Sounds-Write Training
For education professionals 
by SOUND LITERACY 
Maureen McDaniell, Helen Hampton

COURSE CONTENT
Although the course lasts 6 weeks in total, Weeks 1 - 4 cover the main content.

Week 0 is for familiarizing yourself and introductions and Week 5 is set aside for you to have time to wrap up and revisit any sections you may want to look over again.

 

The structure of the course follows the same sequence as the 4 day intensive Face to Face training we run at Vasse in Western Australia.

Week 0: Settling in
• Welcome
• What is Sounds-Write?
• Course structure and schedule
• Finding your way around the platform
• Course resources, activities, and forums
• To pass the course
• Introduction to the manual
• Introducing the course team

• Now it's your turn!
 

Week 1: Theory and Initial Code
• Theoretical underpinnings
• How to use the lessons?
• Introduction to the Initial Code
• Initial Code: Lesson 1
• Sounds-Write in a nutshell (revisited)
• Review, practice, and assessment

 

Week 2: Initial Code
• Introduction to Week 2
• Review
• Phonics and whole language
• Initial Code: Lesson 1, Error correction
• Initial Code: Lesson 2, Symbol search
• Initial Code: Lesson 3
• Initial Code: Lesson 4
• Initial Code: Lesson 5
• Differentiation
• Diagnostics
• Small group lesson
• Initial Code: A planning session
• Review, practice, and assessment

 

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Sounds-Write linguistic phonics 6 week online training outline
Course staff and participants

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There will be a cohort of trainees doing the course with you. The course will be led by one or more Sounds-Write trainers. Trainers will be there to answer your questions, give some feedback on the assignments when required, and organise a number of online synchronous sessions on Zoom to support you during the course (see below).
 

Structure of the course and time commitment
Over the six weeks of the course, participants will need to spend a substantial amount of time studying this course to make the most of the training.

 

When attending a face-to-face training, you take time off your normal schedule and spend dedicated time on the course. When you do an online course, it is very easy to carry on with your life as normal and to just try and fit the online course in the spare bits of time you might have. We know from experience that if you don't schedule time for your online course, everything else will take priority, and this will only stress you out at the end of the week when you realise you haven't made time for the course and the deadline is looming.

 

PLEASE NOTE: We strongly recommend that you consider how you would block out 6-8 hours for each of the 4 middle weeks of the course that are the most demanding.

 

It is important that you discuss with your school or line manager the time commitment for the course and agree on how and when you will have time to do the course. We strongly discourage you to try to fit the course around your other duties during a busy school or workday, such as in your lunchtime. It is important that you plan so that you will have quality time to concentrate on the course, as it is demanding and will require active engagement on your part.
 

Week 0: approximately 2 hours of work: this is mainly to enable you to find your way around the platform, introduce yourself, and meet your trainer and other trainees. The course includes a discussion forum where you will be able to ask questions, and where you will contribute to some course discussions.

 

Weeks 1-4: approximately 6-8 hours of work per week. Each week will be made available on a consecutive Saturday. You will have to cover the content of that week during that week, as the following Saturday the new week’s content will be available, and you will have to move on to that new content. You will also need to complete all the assessment tasks for each week by the end of that week.

 

Week 5: approximately 2 hours of work: this week has no formal new content, but you will be able to revisit anything in the course before the course closes. At the end of week 5, the course website will close and you will no longer have access to the online course.

 

There will be 4 synchronous sessions online during the course, using the Zoom platform. These sessions will be organised by different trainers on the course. These will take the form of a live Q&A, and also provide the opportunity to consolidate your understanding. For those who cannot attend the live sessions, these will be recorded and made available to all during the course. You will receive information about the date and time for these sessions, and joining instructions, closer to the time. The information will be posted in the course discussion forum.

 

Sounds-Write linguistic phonics 6 week online training outline
Course assessment

 

To pass the course and get a course certificate, you will need to complete and pass the weekly assignments. These include quizzes to check your understanding of the material, self-assessment tasks, and practice tasks. For the practice tasks, you will need to video yourself practising some of the Sounds- Write activities and share a link to the video in the discussion forum. You will have to give feedback on
their video to one of your peers, and you will get feedback from another participant on your video. If you fail the course assessment, you will have the opportunity to do an additional assignment when the course finishes, which you will have to return to me within four weeks. I will mark that assignment and if you pass, you will get your course certificate.

 

Please note that a small number of headteachers have asked to be notified of whether staff from their schools are progressing successfully. We will let you know if we are providing your headteacher with any information about your progress and copy you into it.

 

The Sounds-Write manual
Approximately two weeks before the course starts, we will use your postal address to dispatch the Sounds-Write manual, so you should receive it in plenty of time. Please email us ASAP before the course starts to let them know if you have NOT received the manual, or if it’s been damaged in the post, we will replace it.

 

Together with the manual, you will receive a set of worksheets to use during the training. Please keep these safe, as we will not be able to send you replacements except in exceptional circumstances.

 

NOTE: If you receive the manual and then are not able to attend the on line course or are obliged to withdraw, you may transfer to another course being held within 3 months. If, however, there is no available course within that time-frame or you are unable to attend YOU MUST RETURN the manual and materials at your own cost. Please see our Terms and Conditions attached separately regarding transfers.
 

Equipment
To access the course and do the course activities, you will need access to a PC or laptop (including Mac). You should not do the course on your phone or on a tablet, as some of the quiz activities will not work well. Your computer should have Chrome or Firefox as the preferred browsers (please note that the course will not be fully functional with Microsoft Edge, and that you might not be able to complete parts of the course if this is your only available browser.

 

If you are accessing the course website from work, it is your responsibility to check with your IT manager that the firewall at your school/workplace will enable you to access external content, i.e. the content from our course platform.

 

You will need a notebook to write in, and it is important you take notes on the course as you go along. We will send you a small whiteboard and a whiteboard pen with the manual, but you will also need some Post Its and some sheets of paper for some of the activities. For some activities, you will need to video yourself. You can use the camera on your laptop or mobile phone.