Phonological Awareness and Letter Sound Knowledge

Phonological Awareness Defined Conscious attention to the sounds of spoken language Includes awareness of Phonemes (smallest unit of sound) Syllables (unit of pronunciation consisting of a vowel alone or a vowel with a consonant) Onset and Rime (onset is the consonant sound of a syllable that comes before the vowel, rime is vowel sound and everything that comes after it)

Phonological awareness involves listening to sounds in words.

Phonological Awareness Importance Why is it so important? Considered the most powerful predictor of later reading achievement A child’s phonological skills in first grade predict how well a child will read in third grade (and beyond)

What Phonological Awareness Does… The ability to. . . Will eventually help children to. . . Separate words into syllables or beats Break down a word into parts to spell or decode/read it -- for example, to spell the word chapter, break it into chap and ter Recognize and generate words that rhyme Use known words to read new words -- for example, to use catch to help them read batch Recognize and generate words that start or end with the same sound Learn to associate particular sounds with particular letters -- for example, knowing that Peter starts with p may help Peter recognize that purple also starts with p Blend sounds into words “Sound out” words -- for example, after saying a sound for each letter in the word nap (/n/ /a/ /p/), putting those sounds together to say nap

What Phonological Awareness Does… The ability to. . . Will eventually help children to. . . Segment words into sounds Spell words -- for example, to hear the found sounds in the clap (/c/ /l/ /a/ /p/), so they can spell it Move sounds around to create new words Use known words to figure out new words -- for example, to use corn to help them decode the word pork

Phonological Awareness Development Syllables or beats before rhyming before individual phonemes or sounds Recognition before generation Beginnings before endings before middles Blending before segmenting Ability to move sounds around to create new words often one of the last skills acquired Drawing from Anthony, J. L., Lonigan, C. J., Driscoll, K., Phillips, B. M., & Burgess, S. R. (2002). Phonological sensitivity: A quasi-parallel progression of word structure units and cognitive operations. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 470-487.

Common Core Standards http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards/reading-foundational-skills/kindergarten/

Phonological Awareness “Skills” Assessment Kids can: recognize and generate rhyming words break words into syllables blend sounds together into words recognize and generate words that start or end with the same sound move sounds around to make new words

Recognize and Generate Rhyming Words Give a child a word and the child can generate rhyming words (known as word families) May include “real words” and nonsense words Examples include providing the word cat and the child comes up with mat, sat, and dat Child recognizes words that rhymes Either hearing them or in print An example would be the child hearing the words hear and fear in text and telling you that they rhyme

Break Words into Syllables Combine syllables to say words /mag/ + /net/ = magnet /blan/ + /ket/ = blanket Segment spoken words into syllables hockey = /hock/ + /ey/ Bubble = /bub/ + /ble/

Blend Sounds Together into Words Using the onset (the initial consonant sound(s) prior to the vowel) and the rime (the vowel and everything after it) the child can blend the sounds together to say the word /m/ and /ice/ to form mice /g/ and /oal/ to form goal /p/ and /uck/ to form puck

Recognize and Generate Words that Start or End with the Same Sound Alliteration: producing words in a sentence that start with the same sound Example: Tucker took ten toucans to town Tuesday. Rhyme: producing words that end with the same sound Fat cat sat

Move Sounds Around to Make New Words What happens if we take away the beginning sound of a word? Example: What word do I have if I take away the /c/ in cat? What happens if we take away the ending sound of a word? Example: What word do I have if I take away the /s/ in cats?

Assessment Example Course Text: McKenna and Stahl p. 98-99

Some Strategies for Developing Phonological Awareness Songs Songs with rhyming words Songs with rhyming blanks (e.g., Down by the Bay) Songs with phonemic manipulation (e.g., The Name Game, Apples and Bananas, Old MacDonald, Willoughby Wallaby Woo) Books, poems, tongue twisters Nursery rhymes and rhyming poems Books with rhyming Books with alliteration Books with phonemic manipulation (e.g., Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook by Shel Silverstein) Tongue twisters

Some Strategies for Developing Phonological Awareness Word games “Count the Beats!” (sort things or friends by the number of syllables or beats) “Going on Vacation” (taking turns saying what they’re going to take on vacation, where there’s a rule like it must start with /b/ (“the buh sound”) or must have a certain number of beats r the like “Who Gets Up?” (determine who gets up with some rule like everyone whose name starts with /j/) “Guess what I’m Saying” (saying words in partially or entirely segmented form and children guess what the word is) Stretching words When writing in front of children (“mmoooommm” when spelling Mom) As a form of play (“jooooooollllllllllliiiiiiaaaaaaaaa” for Julia)