How to Teach Phonological Awareness Taken from pgs. 79-83 in Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick Start with the MULTISENSORY STAGE: The student can ONLY do the task with external prompts or helps. The student often makes mistakes. **Use the word lists from the 1 min. activities from a given level to teach the level. Ex. H1, I2, etc.** Step 1 (Usually only in grades 2+; Skip this step in K and 1st): Use phonics/spelling to illustrate phonological awareness concepts. (Remember…this is considered phonics because of the presence of print. It is simply used to anchor the concept.) You will ONLY use one activity from Step 2, 3, or 4 in each day. For example, if I am introducing level H1, I would use Step 2, 3 dimensional tokens for my lesson. That would be all for that day from the multisensory stage. In subsequent days, I would use a different activity from Step 2 or an activity from Step 3 or Step 4, moving from more support needed to less support. Step 2: Use visual/spatial cues **Three dimensional tokens **Two dimensional tokens **Invisible token technique Step 3: Reinforce segmentation **Clapping or table tapping **Hand puppet Step 4: Use auditory cues to emphasize sounds **Whisper technique **Stretching and repeating sounds Move to the KNOWLEDGE STAGE: The student can do the task mentally with NO external prompts, but not quickly. He or she may still make mistakes. (Use the level they have just moved out of from the multisensory stage for Step 5. This is usually one level below their instructional level. Step 5: Use One Minute Activities to train phonological awareness to automaticity. Move to the AUTOMATIC STAGE: The student can do a task QUICKLY and with NO APPARENT EFFORT. The student rarely makes mistakes. (2 sec or less each item) “Struggling readers are not likely to show substantial improvements in reading until they can do phoneme level processing automatically.” -D. Kilpatrick