Phonological Awareness in
the Classroom
Compiled by
Laura Street, Speech Pathologist
Nikki Worthington, Speech Pathologist
Jane Francis Gooden, Speech Pathologist
Saturday, January 1
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 2
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 3
07, 2012
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)
Saturday, January 4
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 5
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 6
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 7
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 8
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 9
07, 2012
The Pieces of phonological
awareness
Word Rhyming
awareness
Segmenting
words to
syllables
Alliteration Segmenting Blending
Practice,
Manipulating
experience,
sounds substitutio
exposure
n
Saturday, January 10
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 11
07, 2012
Word Awareness Activities
Clap words in sentences. Select sentences
of increasing length.
Read poems and books – students to tap
each word in selected sentences.
Saturday, January 12
07, 2012
Segmentation
(words syllables)
Words can be broken into syllables
or beats
1syllable cat, mouse, etc.
2 syllable Walking, doctor
3 syllable Hospital, elephant
4 syllable supermarket, television
5 syllable … abracadabra
How many in „supercalafrajelisticexpialidocious‟?
Saturday, January 13
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 14
07, 2012
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?
Saturday, January 15
07, 2012
Rhyming Activities
Recognising 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.
Saturday, January 16
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 17
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 18
07, 2012
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‟
Saturday, January 19
07, 2012
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/
Saturday, January 20
07, 2012
Sound Level Activities
Segmenting 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.
Saturday, January 21
07, 2012
Sound Level Activities
Discuss the difference between long and short sounds.
Activity:
„Test‟ sounds by drawing snakes.
„vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv ’
„p‟
Saturday, January 22
07, 2012
•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‟”
c r u sh
Saturday, January 23
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 24
07, 2012
Sound Level Activities
Blending 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.
Saturday, January 25
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 26
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 27
07, 2012
Phonologicalawareness 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.
Saturday, January 28
07, 2012
Phonics
The knowledge of the letter/sound
relationship
Children with reading difficulties
often lack confidence and knowledge
in the area of phonics.
Saturday, January 29
07, 2012
Phonics:
Australian 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
Saturday, January 30
07, 2012
Describing sounds
Speech sounds are usually described using the
following terms:
Manner - how
Placement - where
Voiced/voiceless – vocal chords or not
Saturday, January 31
07, 2012
Describing sounds
Manner – refers to the type of
sound.
Placement – refers to the position of
the articulators involved in making
the sound.
Saturday, January 32
07, 2012
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/
Saturday, January 33
07, 2012
http://www.sil.org/Mexico/ling/glosario/E005bi-OrgansArt.htm
Saturday, January 34
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 35
07, 2012
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
“That‟s the letter. Now tell me the sound?”
Saturday, January 36
07, 2012
Cued Articulation
(Jane Passy) can be used in
classroom activities to provide ‘p’ as in pick
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.
Saturday, January 37
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 38
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 39
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 40
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 41
07, 2012
Reading Strategies
Fluency
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.
Saturday, January 42
07, 2012
Reading Strategies
Improving 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
Saturday, January 43
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 44
07, 2012
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)
Saturday, January 45
07, 2012
Whole Language Vs Phonics
Quote
Sometimes when I put my special
education hat on, I see this
controversy [whole language vs.
phonics] as simply another issue of
accessibility…
Saturday, January 46
07, 2012
Installing ramps at building entrances
doesn‟t keep me (a temporarily able
bodied person) out, but it does allow
others in. Providing a sign language
interpreter for a public meeting
doesn‟t keep me from listening to the
speakers, but it does allow our deaf
citizens to participate..
Saturday, January 47
07, 2012
Teaching decoding and phonemic
awareness doesn‟t 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..
Saturday, January 48
07, 2012
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.
Saturday, January 49
07, 2012
In the second example, as I‟m listening
to the speaker, I can perhaps benefit
from the interpreter‟s use of body
language and other nonverbal
expression to enrich my
understanding of the speaker‟s
intentions.
Saturday, January 50
07, 2012
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
Saturday, January 51
07, 2012
Saturday, January 52
07, 2012
Thank you for your attendance.
Saturday, January 53
07, 2012