What is Phonological Awareness?

 Hi Everyone!

Seeing as my blog is predominantly written about how to get the best from students using a synthetic phonics approach, I thought it would be most prudent to write a piece explaining the ins and outs of phonological awareness. 

What is it? 

Why should every teacher be equipped with this knowledge?

I will provide the answer to both of these questions in today's post. 

Perhaps we had better wind all the way back to the start and wrap our heads around the what of phonological awareness. 

Phonological awareness refers to your ability to understand and recognize the sound structure of the spoken language. Or put more simply, an awareness that speech is made up of different segments, which are represented by an alphabetic code. It includes a variety of skills including rhyme awareness and production, word awareness, detection of syllables and manipulation of onset and rime. 

Under the 'umbrella' of phonological awareness sits a crucial, distinctly separate skills which consists of sub-skills. This is called phonemic awareness - the ability to recognize and manipulate the smallest units of sound in spoken communication. Let me preface the following: phonemes refer to individual units of sound in speech (i.e., 'cat' is comprised of three phonemes: c-a-t). Phonemic awareness consists of four main sub-skills including phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion, and phoneme substitution. 

Here is a handy little graphic I made to help understand how the skills fit in with one-another

You can think of the ability to read as a rope - a single skill that is made of many tiny strands, all equally as important as each other to ensure strength and integrity of the rope. 

We can also consider phonological awareness as a set of steps. Each skill is more difficult than the last, and requires mastery of the previous skill to continue climbing and improving. Below is another handy-dandy little graphic I have made to show the typical progression of phonological awareness in young students. 

It is important to remember that phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are distinct in what they refer to, and the skills they include.

Why should every teacher be equipped with this knowledge?

It's quite simple really - this approach works. Statistically, around 1 in 10 students is coming to school with some form of dyslexia - diagnosed or not. Teaching a synthetic phonics curriculum ensures that every. single. child. will have their learning needs met in your classroom - there will be no one left behind. Aside from being structured and systematic in your approach, the synthetic phonics method of teaching is one that captures the needs of your advanced learners, your middle of the road learners, and your learners who reading does not come naturally to. 

Multiple scientific studies support synthetic phonics as a teaching method that captures all abilities. In 1999, Schneider & colleagues found that explicitly and systematically teaching phonics and phonological awareness skills actually reduced the prevalence of dyslexia among at-risk children. 

I have been told by many reading experts that if students are still behind in reading at Grade 2 level, their chances of catching up are slim to none. It is our job at lower elementary teachers to hit the nail square on the head and to be exceptional, skilled, and knowledgeable in our instruction of literacy. We can achieve this through high quality phonics instruction. 

Comment below if you have been inspired, or are going to try something new in your classroom tomorrow!

References

Schneider, W., Ennemoser, M., Roth, E., & Küspert, P. (1999). Kindergarten prevention of dyslexia: Does training in phonological awareness work for everybody?. Journal of learning disabilities, 32(5), 429-436.

How to Teach New Sounds

 Hi friends!

I have always had the fortune of working with some incredibly talented and knowledgeable colleagues who have taught me much in terms of best practice. Through observations, my own professional development and reading, I have development a specific and effective way of structuring my phonics instruction. 

I have had great success with this method and have honed it over a few years of practice. I have often started the school year with 30% of my class reading below standard, and finished the school year with less than 5% still below level. It works. 

My phonics instruction block is a quick 20-25 minute session that keeps students engaged and learning a bunch. In this post I am going to outline minute-by-minute my method of phonics instruction.

0-3 minutes

Review Phase

Using flashcards, go over previous sounds learned. This is also a great way to watch students individually to see if they are confidently answering or 'going along' with what other students are saying. Frequent and spaced retrieval of information is absolute key to retention. 

3-5 minutes

Introduction Phase

Introduce the sound you are going to teach by writing it on your whiteboard. I like to cover it with my hand and each time I take my hand off, students have to say the sound. We do this around 7-10 times to really make sure students are getting the sound correct. Here is where you give immediate responsive feedback to students about their pronunciation of the sound. I also sometimes like to accompany with cued articulation. I also explicitly tell students the sensations they should feel and where the parts of their mouth should be. For example for 'v', their teeth should touch their bottom lip and they should feel a vibration when they touch their throat. 

5-8 minutes

Multi-Sensory Learning Phase

I distribute whiteboards and a marker among students. There are several ways to do this efficiently such as having 2-3 helpers, having a quick line up system, or having the materials on the floor before starting. Do what suits your classroom best and keeps the pace of the lesson quick. 

Students will write the new phoneme on their whiteboard ten times, saying the matching sound each time. 

This section definitely requires a bit of behavior management. Sometimes the temptation to scribble on the boards can be pretty high! I ask students for 'listening boards', where markers are capped, hands are empty and behind backs, and boards are face down on their laps. 

8-12 minutes

Small Scale Application Phase

Continuing on the work with the whiteboards, I will often use this part of the lesson to do one of two activities - car park sounds, or a spelling PowerPoint. 

Car park sounds - I have a list of words using today's phonics focus that change 1-2 sounds each time. Students write the first word on their whiteboards, I then give them another word but they don't rub out the first word. They must listen to what sound changes and rub out only the changing sounds to replace them

Spelling PowerPoint - I have around 10-15 pictures of words that contain today's phonics focus. Students say the word to match the picture and write it on their whiteboards. 

12-20 minutes

Large Scale Application Phase

I love dictation. There is no better way than dictation for students to practice everything they have just learned in the last 15 or so minutes. Settled at their tables with their notebooks, I have a pre-prepared sentence that includes several instances of our focus phoneme. I say the sentence once to students, then read word by word. Students place their hands on their heads when they have finished writing each word so I don't leave anyone behind. Once we are finished, a volunteer reads the sentence to the class. I tell students how many instances of the phoneme they need in their sentence, and ask them to underline the sound each time individually. Finally, students draw a picture to match their sentence.

While students draw, I visit every student individually and review their work. This is so I can provide responsive, immediate feedback on their work. I will ask them to sound out words they have missed and make corrections where needed. I don't generally focus on any mistakes other than what today's lesson focus was. 

And that's it my friends! I keep this the same every day - I want students to find it predictable and have nothing else to concentrate on except the explicit instruction. I hope you have found this post helpful and have some new ideas to try in your classroom. It only takes 20 minutes a day to really catch and help every single student in your class with their decoding and spelling skills. 

Let me know in the comments below if you have tried this with your class!

My Favorite Initial Sound Activities

Hi friends!

When we explicitly teach students letters and corresponding sounds, we are giving them the tools to crack the code that is the English language, 

Today I wanted to share with you some of my all-time favorite activities for teaching initial sounds and letter/sound identification. Ranging from groups of letters to more advanced skills using blending, add these activities to your literacy rotation today!

I have ordered the list from 'easiest' to 'hardest' in terms of what skills and knowledge are involved with successfully engaging with each activity. 

1. INITIAL SOUND ALPHABET MATS

Prep once and never again with these initial sound mats. I use these on rotations with my students. Tweezers and pompoms are excellent ways to build finger dexterity and fine motor skills. 

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2. SAY & COLOR ALPHABET SOUNDS

My students cannot get enough of anything that they can color in! These sheets are perfect for isolating and practicing single sounds that have just been taught. 

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3. INITIAL SOUND PUZZLES

Do your students enjoy puzzles as much as mine do? I made these alphabet matching puzzles so students who are consolidating their letter/sound ID can practice independently or with partners. Cards students have to pick up and move around is great for building finger dexterity as well as truly using and applying their letter/sound knowledge. 

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4. CVC INITIAL SOUND CARDS

An activity for some of the higher level students, these cards not only require application of the letter/sound ID knowledge, but also support skills of blending to read. These cards are easy to prepare and can be stored away for use across many activities and for years to come.

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5. ALPHABET PUZZLE CARDS

Similar to the Initial Sound Puzzles, these cards operate on the same premise - students meaningfully rehearse their knowledge of letters and sounds. Further, students will practice how to listen for and isolate sounds in words to correctly identify the initial sound. These puzzles are fantastic for use as you teach groups of letters, as there are 5 parts to each puzzles you can offer 8-12 letters at a time without the activity being too quick and easily completed.  

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6. INITIAL SOUND READ, CUT, AND MATCH

I'm not much of a worksheet kind of gal but sometimes my students actually crave something quiet, independent and methodical to do. Perfect for rehearsing small groups of taught letters at a time, these sheets will support students in their segmenting of words, fine motor skills as they cut and paste, and color the pictures. These sheets are perfect for homework or morning work!

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7. INITIAL SOUND PEG CARDS

Using pegs and manipulatives in your classroom is an ideal way to build critical fine motor skills in students' little hands needed to grasp a pencil correctly and write. I specifically designed these cards to include other prominent sounds in the words to build the ability to segment and isolate individual sounds in words. 

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8. BUILD-A-CVC WORD

Continuing to move up the ranks of difficulty, these CVC Build-A-Word cards use students' letter/sound ID knowledge to create a CVC word that matches the bright and colorful picture. These can be laminated and written on with wipe-off markers, or used with magnetic letters. 

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9. STARTING SOUND MYSTERY SENTENCES

Perhaps the most challenging initial sound activity on my list (and why I left it until last!) but boy oh boy do my students eat these up! Students truly will be able to 'crack the code' using their knowledge of letters and sounds in this activity. The sheets can be laminated and used with wipe-off marker or with magnetic letters. Students will practice a variety of important phonological awareness skills as well as recognition and rehearsal of high frequency words. 

Click the image below to purchase from my TPT store!