1. Phonemic Awareness, Literacy, and Students who are DHH
Rachel Friedman Narr, Ph.D.
California State University, Northridge
Deaf Education

2. Part II Application for developing phonological awareness with Deaf/Hard of Hearing students: ~HOW TO~

3. GOAL: to build INTERNAL phonological representations
consider possible routes
Speechreading
Speech Production
Use of residual hearing; audition
Spelling; Fingerspelling; Orthography; Morphography
Visual representation of English sounds
Cued English
Visual phonics
Use any or a combination, but remember only Cued Speech and Visual Phonics provide a complete representation. If you provide incomplete representations using any one method, you’ll have to fill in the gaps using other methods too. Students learn to fill in the gaps using their metalinguistic abilities.

4. Remember VOCABULARY!
You will need to CONSISTENTLY AND MEANINGFULLY teach vocabulary WHILE you teach decoding strategies.
MANY DHH children lack the English lexicon to associate word meaning with English print.

5. Strategies for Decoding
Syllabication
Rhyming
Phonic Analysis
Structural Analysis
Visual configuration
Context Cues
Semantic, syntactic, picture
Dictionary
Assistance from others
The brain is a pattern seeker, you learn by analogy.
Chunking words helps working memory and decoding by breaking words into meaningful pieces
Consistent, systematic, and direct instruction is best for these skills

6. Clap, Tap, Jump, the Number of...
Word Structure
Clap, Tap, Jump, the Number of...
easy
Words in sentences
Syllables in words
Phonemes in words
complex

7. Syllabication- breaking words into syllables
truck base ball tel e phone
el e phant
Syllables are auditory because rhythm is low frequency information.
Syllables are visual because vowels make you open your mouth if you “mouth” the word.
Syllables are POWERFUL because they tell about the shape of a word.

8. El e phant Syllabication When fingerspelling This process
Provide spelling information using natural breaks in words (SYLLABLES)
This process
enhances WORKING MEMORY skills
aids retention of spelling words
capitalizes on “rhythm” of words
El e phant

9. Onsets & Rimes and Rhyming
Chunking beyond the syllable, but before the phoneme
C A T T O P S L I D E
The ONSET is the initial consonant or consonant blend.
The RIME is the ending spelling pattern.
Onsets are the most visual part of the word- they are usually easy to lipread.

10. ~Using Onsets & Rimes~ Words You Know facilitate independence rain ice
snow
main
gain
train
grain
stain
strain
rice
dice
spice
vice
twice
splice
bow
mow
slow
glow
crow
know
throw
If you can spell rain, then you can spell train.

11. Procedure TIE INTO CONTEXT
Pick three or four familiar words that have a RIME (spelling pattern) which is utilized by many words.
Place each word at the top of a chart column. Students also copy this chart.
Discuss the spelling patterns in each word. Show students several one syllable words utilizing the patterns.  Students place the words in the correct column and then read the word.
Have students explain the reason for placing each word in a specific column.
Discuss the spelling patterns in each word.
Procedure
TIE INTO CONTEXT

12. Phonic Analysis Teach how sounds map to letters
Select a “special” sound to emphasize during the week. How many ways is that sound spelled? How many times can you find the word in print? Can you use those words in language (spoken or signed)?
phone cough
flag traffic
elephant stuff

13. Link phonics instruction to structural analysis
Capitalize on spelling patterns, word shapes, morphemes, and affixes.

14. Examples of Structural Analysis Activities
Have children read and write predictable books, stories, and poetry that highlight a specific phoneme or word pattern.
Have children construct word family houses and ladders.
Have children move letter patterns or letters to create new words
(ex: Making Words Activity).

15. Word Shapes Orthographic Cues
elephant
A child might not remember how to spell elephant, but they might remember the “ph” in the middle because of the SHAPE of the word…if that is taught.

16. f i sh

17. Letter combinations Use letter combos to teach PATTERNS
Think about their frequency of occurrence in the books you are reading
(phone, elephant, cold, told, hold)
Some are auditorally and visually similar
(sh, ch, oa, oo, ou, and r-controlled vowels ar, er, ir, or)
Remember, students learn by analogy. Therefore, common elements of words should be emphasized and context and meaningfulness should be MAXIMIZED.
THE BRAIN IS A PATTERN SEEKER

18. Teaching letter combinations
use letter combinations that can be used to build words
Sample sequence for introducing letter combos.
1. th 5. wh 9. ar 13. ai
2. er 6. qu 10. ea 14. ch
3. ing 7. ol 11. oo or
4. sh 8. oa 12. ee 16. ay

19. Structural analysis skills
includes
learning about letter combinations
VC-e patterns (make, bite, hole)
VC-e derivatives (named, hoping)

20. Strategic Color Coding to show word parts
Green: phonically regular words (ex: cat, swim)
Yellow: irregular but frequent pattern ( ex: night)
Red: irregular, need to memorize (ex: once)

21. Making Words making words with letter tiles
sorting words by patterns, word families
making words quickly
extension activities (writing stories, word wall, etc)
Cunningham, P.M., & Hall, D.P. (1994) Making Words. Torrance, CA: Frank Schaffer Publications.

22. Making Words Procedure
Tell how many letters
Tell which letter/sound to change
first, last, vowel
Tell when to change the order of the letters/sounds
Tell when to start from scratch

23. Make-a-Word Bingo
ake at
ail ar
old end

24. Dr. Rachel Friedman Narr
For more information or further discussion on this presentation, please contact
Dr. Rachel Friedman Narr