New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy
One-third of Australian students do not meet national literacy benchmarks, reducing their chances of completing school and securing future employment. Students with diverse learning needs, Indigenous or non-English-speaking backgrounds, or low socio-economic status are overrepresented among those who fall short of these benchmarks. Pacific Island nations face similar challenges, with poor educational outcomes, resource constraints, and insufficient teacher training.
A Dictionary of Research Evidence “The Rosetta Stone of Literacy” Noel Pearson
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New Direct Instruction for
Australian Literacy
Australia does not have a national literacy program, and no states or territories provide schools with a standardised, evidence-based literacy program. Literacy is prescribed in jurisdictional curricula, but Australia’s schools usually draw on a variety of commercial literacy programs, developed in Australia or overseas. There is no literacy program that serves schools across the nation.
This is a lacuna. There is a case for filling this lacuna.
Learning to read and write is complex and requires structured support and peer-reviewed effective teaching approaches drawn from research in the fields of psychology, linguistics and education.
New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy draws on up to 200 high-impact, peer-reviewed research studies in psychology, linguistics and education. By using this program, teachers will be able to provide students with the full range of literacy skills needed for proficient reading and writing.
The program is designed to support all learners and will be applicable to all primary school contexts. It will be especially beneficial for students with diverse learning needs or from non-English-speaking and low socioeconomic backgrounds.
School in Papua New Guinea
New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy will span Foundation to Year 6 with four 10-week units per year. Each unit will incorporate a suite of ready-to-teach lessons, Teaching Guides and Student Workbooks. Units will cover key aspects of literacy relevant to each stage of literacy development.
Regular standardised tests will monitor student progress and inform instruction. Cumulative assessments will ensure consistent reporting to schools and families.
New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy is based on orthographic mapping, where students learn to read and write by connecting the pronunciation, meaning and writing of words.
The program uses direct and explicit instruction pedagogy, in which teachers introduce clear rules, model examples, and guide students through structured practice.
Students learn to master key concepts and skills through clear objectives, modelling, guided practice, independent practice, regular reviews and active teacher involvement.
New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy is built on evidence-based literacy standards aligned with high-impact research studies on best practices in language instruction. The program ensures mastery in reading, writing and communication, progressing systematically from one skill to the next. These standards provide a clear framework for the planning, objectives, design and assessment embedded throughout each unit.
Mele Maat School, Efate Island, Vanuatu
Literacy Components and Skills
Phonics is an essential pillar of literacy, but effective instruction requires more than phonics. Literacy education is often described in terms of five pillars: phonics, phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
As research becomes more interdisciplinary, Good to Great Schools has identified more components. New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy incorporates seven literacy components and 23 essential skills.
Component 1: Phonological Awareness
- Rhythmic awareness: Recognise rhythmic patterns and beats in speech.
- Word awareness: Recognise words within sentences.
- Syllable awareness: Recognise syllables within words.
- Onset-rime awareness: Recognise first and last parts of words, such as ‘c’ + ‘at’ in ‘cat’.
- Phonemic awareness: Recognise and manipulate individual sounds within words.
Component 2: Sound-Letter Connection
- Print awareness: Appreciate print as references to the outside world.
- Letter-by-letter decoding: Identify, sound out and blend sounds together to read.
- Analytic decoding: Identify and read words based on familiar letter patterns.
- Sight word recognition: Automatic recognition of whole words without the need to sound them out letter by letter.
School in Papua New Guinea
Component 3: Fluency
- Articulation accuracy: Read words with accurate pronunciation.
- Rate production: Read passages with appropriate rhythm and pace.
- Prosody: Read words with appropriate intonation, duration and loudness.
Component 4: Vocabulary
- Word comprehension: Know word meanings and their uses in context.
- Synonyms: Know multiple related words with the same or similar meanings.
- Polysemy: Know identical words that can have different related meanings.
- Homophony: Know identical-sounding words having completely different meanings.
- Semantic hierarchy: Know the grouping relations of words from general to specific, such as ‘animals’ and ‘dogs.’
- Epistemic words: Know words that help students understand the mental states of others
Component 5: Reading Comprehension
- Text structure awareness: Recognise and identify different elements of text.
- Inference making: Recognise hidden information implicit in text.
Component 6: Letter Transcription
- Letter formation: Write all the capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet in a conventional way.
- Spelling: Write words correctly using the right letters in the right order, knowing how to put letters together to form words when writing.
Component 7: Passage Writing
- Text creation: Write connected sentences that form a coherent passage.
Program Design
The program design has several core defining features. These include:
Sequential design
Sequential teaching of skills, building on prior knowledge, ensuring concept mastery.
Direct and explicit instruction format
Direct and explicit instructions with gradual release of responsibility involving teacher modelling, choral learning and guided independent practice.
Teacher guidance
Immediate teacher-guided feedback and support.
Indigenous teaching practices
Inclusion of research-supported effective exercises that originate from oral-based Indigenous practices around the world.
Support for bilingualism
Incorporation of both English as a foreign language and the students’ ancestral language to promote both biliteracy and Indigenous language preservation.
Linguistic richness
Exposure to a literacy-rich environment involving diverse and complex words and sentences organised in a step-by-step manner.
Research shows that students remember learning materials better when the content is familiar. Learning is also strongest when students form personal connections with what they are taught. The program begins with familiar, culturally grounded content before gradually introducing content from diverse cultures.
New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy provides materials that reflect Australia’s three cultural identities: Indigenous heritage, British institutional foundations and multicultural diversity.
Curriculum
The program includes the following frameworks:
Curriculum Materials:
Scope and sequence, unit overviews, lesson objectives covering lesson planning, classroom exercises, teaching strategies and assessments.
Lessons
Four daily lessons per week (Monday to Thursday), with Fridays for reviews and assessments. Each lesson integrates instruction from a classroom teacher and a televised presenter.
Instructional Guides
Step-by-step guidance to support consistent lesson delivery, including scripted teacher dialogue, presenter modelling, activity instructions, interactive prompts, slide navigation and pacing recommendations.
Student Workbooks
Structured exercises and practice materials aligned with each lesson’s objectives to reinforce learning and support independent practice.
Assessments and Grouping
Weekly and cumulative assessments monitor student progress. Students are grouped by their learning stage to target instruction for their specific needs.
Rubrics and Marking Guides
Detailed rubrics and marking guides ensure consistency and transparency in the evaluation of student progress.
The program will include an online professional learning module that supports the teaching team in delivering the program.
The module offers teacher support in three ways:
- Introduces teachers to the program’s objectives and the significance for students, provides an overview of the program structure and specific year-level, term-level and weekly-level content.
- Practical guidance on delivering lessons, conducting assessments and facilitating activities.
- Empower teachers by providing a complete knowledge of language development and literacy.
Become a Partner School
A series of trials is planned by Good to Great Schools Australia’s research team to assess the effectiveness of program components in schools across Australia and the Pacific Islands in 2026-2027. Standardised tests for each literacy component will also take place at the beginning, middle, and end of the year.
On a weekly basis, school leaders monitor classrooms and evaluate the delivery of lessons and their impact on students. This includes:
- progress and summative assessment to monitor student learning
- surveys and feedback sessions to gather input from teachers, parents and students
- regular program reviews to ensure effectiveness and make necessary adjustments.
Support Our Mission
Good to Great Schools Australia is currently seeking funding to complete the program’s development and to run trials throughout late 2026 and implementations in schools from 2027 to 2031.
If you are interested in supporting the delivery of New Direct Instruction for Australian Literacy for Australian and Pacific Island countries, please contact: info@goodtogreatschools.org.au