Early Literacy Pop Quiz for Early Childhood Professionals: Phonological Awareness Barbara Reed M.Ed Head Start Region X Quality Center May 2003

2 Purpose of this pop quiz To give you an opportunity to assess how well you know the concepts of phonological awareness. To give you practice with the terminology of phonological awareness. To review with you the developmental progression of phonological awareness in children.

3 (Skip the next three slides if you are familiar with these definitions:) Phonology The sound system of language Phonological awareness ability to hear the sounds in a language apart from the meaning of that language. Phoneme Smallest linguistic sound in a word (the sound produced by a letter or letter group). Phonemic awareness The insight that every word can be conceived of as a sequence of phonemes.

4 Developmental progression of phonological awareness: Rhyming Recognition or production of words whose endings sound alike, e.g. “Hickory Dickory” Alliteration Recognition or production of words with common initial sounds, e.g. “Dickory Dock” Segmentation Separation of sentences or words into smaller parts, e.g. “little” becomes “lit tle”when segmented into syllables Blending Combining sounds to form words

5 Combining phonological awareness and print awareness: Alphabetic principal: Units of sound in speech are represented by written letters. Phonics: A system for teaching reading by matching the sounds of speech with letters.

6 Pop Quiz ( answers follow each question) 1. Phonological awareness is one facet of an intentional early literacy curriculum for children 3-5. What are two other important facets?

7 1. Print/Book Awareness Language Development

8 2. Phonological awareness is: (choose one) a - the awareness of the differences in sounds in the environment b - the awareness of what sound a letter stands for in written words c - the ability to hear the sounds in a language apart from the meaning of that language d - all of the above

9 2. c - the ability to hear the sounds in a language apart from the meaning of that language. For example, to recognize that fox and box sound alike, or that soap and socks start with the same sound, or that the statement “Mary had a little lamb”” is made up of five different words.

10 3. Phonological awareness is an important foundation skill to reading because:

11 3. Children need to understand that spoken language is made up of separate sounds so they can later “sound out” written words. The performance of kindergartners on tests of phonological awareness is a strong predictor of their future reading achievement.

12 4. Check which of the following are phonological awareness activities: ___ writing the first letter of your name ___ singing songs that rhyme ___ learning the names of letters in the alphabet ___ clapping out the syllables in your name

13 4. ___ writing the first letter of your name singing songs that rhyme ___ learning the names of letters in the alphabet clapping out the syllables in your name

14 5. True or False? In most children, an awareness of the phonological structure of speech generally develops gradually over the preschool years.

15 5. True. 2 to 3 year olds have been observed to play with sounds and monitor and correct speech errors. Many 3 and 4 year olds can can identify rhyming words. Identifying words that begin with a particular sound comes later in the developmental progression of phonological awareness. Older preschoolers can generally hear separate words and syllables in a sentence. Blending and segmenting parts of words are usually considered to be late preschool or kindergarten level skills.

16 6. True or False? The typical preschool classroom has traditionally provided phonological awareness activities.

17 6. True. Phonological awareness activities that have usually occurred in a preschool classrooms include: reading books that have rhyming and alliteration in their texts, doing rhyming finger plays and songs clapping while singing, playing with language in conversation, singing sound substitution songs, etc.

18 7. Which phonological awareness activities besides the ones on the previous slide might appropriately take place in preschool classrooms? ____talk about the beginning sounds of words ____ segmenting words into syllables ____ segmenting syllables into phonemes ____ blending phonemes and syllables together to build words

19 7.  talk about the beginning sounds of words  segmenting words into syllables  segmenting syllables into phonemes  blending phonemes and syllables together to build words

20 8. Give an example of a way to have children line up after circle time using ….. 1. a rhyming activity 2. an alliteration activity 3. a name segmenting activity 4. a phoneme and syllable blending activity

21 8. Rhyming: “I’m going to say a word that sounds like someone’s name, and that person will be the leader today.” Alliteration: “Everyone whose name starts like this: Buh! stand up.” Name segmenting: “Let’s go around the circle and clap out the parts of everyone's name. When your name is done, you can get on line.” Phoneme and syllable blending: “I’m going to say the colors slowly. If you are wearing rr ed, line up. If you are wearing puh er puh ll, line up.”

22 9. What might a classroom teacher do to provide developmentally appropriate phonological awareness instruction to children with the following special needs in her classroom? Child is already able to read some words: Child is not attending to conversation: Child has very little residual hearing:

23 9. Child is already able to read some words: encourage writing, teach phonics Child is not attending to conversation: work on the objective of interactive play Child has very little residual hearing: ascertain what system child will be using to learn to read, provide practice in precursor skills

Second Language Learners... Should you include phonological awareness activities in languages other than English in a multi-cultural classroom?

Many researchers say you should. “Teachers need to respect the child’s home language and culture and use it as a base on which to build and extend children’s language and literacy experiences”. This quote is from Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children ( Joint position statement of the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children) 1998.

Second Language Learners... What are some resources to help you find phonological awareness activities for children whose native language is not English?

Family members can share native songs and nursery rhymes The Center for Children & Families at Education Development Center, Inc.’s website to support work with the Latino population: etc.

Arrange the following skills in developmental order: ___ rhyming ___ matching sounds and letters (phonics instruction) ___ alliteration ___ sentence segmentation ___ responding to verbal input ___ blending sounds into words ___ attention to sounds in the environment

attention to sounds in the environment 2 responding to verbal input 3 rhyming 4 alliteration 5 sentence segmentation 6 blending sounds into words 7 matching sounds and letters (phonics instruction)

True or False? Books based on rhyming and alliteration are developmentally inappropriate for 2- and 3- year-olds By the late preschool period, if taught, many children can distinguish the phonemes in words. Phonemic awareness is a precursor skill to matching letters and sounds (phonics) Phoneme blending, segmenting, and manipulation are often considered late preschool or kindergarten skills

Books based on rhyming and alliteration are developmentally inappropriate for 2- and 3- year-olds False By the late preschool period, if taught, many children can distinguish the phonemes in words. True Phonemic awareness is a precursor skill to matching letters and sounds (phonics) True Phoneme blending, segmenting, and manipulation are often considered late preschool or kindergarten skills True

32 Information for this pop quiz was taken from: Dodge, D.T., Colker, L.J.,&Heroman,C. (2002)The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, Fourth Edition. Washington D.C.: Teaching Strategies. Landry, S.L., Gunnewig, S., Calhoun, D.J., Flores, E.Tuynman, B. Aston, L. & Harrison, G.(2002). National Head Start S.T.E.P. Trainer’s Manual.Houston: University of Texas Health Science Center. Linder, T.W. (1999). Read, Play, and Learn. Baltimore: Brookes. Notori-Syverson, A., O’Connor, R.E., & Vadasy, P.F. (1998). Ladders to Literacy Baltimore: Brookes. Sandall, S. R. & Schwartz. (2002).Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs. Baltimore: Brookes. Snow, C.E., Burns, M.S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1999). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. National Academies Press.