax (Crystal and Davy, 1969), the larger structures (Tannen, 1982) and the use of cohesive devices (Halliday and Hassan, 1976), which knit it into a textured whole, combine to make written language markedly distinct from spoken. Even a story written for young children, such as Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak, 1970) differs in all these respects from the language spoken between parent and child. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Researchers have noted that the processes for making sense of these two forms of language also differ in some important ways (e.g. Kintsch, 1998). The continuing presence of the text on page or screen allows the reader to move around and to vary the reading pace. This makes it possible to repair error and uncertainty, relate what is being read to knowledge gained elsewhere, in a more measured and careful way than speech allows. Readers can apply comprehension strategies not available to listeners.
The ultimate purpose of reading is to construct and reconstruct the meaning of text. (Anstey, 2002; Braunger and Lewis, 1998; Goodman, 1975; Rosenblatt, 1978, 1983; Smith, 1985, 1988.)
Just pronouncing the words is no longer sufficient to participate in today’s society and the demands of a modern democracy. As the policy in Queensland states, (Reading is) a social practice that draws on a repertoire of social, cultural and cognitive resources to construct and reconstruct meanings from various traditional and multimodal texts. It is enacted in different ways, for different purposes, in a variety of public and domestic settings. Reading is therefore a cultural, economic, ideological, political and psychological act (Literate Futures: Reading, Education Queensland, 2002, p 23).
Meaning may be constructed from visual texts as well as alphabetic texts, and it may incorporate both print and electronic media. That’s one reason to use the term ‘multiple literacies’ rather than just ‘literacy’.
The extent to which batteries of ‘objective’ questions posed on short passages can assess a child’s capacity to make sense of more demanding texts such as a long story or a detailed account of global warming has been called into question (e.g. Paris and Stahl, 2005). These kinds of texts require more than decoding and listening comprehension. They need skilled reading.
Re-interpreting the equation
There is much more to word identification than synthetic phonics and much more to text comprehension than understanding spoken language. We need to interpret the terms of the equation with care and recognise its limitations.
• Decoding must be seen to denote the identification of words typical of English texts, including irregular words such as ‘said’ and ‘island’. It should not be equated with synthetic phonics, but should involve ‘flexible unit size strategies’ (Brown and Deavers, 1999), morphology and semantics.
• Listening Comprehension should be taken to include comprehension of written text.
• Reading comprehension should be thought of in more complex ways than standardised comprehension tests imply. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

• The two aspects of learning to read should not be conceptualised as rigidly separated. Instead we should see reading as a multi-level interactive process (Rumelhart, 1976).
The difference between spoken and written language, and between the processes involved in listening and reading, coupled with the overlap between decoding and comprehension indicate that to teach children to read English effectively, we need to do more than teach them synthetic phonics and careful listening. Australian Inquiry Into The Teaching of Literacy
The objectives of the Inquiry were to review and analyse recent national and international research about literacy teaching approaches; identify the extent to which prospective teachers are provided with reading teaching approaches and skills that are effective in the classroom and have the opportunities to develop and practise the skills required to implement effective classroom reading programs; identify the ways in which research evidence on literacy teaching and policies in Australian schools can best inform classroom teaching practice and support teacher professional learning; examine the effectiveness of assessment methods being used to monitor the progress of students' early reading learning; and produce a report of the Inquiry's findings in the second half of 2005 and offer best practice in effective approaches to literacy teaching and learning, both at classroom level and in the training of teachers.
Rowe, Ken and National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (Australia), "Teaching Reading" (2005). http://research.acer.edu.au/tll_misc/5
The evidence is clear, whether from research, good practice observed in schools, advice from submissions to the Inquiry, consultations, or from Committee members’ own individual experiences, that direct systematic instruction in phonics during the early years of schooling is an essential foundation for teaching children to read. Findings from the research evidence indicate that all students learn best when teachers adopt an integrated approach to reading that The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

explicitly teaches phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. This approach, coupled with effective support from the child’s home, is critical to success.
Teaching Spelling
The knowledge that students need if they are to become proficient spellers takes four different forms:
• phonological knowledge: how words and letter combinations sound
• visual knowledge: the way words and letter combinations look
• morphemic knowledge: the meaning of words and the way words take different spellings when they change form
• etymological knowledge: the derivations of words. The vast majority of spelling ‘programs’ try to teach spelling in isolation, for example by teaching spelling ‘rules’, with many sending home ‘spelling lists’ believing that the ‘Look, Cover, Say, Write’ will lead to the child not only being able to remember how to spell the words long term but use them effectively. For years teacher have been told that the vast majority of words cannot be ‘sounded out’ and so much be taught as Sight Words, again using the LCSW strategy.
Written words are accessible for processing once they are coded as orthographic word forms. Two kinds of cross-word form processing—fast and slow— may convert orthographic word-forms into phonological word-form (and morphological word-forms). Both are regulated by the phonological loop for cross-word form integration via the act of The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

naming the whole written word or part of it, thereby, making a close-connection in time between an orthographic and phonological code. Slow mapping requires a longer learning period and involves more refined units of correspondence between two codes (McGregor, 2004). This slow mapping, which typically requires explicit instruction to bring the corresponding codes to the child's conscious attention, is introduced within the SSP Code Levels, and by using the Spelling Clouds.
Children must code written words and letters into working memory; this code is called orthographic word-form. The goal is to translate that orthographic word-from into a spoken word (phonological word-form). Once children hear what is pronounced, that spoken word is then coded as an audible phonological word-form that provides sensory feedback about the sounds in the word. When children master the decoding process of translating written to spoken words, they no longer need to read aloud for this phonological feedback which is now accessible through inner speech (covert sound code that is not audible but codes the phonemes that correspond to alphabet letters, that is, alphabetic principle). Spelling proficiency, as seen when analysing NAPLAN data, clearly shows how ineffective these strategies are. The most proficient speller will occasionally hear an unfamiliar, non-phonetic word, and might be unable to use
visual, morphemic or etymological information to work out its correct spelling. At this point, the writer will use such strategies as asking someone else or looking up a dictionary. Within SSP the students think of the dictionary as the Speech Sound King’s ‘Code Book’. Generally, visual or etymological knowledge will help us find an unfamiliar non- phonetic word in a dictionary or choose a word in a spelling checker. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Within the NSW State Literacy Strategy (Focus on Literacy) spelling instruction has
three important dimensions.
First, it involves the teacher having a clear understanding of what knowledge and skills need to be taught and a clear
perception of when it is appropriate to teach particular skills.
Second, it requires the teacher to monitor systematically the need for certain skills to be taught.
Third, the instruction should not be left to chance.
The explicit and systematic teaching of spelling means that teachers need to provide, within an integrated language
learning environment:
• a daily focus on spelling skills and strategies
• lessons where the purpose and value of the spelling instruction are made explicit to students. http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/english/assets/pdf/spelling/fol_spell.pdf Within the two hour literacy block students explore ALL strands in a way that links all in a simple, logical and meaningful way. Although many elements are fast paced, intensive and challenging it is all differentiated. Teachers take what they observe from daily writing to cater more effectively for the needs of each child. The teacher sees the child writing ‘hopeing’ and will purposefully include these transitions within the session, for example within the Speedy The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Six. The student will also be directed to examples within the books they are reading. They will start to recognise what ‘looks right. Eg making or making ? likeing or liking ? etc.
As students transition though to the end of phase two (learning to code) the amount spent on foundational skills – code recognition / speedy blending / segmenting / manipulation / fluency etc is reduced, and the 30 minutes spent on writing or reading comprehension (alternating daily) is increased. This generally happens around term 4 of Prep. Students use spelling in more authentic ways, there is a greater focus on higher order skills, vocabulary knowledge, grammar and punctuation. From Year 2 there is no need for a spelling program, when SSP was used in Prep and Year 1, and instead there is more time spent on authentic writing, reading for pleasure and purpose, and self-editing. Teachers again use what they see in the work of students, to plan for the daily Speedy Six. Feedback is immediate, and where there are ‘gaps’ action is taken within 24 hours. Students thrive in this environment, which is very unique to Australia, and much more in line with the Finnish system. When students enter Year 2 the Daily Speedy Six enables all to continue to reinforce and extend coding skills, within a much higher level of vocabulary. Words are explored, used in meaningful sentences, connections are made to their own lives, tenses changed, conjunctions used to extend, along with a more adventurous use of punctuation. This is evidence in their writing work, and their reading proficiency. Assessment is ongoing, and teachers have a deep understanding of each student. SSP students are generally far more self-aware and reflective, and understand what they need to work at to keep progressing along the continuum that is ‘literacy teaching’. The SSP literacy block includes great emphasis on speaking and listening skills, personal connections with the teaching The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

material, and therefore emotional health. This is again why SSP is less of a program and more of an ‘approach’ to teaching and learning that honours the need for teachers to be challenged and excited, and not just the students !
Teaching Writing, including Grammar and Punctuation, Using the SSP Approach.
You will see that Big Writing/ VCOP fits in perfectly with the SSP Approach to child centred, differentiated learning. VCOP is now included within SSP, especially within the Rapid Writing. This element will be expanded in 2015, including the Criterion Scale. The Criterion Scale provides an accurate formative assessment of what individual children know, what they need to learn next and how their writing can be improved and this will differ from child to child. The VCOP skills should be taught in lively, fun, interactive ways

that will engage children, whilst the sharing of the ‘secret garden’ of assessment gives them a clear purpose for learning. Read more http://www.andrelleducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Raising-Writing-Standards-Intro.pdf#view=fit
So can we agree that the main components you expect to cover when using the SSP Approach are:

Also see the stand alone Min Code Cracker Program for Kindys, and follow the IAI Campaign in 2015. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Phonemic Awareness Activities Introduced Prior to Phonics, in addition to a focus on oral language and speech (pronunciation)
* 'hearing' speech sounds in words - beginning, middle end – with a focus on words they will be able to read when initial coding (phonics) group is introduced. So s,a,t,p,i,n (SSP Green) – students are able to orally spell words such as sat, it, at, in, pin, tin, sit, pat, nip, spin, tan, pants etc Use Duck Hands, Lines and Numbers The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

* blending speech sounds orally into words, with the focus on word they will be able to read and spell when initial coding (phonics) group is introduced. So s,a,t,p,i,n (SSP Green) – students are able to orally spell words such as sat, it, at, in, pin, tin, sit, pat, nip, spin, tan, pants etc) The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Use Duck Hands, and Spelling Piano (no letters)
* 'spelling words by listening for speech sounds in order, knowing how to order / blend them on paper (using lines and numbers) with a focus on words they will initially be able to read and spell when initial coding (phonics) group is introduced. So s,a,t,p,i,n (SSP Green) – students are able to orally spell words such as sat, it, at, in, pin, tin, sit, pat, nip, spin, tan, pants etc) The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Resources for phonemic awareness skill development within Phase 1. eg Visual Prompts for Spelling – SSP Green.

Easy Transition to Coding (Phonics) in Week 2 (or at the end of Week 1 if you feel they are ready?) Story of the Speech Sound King and the Magic Ant. Watch video with the children and show them the story in hard copy form. Your teaching in Pre School and Prep (Year 1 if starting SSP from scratch) revolves around this exciting story !

Also use Timed Raps to improve decoding speed at their Code Level. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

When 'testing reading' it is important to use a tool that expects miscues, as a result of reading proficiency. As we become proficient readers our eyes do NOT look at each word, as shown here (developmental stages - brain- eyes- info) In this process of making meaning, using visual and non-visual strategies, readers will 'miscue'. A miscue is an unexpected reading 'error'. Consider the sentence, “I will not go to the show.” If a student reads it as, “I won’t go to the show,” the student has not read the exact text, but meaning has not been lost. Continued reading would be appropriate. In fact, going back to self-correct would only interrupt the flow of the reading. (Readers sometimes notice that they have made the mistake. They may correct silently in their own heads, or see no need to self-correct when meaning has been maintained.) Consider a PM benchmarking test. If a child miscues, are you able to recognise this higher level of reading, or do you mark them as 'making a mistake'. Testing tools can often tell us far more about the understanding of the creator of the tool than they realise. Look at the following image and analyse the Brain- Eyes- Information Processing Stages. Good readers do NOT read each word. Testing must take that into account. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

SSP Reading Comprehension Strategies
• Making Connections
• Questioning
• Visualising
• Inferring
• Determining Importance
• Summarising and Synthesising
Only authentic text provides the assistance that readers need to read for understanding. It has meaning and grammatical sense, which are essential for determining how the letter-sound relationships work. How would you pronounce words such as read, wind and close if ‘sounding out’ was the only strategy you could employ? You could not select the appropriate pronunciation unless you had a context which provided meaning and authentic text has meaning and grammatical sense, which are essential for determining how the letter-sound relationships work. Meaning may be constructed from visual texts as well as alphabetic texts. Therefore within SSP texts used for Cracking Comprehension are authentic, but also created using code the child is learning and reinforces the code learnt in previous code levels. They are able to not only code the text but also develop comprehension strategies. If text is given to a whole class, as in the case of Cars and Stars, and yet every student cannot code the text themselves they are lost before they even begin and must rely on a third party to ‘read it to them’. When a piece of text is read to a child, and they are asked to then answer comprehension questions, a different part of the brain is used. The parts we WANT them to use as not exercised, and they will never move to high level reading. Note, that it is also highly likely that they need the questions reading to them as well, as they cannot code these either. So the whole purpose of developing comprehension skills and higher order thinking never happens as it becomes an oral comprehension task. The The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

students, who CAN code the text to read, and the questions to be answered, are able to strengthen and improve on their skills, and the gap between those children and others widens. This process also does little to teach them to read. So please teach children to read while also developing comprehension strategies if they cannot yet code the text given. Students with poor phonemic awareness cannot learn to code (use phonics).
"Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness, and is the most important phonological element for the development of reading and spelling. Phonemic awareness is the ability to focus on the separate, individual sounds in words, the phonemes. “Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound that make a difference to a word’s meaning” (Armbruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2003, p.2). Thus if you change the first phoneme in the word man from /m/ to /p/, you change the word from man to pan. Phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for learning an alphabetic code: if children cannot hear the separate sounds in words (and certain English sounds do not exist in some other languages), they cannot relate these sounds to the letters of the alphabet and so cannot use decoding skills to analyse unknown words.
Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Students with limited phonemic awareness will have trouble acquiring the alphabetic principle, which in turn will limit their ability to decode words (Blachman, 1991) and will not benefit from phonics (Juel, Griffith, & Gough, 1986).
Bottom line; students who cannot code text, cannot understand it, and cannot develop higher order reading skills. This also impacts on their writing. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

SSP Rapid Writing
Before students are able to write independently they need to be able to form letters correctly, and understand how to put a spoken sentence onto paper. Initially they do this using duck hands, lines and numbers, with the teacher helping them with sound pic choices, and focusing on only one or two sentences. See teacher training videos. Spend more time initially on oral language, and developing a ‘writer’s voice.’ Within this session you will focus even more closely on VCOP* within ‘Writing for a Purpose’ Activities. See site for ideas eg photos to trigger story ideas. Have short projects and longer ones. * Big Writing / VCOP from Ros Wilson The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

You are also using VCOP during the other elements of the literacy block.

Notes: 'Duck Hands' stimulate a sensory cognitive process essential for learning to read and spell ie phonemic awareness. They play a HUGE part in wiring ANY brain, so that it is 'ready' to crack the reading, writing and spelling code. The left to right action, as well as seeing the Conductor (SSP teacher) follow the sounds with Duck Hands, from left to right, also helps the brain blend, segment and manipulate the speech sounds as we do when we then translate them to paper as 'writing.' This is vital for students of all ages. Writing is just talking on paper, from left to right, with Speech Sounds (not syllables) represented by Speech Sound Pics (pictures/ representations of speech sounds). This is also why we follow the sounds using the Speech Sound Piano. See the free SSP Spelling Piano app for iPads.
Most education departments are now making clearer recommendations, grounded in research, however this message is not always as clear as this one, from SA. ."Once children can discriminate separate phonemes (that is, can answer questions like those in the phoneme isolation section), letter-sound relationships can be introduced, as both phonemic and phonic skills can be taught simultaneously from this point. When letters are first introduced, they should be referred to by the sound they represent, not by the letter name." The guidelines presented by the SA Education Department show that SSP is a perfect fit ! The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

The document clearly shows that any program asking teachers to starts with phonics from day 1 - eg teaching a 'letter sound per day from day 1 of Prep' is not in line with their recommendations.
SSP is actually the only program with a Phase 1 stage ie pure phonemic awareness. Week 1 and 2 of Prep are spent with a focus on pure phonemic awareness, ie wiring brains for reading and spelling, without the visual confusion of letters, and oral language. PA training continues throughout all three main phases, of course. However Phase 1 means that all children receive around 20 hours of phonemic awareness training, before being introduced to the code, which is supported by research. Research studies suggest that for most children, a complete phonemic awareness program should take no more than around 20 hours in total (NICHD, 2000; Armbruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2003)
Also note the reference to the teaching of letter names. It is recommended that students are NOT taught using letter names in the early stages. Again, as shown within SSP planning.
From http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/
"Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness, and is the most important phonological element for the development of reading and spelling. Phonemic awareness is the ability to focus on the separate, individual sounds in words, the phonemes. “Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound that make a difference to a word’s meaning” (Armbruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2003, p.2). Thus if you change the first phoneme in the word man from /m/ to /p/, you change the word from man to pan. Phonemic The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

awareness is a prerequisite for learning an alphabetic code: if children cannot hear the separate sounds in words (and certain English sounds do not exist in some other languages), they cannot relate these sounds to the letters of the alphabet and so cannot use decoding skills to analyse unknown words.
Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Students with limited phonemic awareness will have trouble acquiring the alphabetic principle, which in turn will limit their ability to decode words (Blachman, 1991) and will not benefit from phonics (Juel, Griffith, & Gough, 1986). As phonics is being mandated, we must give every Australian the opportunity to understand it, however taught. (SSP is a Speech to Print Approach, not a Print to Speech Approach, as are most phonics programs) We need to start doing things differently, if we are to include every learner. This is also especially important for Dyslexic learners. SSP will re-wire their brains for reading and spelling. A long line of research now agrees that phonemic awareness is the best predictor of the ease of early reading acquisition, better than IQ, vocabulary, and listening comprehension. (Stanovich, 1993-94) “One of the most compelling and well-established findings in the research on beginning reading is the important relationship between phonemic awareness and reading acquisition.” (Kame’enui, et. al., 1997)
Yes, there really is a difference in brain activation patterns between good and poor readers. We see the difference when people carry out phonologically based tasks. And that tells us that the area of difficulty - the functional

disruption - in poor readers relates to phonological analysis. This suggests that we focus on phonological awareness when trying to prevent or remediate the difficulty in poor reading. (Shaywitz, 1999) The research further suggests that by the age of five, 80% of children have phonemic awareness skills, while 20% don’t. Without proper assessment and training, those who lack this cognitive skill at the age of five are likely to lack it at the ages of 15, 25, and 65 too.
Because simple phonological awareness tasks help facilitate early reading and writing, they are highly relevant to spelling. The task of separating words into individual phonemes has been found to be a strong predictor of spelling ability (Nation & Hulme, 1997).
A strong correlation exists between phonological awareness and spelling skills because spelling errors are generally phonetically accurate (Kamhi & Hinton, 2000). Emergent literacy consists of the skills, knowledge, and abilities that are prerequisites to the tasks of reading, writing, and spelling (Justice & Pullen, 2003).
Within the IAI Campaign we send children to school with phonemic awareness, but many will also be working at the SSP Green or Purple Code Levels within Phase 2. With good phonemic awareness children are ready for Coding (Phase 2) and so the transition is easy, fun and meaningful to each child. They can start 6-18 months ahead of other Prep students who did not receive this early intervention.

Comprehension Strategies
• * Making Connections * Questioning * Visualising * Inferring * Determining Importance *Summarising and Synthesising
Only authentic text provides the assistance that readers need to read for understanding. It has meaning and grammatical sense, which are essential for determining how the letter-sound relationships work. How would you pronounce words such as read, wind and close if ‘sounding out’ was the only strategy you could employ? You could not select the appropriate pronunciation unless you had a context which provided meaning and Authentic text has meaning and grammatical sense, which are essential for determining how the letter-sound relationships work. Meaning may be constructed from visual texts as well as alphabetic texts. Therefore within SSP texts used for Cracking Comprehension are authentic, but also created using code the child is learning and reinforces the code learnt in previous code levels. They are able to not only code the text but also develop comprehension strategies. If text is given to a whole class, as in the case of Cars and Stars, and yet every student cannot code the text themselves they are lost before they even begin and must rely on a third party to ‘read it to them’. When a piece of text is read to a child, and they are asked to then answer comprehension questions, a different part of the brain is used. Note, that it is also highly likely that they need the questions reading to them as well, as they cannot code these either. So the whole purpose of developing comprehension skills and higher order thinking never happens as it becomes an

oral comprehension task. The students who CAN code the text to read, and the questions to be answered, are able to strengthen and improve on their skills, and the gap between those children and others widens. This process also does little to teach them to read. This is also why ‘levelled’ readers such as PM Readers must not be used until the students are able to code at around the end of the SSP Yellow Code Level. If students have not graduated from the SSP Blue Code Level ie completed the Learning to Code Phase (2) the students are not ready to engage in the National Curriculum, certainly not if still at this stage when entering Year 2 or above. Use the SSP Bridging Program if this is the case, and also SSP as an RTI, at ANY age. If you assess a whole class of Year 2 – 6 students and 30% or more are not able to successfully benchmark at SSP Blue using the SSP assessment, you must include the bridging program for at least once term, or those students will never catch up – even if you give them SSP as an RTI three times a week for 45 minutes. They need to be able to fully participate in your Speedy Six half hour session each day, but also have intensive work that they were not given in earlier grades. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

In high school you will probably need to give all students at least one term of a daily 2 hour literacy block, to teach them to read, write and spell to grade level.
To download the assessment tools please visit www.wiringbrains.com and join as a member. However, to get them to grade level they really need SSP Cracking Comprehension every day (or other day, with SSP Rapid Writing used on the other days)
This ties in with teaching the SSP Code Levels – which enables them to read, write and spell as a continuum – with all elements complementing each other and scaffolding the learning.
All teachers must be upskilled and up to date with research, ie do they know that “ … attention should be focused on decoding words rather than the use of unreliable strategies such as looking at the illustrations, rereading the sentence, saying the first sound or guessing what might ‘fit’. Although these strategies might result in intelligent guesses, none of them is sufficiently reliable and they can hinder the acquisition and application of phonic knowledge and skills, prolonging the word recognition process and lessening children’s overall understanding. Children who routinely adopt alternative cues for reading unknown words, instead of learning to decode them, later find themselves stranded when texts become more demanding and meanings less predictable. The best route for children to become fluent and independent readers lies in securing phonics as the prime approach to decoding unfamiliar words (Primary National Strategy, 2006b, p.9).” The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

(Please see www.rethinkingbenchmarks.com for references to PM Benchmarking in Australia, a system based on the Three Cueing System)
Schools that top NAPLAN over the next three years will be using SSP in 2016 as there is no better program in Australia that offers everything. And we all know that having one program that enables all to speak the same language is the only way to truly get outstanding results. We also know that ‘Young people who enjoy reading very much are nearly five times as likely to read above the expected level for their age compared with young people who do not enjoy reading at all.’ Children’s and Young People’s Reading Today, National Literacy Trust, 2012 Other benefits to reading for pleasure include: text comprehension and grammar, positive reading attitudes, pleasure in reading in later life, increased general knowledge (Clark and Rumbold, 2006). The Australian school curriculum includes a clear focus on the reading of a range of texts, with the underlying purpose of engaging students in reading and reflective discussion. However this, quite simply, is not happening here in Australia. We also know that students thrive when their homes and schools provide a combination of challenges and emotional support that helps them feel a sense of "flow" when they are totally engaged. Students who achieve this "flow" find their work so pleasurable that they pursue it as a reward in itself, says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor in Psychology. (Csikszentmihalyi reports his findings with co-researchers Samuel Whalen, Sloan Foundation Fellow in Education, and Kevin Rathunde, assistant professor in family studies at the University of Utah) The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

This is why children using SSP don’t need to be reminded to use ‘whole body listening’ etc They are intrinsically motivated as enjoying it so much. And Layard and his colleagues at the Wellbeing research programme at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance show that this has far reaching consequences for your students. Their recent research study shows that a child’s emotional health is far more important to their satisfaction levels as an adult than other factors, such as if they achieve academic success when young, or wealth when older. We are not doing well in Australia and it is important to acknowledge this and move forwards with NEW tools ie SSP. (PISA) is a study conducted by the OECD every three years, with the aim of providing a comparable measure of the achievement of 15-year old students in a range of core capabilities. 14% of Australian students aged 15 had failed to reach the baseline level of reading proficiency considered essential for future development in a number of areas of knowledge acquisition. Another 20% were functioning at the minimum baseline proficiency level (OECD, 2011) Australia and New Zealand languish at the bottom of English-speaking nations in the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) "Results from the national literacy tests this year show that, in Year 7, when students are in their first term of high school, only about 15 per cent used correct punctuation “most” of the time, while 10 per cent used effective and - accurate paragraphs and 4 per cent used correct and varied sentences.
By Year 9, students’ technical mastery of writing showed little improvement, only 25 per cent using mostly correct punctuation, 20 per cent using effective and accurate paragraphs and 13 per cent using correct and varied sentences. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Only about 20 per cent of Year 7 students can spell at least 10 difficult words such as “television”, “frenzied” or “shoulder”, rising to about 40 per cent in Year 9."
We must ask ourselves how well we are meeting the academic AND emotional needs of the children, and this of course is reflected in programs chosen by a school. Do the students love it and want to do more at home, in their free time, and they do with SSP? Then change your tools.
You can follow teachers who are doing this on our new dedicated youtube channels that are shared in the private member’s area of the Wiring Brains web site. For example Year 4 teachers using SSP as a whole class throughout 2014, to show how this dramatically improves NAPLAN Year 5 results in 2017. By using SSP you won’t only dramatically improve NAPLAN results across the board because of the shift in teaching strategies, but also as teacher beliefs will shift. You might also be interested in following my work as we are also moving into ‘Wiring Brains for Mathematics’
I'm editing the National Curriculum (as you do) to be in line with current research relating to best practice. So I've already removed: Literary texts that support and extend Foundation students as beginner readers include predictable texts that range from caption books to books with one or more sentences per page. These texts involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisable, realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest; a small range of language features, including simple and The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

compound sentences; mostly familiar vocabulary, known high- frequency words and single-syllable words that can be decoded phonically, and illustrations that strongly support the printed text. and replaced it with: Literacy texts that support and extend Foundation students as beginner readers include only the code they are learning, and a few high frequency words (also coded), to ensure that children gain meaning from the text, and do not learn to ‘use unreliable strategies such as looking at the illustrations, rereading the sentence, saying the first sound or guessing what might ‘fit’. Primary National Strategy, 2006b, p.9 The texts students are given as beginner readers are generated using specific code, to link in with explicit phonics teaching, and to enable them to read with fluency, expression and comprehension within each Code Level. Levelled readers will not be used with beginner readers, and instead replaced with readers the students are able to code independently with fluency and comprehension. The primary aim is to ensure that every student moves on from coded readers to real books as quickly as possible, as being able to read books of their choice, for pleasure has wide reaching positive consequences. Young people who enjoy reading very much are nearly five times as likely to read above the expected level for their age compared with young people who do not enjoy reading at all. Children’s and Young People’s Reading Today, National Literacy Trust, 2012 I have a feeling quite a few elements will have red lines through them. The Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. Wiring Brains for Reading, Writing and Spelling. Prep/ Foundation Year Resource 2015.

Know how to use onset and rime to spell words (ACELA1438) ? GONE in the Wiring Brains Education Revised Version of the Australian Curriculum... I’ll share it when finished. Might be food for thought for teachers nationwide if nothing else...
And a final comment. Please do make sure you carefully evaluate distance travelled for each student. As the head of the Australian Council for Educational Research states that: "The quality of education provided by a school is best judged not by its final results but by the difference it makes, taking into account students' starting points.
Miss Emma X

Prep Teachers SSP Handbook 2015

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