Spelling Mastery (SM) is a synthetic phonics approach to spelling instruction. It interweaves three different aspects of spelling to efficiently and effectively teach depending on the phase of development it is used in. We are using SM in Years 3-6, once students have moved on from the Letters and Sounds phonics program. It is an explicit and direct evidence-based approach, using varying strategies like call-and-repeat, cumulative skill building, and choral repetition to embed spelling knowledge.
SM uses the following three approaches, which are weighted differently depending on the year level of students:
- Phonemic: learning the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters.
- Morphemic: prefixes, bases, suffixes
- Whole word: root words and etymology of words
The program is structured around spelling principles and identifying the morphemes used in words, rather than traditional ‘spelling word lists’ for memorisation.