Reading Comp. 2: Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness….

When to teach it?

Group 3

Natoy Brissett
Edith Rodriguez

Mari Montes

Kathia Elisbrun
Roberta Braxton

Phonological Awareness 101

●Phonological awareness is the ability
to hear and manipulate sounds in a
spoken language.

●Essentially it allows a person to hear
a word and produce the sound in the
letters in word form

●It consists of different parts and levels
(pictured)

But the question remains.. WHEN is
the BEST time to teach it?

Multiple Choice

Which grade level is most ideal to teach phonological awareness?

• Kindergarten

• 1st Grade

• 2nd Grade and above

• All of the Above

Kindergarten……

●Should receive at least 10-15 minutes per
day of phonological awareness instruction

●Instruction can take place in a whole group
activity or can be broken into ongoing
activity throughout the day;

○For example: Call on students to line up for lunch
according to the first sound in their names.

●Additionally, for those that need further
assistance provide small group instruction
for an additional 15 minutes per day, 3 - 4
times a week.

First Grade…

●Students should receive instruction 10 minutes per
day for about the first three months of school, in
conjunction with phonics instruction.

●For students who need further assistance, provide
instruction in a small-group instruction for an
additional 15 minutes per day, three or four times
per week, as long as needed.

Second Grade and above

●For second grade and beyond,
phonemic awareness is given

●Instruction is only necessary for
students who do not automatically
recognize words and who are not
reading at grade level.

●Students who need further assistance,
should be provided with instruction in a
small-group setting for an additional
15 minutes per day, three or four
times

Multiple Choice

What is an average recommended time for a student who requires additional intervention for phonological awareness?

• 5 minutes

• 10 minutes

• 15 mintes

• 20 minutes

When to Teach?

●It’s best to teach at the early stage in a child’s development. For example as
early as Kindergarten

●For most students learning to attend to individual phonemes comes more
easily.

●Students must master the several levels of phonological awareness before it
is developed.

●Begin with larger sounds units and more progressively to smaller units.

●Instruction is more effective when it focuses on one or two phoneme
manipulations, rather than when it combines multiple types of manipulations
in one lesson.

When is the best time to incorporate letters?

●Letter inclusion in phonemic awareness is
evident however, the appropriate time to
introduce/incorporate letters is not clear
(Ehri and Roberts 2006)

●Students can become confused when
processing letter sound, blending and
segmenting at the same time

●For a smooth transition, it is recommended
that students should be able to:

○Blend and segment CVC words without letters

○Possess a firm understanding of letter names
and sound recognition prior to teaching
phonemic awareness

Multiple Choice

Mrs. Simms, a kindergarten teacher, realizes that her students still have trouble blending letters and segmenting CVC words. She wants to move forward with introducing letters. What would be the best plan of action?

• Move forward, introduce letters anyways

• Do Nothing

• Do not move forward, make sure students have a concrete understanding of blending and segmenting first

• Review blending and segmenting for a 15 minutes and then move forward

When to Assess & Intervene?

●Begin phonological awareness assessment in mid -Kindergarten
and continue to assess it throughout the early elementary
grades as needed.

●Once a student demonstrate decoding abilities, assessment of
phonological awareness is no longer necessary.

●For students who have low decoding skills in 1st and 2nd grade,
the best approach is to assess their phonological awareness
before teaching it.

​Older Struggling Readers

​

• Phonological Awareness contribute less to older, normal developing readers, but may make big difference for older students who have failed to make normal progress in learning to read.

• If students continue to struggle with decoding in upper grades, assessment in phonological  awareness may be appropriate.

• Lack of foundational skills can interfere with development of skilled decoding.

• Intervention for older students should focus on the specific areas of weakness.