Phonics & Spelling

Year F-2: UFLI Phonics & Spelling Program

At Aberfeldie, students in Foundation-Year 2 engage in 30 minutes of UFLI Foundations each day. UFLI Foundations is an explicit and systematic phonics program created by the team at the University of Florida Literacy Institute. In UFLI, students are introduced to the foundational reading skills necessary for proficient reading. Following a carefully developed scope and sequence, students systematically acquire each skill needed and learn to apply each skill with automaticity and confidence. 

What specific skills are targeted in the UFLI program?

UFLI Foundations targets the following foundational reading skills: 

• Phoneme blending and segmentation practice 
• Accuracy and automaticity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences
• Decoding automaticity of words with previously learned concepts
• Explicit introduction of new concepts
• Decoding and encoding practice 
• Reading and spelling irregular words 
• Reading and spelling connected text

Year 3-6: Spelling Mastery

Students in Years 3-6 engage in 20-25 minutes of explicit Spelling Mastery each day. Spelling Mastery is a research-driven program that uses the Direct Instruction approach to teach students the skills they need to become accurate and independent spellers. This method is clear, structured, and highly interactive, ensuring every student is actively involved in their learning.

Each Spelling Mastery lesson is explicitly taught and carefully sequenced. Concepts are broken into small, manageable steps, allowing students to master spelling strategies through repeated practice and immediate feedback.

The program draws on three key approaches:

• Phonemic approach: Students learn the relationship between sounds and letters and apply this knowledge directly to word spelling.
• Morphemic approach: Students explore word parts such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words, helping them decode and spell complex vocabulary.
• Whole-word/etymological approach: Students learn about the origins of words and why certain words are spelled the way they are, especially those with irregular patterns.