Phonological Awareness in the Classroom

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Phonological Awareness in the Classroom

• Compiled by
• Laura Street, Speech Pathologist
• Nikki Worthington, Speech Pathologist
• Jane Francis Gooden, Speech Pathologist

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Outline

• What is Phonological Awareness
• Why is it important
• The pieces of phonological awareness activities
• Phonics
• Sight words
• Reading strategies
• Resources and information
• Phonics Vs Whole Language

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Phonological Awareness - What??

• There are many different terms used when
  describing early literacy skills and this can be
  confusing. A list of these terms and their
  definitions has been provided.
• Phonological Processing
• Phonological or Phonemic Awareness
• Rapid Automative Naming
• Phonological memory
• Phonics
• Phonology

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Why is Phonological Awareness important??

• Research has shown that phonological awareness
  is the most powerful predictor of success in
  learning to read and spell
• (Wagner and Torgeson, 1987)

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Why is Phonological Awareness important?

• A study of 288 5-year-old kinder children found
  that children who were successful at performing
  phonological awareness tasks learnt to read
  words with greater ease (Torgesen et all., 1994)
• Catts and Kamhi (2005, p.130) claim that there is
  now compelling evidence regarding the
  importance of phonological awareness as a
  pre-requisite for learning to read.
  

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Phonological Awareness and ESL students

• Considering the large number of ESL students in
  Victorian schools limited time is spent
  explicitly teaching how Australian sounds are
  made.

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ESL Students some facts

• Mandarin The only final consonants are /n/,
  /ng/ and /r/.
• Vietnamese - /b/ /d/ do not occur and there are
  no consonant clusters.
• Somali - /b/, /d/, /g/ are devoiced in word final
  and word initial position.

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Phonological Awareness and ESL students

• Research indicates that all children -
  irrespective of their native language - are
  likely to benefit from early interventions that
  include phonological awareness training.
• There is a correlation between vocabulary
  development and effective literacy instruction
  in ESL students.
• When foreign language learners are explicitly
  taught the phonology (sound system) of the new
  language they are able to improve both their
  ability to learn the target language and improve
  their phonological awareness skills.

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Phonological Awareness and older students.

• Many new arrivals from overseas start at school
  with little or no reading skills.
• Those children still experiencing reading
  difficulty in grades 3/4/5/6 would benefit from
  explicit teaching of the sound system as well as
  improving their phonological awareness skills.

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The Pieces of phonological awareness
Rhyming

• Word awareness

Segmenting words to syllables
Segmenting
Alliteration
Blending
Manipulating sounds
Practice, experience, exposure
substitution
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Word Awareness (sentences ? words)

• The ability to break up sentences into words.
• Mynameislaura ? My name is Laura
• Compound words are divided into their meaningful
  parts
• Treehouse ? Tree house
• Love and Reilly, 1996

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Word Awareness Activities

• Clap words in sentences. Select sentences of
  increasing length.
• Read poems and books students to tap each word
  in selected sentences.

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Segmentation (words ? syllables)

• Words can be broken into syllables or beats
• 1 syllable ? cat, mouse, etc.
• 2 syllable ? Walking, doctor
• 3 syllable ? Hospital, elephant
• 4 syllable ? supermarket, television
• 5 syllable ? abracadabra
• How many in supercalafrajelisticexpialidocious?

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Segmentation Activities Breaking words into
beats/syllables

• Make a list of 1-5 syllable words. Ask student to
  identify syllables/beats in words by
• Clapping
• Touching their head or knees
• Jumping
• Tapping
• Clicking
• Hitting a drum etc.
• Ticking or colouring in parts of a picture
• Love and Reilly The Train Game

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Rhyming

• This requires recognition and production of words
  that rhyme words that end with the same group of
  sounds
• E.g. Which words rhyme sun, shirt, fun
• E.g. What word rhymes with cat?

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Rhyming ActivitiesRecognising rhyming words

• Rhyming books Identify and discuss rhyming
  words (e.g. Dr Seuss). E.g. Sam and Ham rhyme
  because they have the same sounds at the end. Do
  fox and box and box have the same sounds at
  the end?
• Sounds of the Century Quiz
• Questions could include
• Does rhyme with .?
• Tell me the two words that rhyme (give four
  options e.g. dog map kite lap)?
• Nursery rhymes Learn and recite nursery rhymes.
  

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Rhyming Activities Producing rhyming words

• Make silly rhyming sentences by asking the
  student to provide rhyming words e.g. The dog
  was lost in the(fog)
• Change a popular nursery rhyme using new rhyming
  words.
• Sound Detective
• E.g. I have five fingers and rhyme with band
  (hand)
• Older students Write a rap song.

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Alliteration

• The ability to identify the first sound in words.
• Bat, scarf, show
• Produce new words that begin with the same sound
• Bat, bird, big, bite, basket

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Alliteration Activities

• Read books involving alliteration. E.g.
  Animalia, Each Peach Plum Pear, Sheep in a Shop.
• Expand on character names in books using
  alliteration e.g. Hector and Maggie
  Horrible Hector and Magnificent Maggie

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Segmentation (beginning, medial and final sounds)

• Identification of how many sounds are in words
  and working out the component sounds of blends
• E.g.
• Car ? /k/ and /a/
• Cat ? /k/, /æ/, /t/
• Skate ? /s/, /k/, /ei/, /t/

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Sound Level ActivitiesSegmenting words into
sounds

• Eye spy e.g. I spy with my little eye something
  beginning with the sss sound.
• Ask the student to select one word from each page
  of a book and discuss
• What does the word mean?
• How many sounds (sounds at the start, middle and
  end)?
• How many letters?
• What does the word rhyme with?
• Does it remind the student of any other words?
• Why is it interesting?
• The student can write the word in a Cool Words
  Book and draw a picture.

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Sound Level Activities

• Discuss the difference between long and short
  sounds.
• Activity
• Test sounds by drawing snakes.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
p
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• Identify sounds using counters or blocks.
  Different coloured counters can be use to
  represent consonants vs vowels.
• Nonsense words can also be used to prevent
  reliance on sight vocabulary.

c
a
t
Change the c sound to a b
b
a
t
b
r
u
sh
Change the b sound to a c
r
u
sh
c
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Blending Sounds

• Individual parts of words, either syllables or
  sounds are given and the child is required to
  push them together, and discover the whole word
• E.g. /r/ - /æ/ - /k/ ? rack

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Sound Level ActivitiesBlending sounds

• Love and Reilly blending activity
• I know a family of ipets who live underground.
  They had fifty babies last week and each baby has
  a different name. You find the name by putting
  together the sounds I give you.
• ar-d, m-ar, f-igh, p-oy-l, j-ar-g, s-n-ee etc
• Extend on the length and complexity of the
  words by inculding longer words and words
  containing consonant clusters.

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Manipulating Sounds

• The ability to change sounds in words around
• E.g.
• take the first sounds from
• Bake ? ache
• Brake ? rake
• Second sound from
• Smack ? sack

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Substituting Sounds

• The ability to substitute one sound in a word for
  another sound.
• E.g.
• take the /s/ and substitute with /p/
• sale ? pale
• take the /n/ and substitute with /t/
• snake ? stake

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• Phonological awareness activities require concept
  knowledge e.g. first, beginning, middle, last,
  end, noisy/quiet etc.
• Ensure students have the necessary concept
  knowledge in order to be able to comprehend and
  complete tasks.
• Make activities fun, exciting and active. Be
  creative!! Incorporate the use of art, craft,
  musical instruments, imaginary play, ball games
  etc.
• Think of new ways to use the resources you
  already have.

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Phonics

• The knowledge of the letter/sound relationship
• Children with reading difficulties often lack
  confidence and knowledge in the area of phonics.

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PhonicsAustralian Sounds

• In order to teach phonics it is important to
  understand how Australian sounds are made.
• There are 44 sounds in Australian - English and
  this group of sounds is comprised of
• 24 consonants and
• 20 vowels

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Describing sounds

• Speech sounds are usually described using the
  following terms
• Manner - how
• Placement - where
• Voiced/voiceless vocal chords or not

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Describing sounds

• Manner refers to the type of sound.
• Placement refers to the position of the
  articulators involved in making the sound.

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• Voiced Vs Voiceless
• Voiced sounds are produced when the vocal folds
  vibrate i.e. /d/ or /a/
• Voiceless sounds are produced without the use of
  the focal folds which are left open i.e. /t/ or
  /s/

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http//www.sil.org/Mexico/ling/glosario/E005bi-Org
ansArt.htm
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Teaching Phonics

• Tools of the trade
• ABC Chart
• Consonant flash cards
• Vowel flash cards short and long
• Blend flash cards
• Drill
• What sound does each letter make?
• What letter corresponds with each sound?
• In order to achieve reading proficiency students
  require a high level of fluency in this area i.e.
  Immediate recall of sounds and letters.

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• Emphasise the difference between sounds and
  letters.
• Sounds are noises we make using our mouth, lips,
  tongue and teeth.
• We hear and say sounds.
• Letters are used to represent sounds in words.
• We see and write letters.
• Discuss single sounds that are represented by two
  letters e.g. ch, sh, th
• Thats the letter. Now tell me the sound?

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• Cued Articulation
• (Jane Passy) can be used in classroom
  activities to provide visual cues for the
  discrimination of sounds e.g. Story time focusing
  on a particular sound.
• Cued Articulation Song (see handout).
• Each sound has a corresponding colour.

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Sight Words

• Knowledge of the most frequently occurring words
  in text allows poor readers to access a great
  deal of the text they encounter without having to
  resort to decoding skills that they might not
  have yet mastered. (Multilit website)
• These words need to be learnt by rote and
  children should be able to read them quickly and
  consistently.

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Sight Words

• There are a number of word lists available
  including
• Magic 100 words M100W
• Making up lost time in literacy MULTILIT
• Words should be placed on flashcards and
  practiced regularly

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Reading Strategies

• Choose a quiet place to work with minimum
  distractions.
• Select an appropriate seating arrangement so that
  the student can see your face.
• Follow the students lead. Discuss pictures and
  word meanings.
• Use modelling, repetition and positive
  reinforcement.

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Reading Strategies Pause, Prompt and Praise

• Pause When child comes across an unknown word
  pause before offering any help
• Prompt If the child is still unable to decode
  the word then provide a clue. These may include
  providing the first sound, reading the rest of
  the sentence to gain context and discussing
  features of the word
• Praise Praise the child regularly for fluent,
  accurate reading and when they are able to decode
  an unfamiliar word.

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Reading StrategiesFluency

• Fluent readers are able to recognise, predict and
  decode text quickly and efficiently.
• Dysfluent readers have difficulty retrieving
  words and sounds rapidly and consistently which
  leads to slow and laboured reading.

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Reading StrategiesImproving Fluency

• Ensure the child is reading books that match
  their reading ability. Children on a whole should
  be able to read 85 of the words in a book.
• Read each page to the student prior to them
  having a go.
• Read the same book more than once

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Free Resources on the World Wide Web

• www.freereading.net
• www.readingrockets.org
• www.loveandreilly.com.au
• www.speech-language-therapy.com
• www.starfall.com
• www.spellingcity.com
• www.ictgames.com

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Commercial Resources

• Books and games are available from
• www.acer.edu.au/acerpress
• www.loveandreilly.com.au
• www.linguisystems.com (USA)
• www.blacksheeppress.co.uk ( England)
• www.funstuff.com.au
• www.superduperinc.com (USA)

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Whole Language Vs PhonicsQuote

• Sometimes when I put my special education hat on,
  I see this controversy whole language vs.
  phonics as simply another issue of accessibility

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• Installing ramps at building entrances doesnt
  keep me (a temporarily able bodied person) out,
  but it does allow others in. Providing a sign
  language interpreter for a public meeting doesnt
  keep me from listening to the speakers, but it
  does allow our deaf citizens to participate..

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• Teaching decoding and phonemic awareness doesnt
  hinder those lucky children who would become
  readers almost effortlessly, but it does allow
  those children who need the explicit instruction
  to become readers too. It allows them to access
  the world of literacy..

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• If you think about it, opening up the world in
  this way also has benefits for the rest of us.
  In the first example, those of us who may be
  pushing a child in a pram can use the ramps that
  were originally installed for users of wheel
  chairs.

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• In the second example, as Im listening to the
  speaker, I can perhaps benefit from the
  interpreters use of body language and other
  nonverbal expression to enrich my understanding
  of the speakers intentions.

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• Surely, there is such an enrichment for the able
  reader who is exposed to the wonderful songs,
  word play, and word games that we use for
  teaching, decoding and phonemic awareness.
• - Paula Stanovich, 2000

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