Tara Bauman
Phonological Awareness Content Knowledge Summary
Phonological awareness is the ability to know how to breakdown words and syllables and be able to recognize how letters make sounds. There are eight levels to phonological awareness which include onset/rime, identification of sound, matching sounds, blending, segmentation, deletion, addition, and substitution. These 8 levels are crucial for students to progress in their reading and writing. Phonological awareness is the ability to know that letters make sounds by playing orally with word. Children are continuously learning and be able to speak new words starting at a young age.
Vocabulary Terms
Phonological Awareness: A broad term which includes rhyme, sentence and word awareness, syllable awareness, onset-rime awareness, and phonemic awareness
Syllables: A unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word
Alphabetic Principle: Letters and combinations of letters are the symbols used to represent the speech sounds of a language
Rhymes: Correspondence of sounds between words or the endings of words
Segmentation: Adding or removing syllables
Rime: The vowels and consonants that come after the onset
Onset: first phonological uint of a word
Phoneme: Individual sounds in a spoken word
Alliteration: repetition of the first letter sound in a phrase
Substitution: Adding or deleting phonemes
8 Levels of Phonological Awareness
Onset/Rime
Identification of Sound
Matching Sounds
Blending
Segmentation
Deletion
Addition
8. Substitution
Oral Language Development Theories
Behaviorist- where the environment and exposures make a difference to their oral language and that is how they pick up language.
Innatist- learned naturally, don’t have to teach it.
Constructivist- Piaget. Cognitive development, external influences, forms schema and constantly changing. Person constructs own meaning
Social Interactionist- Social interactions that take place that change and the adult interactions change the vocab and set the pace. Vygotsky was the theorist.
Oral Language Development
Ages vs. Number of words
1-2 2 words
2-3 Full simple sentences
3-4 1000-1500 new words
4-6 2500-6000 new words
Deficits in oral language can limit child’s learning of reading and writing
Language deficits are the most common root causes for referrals to special education
Early and intensive intervention can enhance literacy learning
Children from poverty score lower in reading proficiency
Assessing oral language
TROLL (teaching rating of oral language and literacy
Observe a child using rating sheet
Picture naming test
Cards
Biased
Oral Language Instruction
Build on students’ prior knowledge of both language and content
Create meaningful context for functional use of language
Provide comprehensible input and model forms of language in a variety of ways connected to meaning
Provide range of opportunities for practice and application so as to develop fluency
Establish a positive and supportive environment for practice, with clear goals and immediate corrective feedback
Reflect on the forms of language and the process of learning
Lap reading
Learning Assistance Program (LAP)
LAP is a statewide program designed for students who are not meeting the academic standards. The purpose for this program is to support students who need help in writing, reading, math or readiness skills for core subjects.
For reading:
-It can be done at school or at home
-Shared Reading
-Adults read to children
-Students learn how to relate stories to own experiences
-Increases child’s knowledge
Phonological Awareness Instrucional Strategies
Guess the word
Teacher uses items around the classroom and places it into a large bag. As the teacher slowly removes one item from the bag at time, she slowly starts saying the word syllable by syllable and the students have to try and guess what the item is before the teacher fully takes it out of the bag.
Addition & Deletion songs
Students would use this strategy by taking a song that is familiar to them like Row Row Row Your Boat or Apples and Bananas (as used in class) and sing through the song. Each time the students would add or delete a syllable to one of the words. Changing it each time.
Rhyming
When using this strategy, choose short poems or short passages that rhyme. Have students work with that same rhyme through a week or two. Once students have gotten comfortable and mastered that poem, move on to the next rhyme or poem. Have students doing this throughout the year to build their phonological awareness.
Slash & Dash
Students will use this strategy to determine syllables and their different sounds. To represent between syllables, students will use their hand to show a slash in the air. To show the sounds that are present they will make a dash with their hands. This will strengthen student’s ability to break apart words and determine different sounds.
Alliterations
For this strategy, teacher must choose books that contain alliterations. Read the stories out loud and make sure students are able to identify that they all start with the same beginning sounds. Discussion of what alliterations where in the stories would take place after.
Phonological Awareness Website and Applications
Readingrockets.org is a website that is made for teachers and parents. This website teaches the basics of phonological awareness, how parents can help, strategies for teachers, and have many other resources to refer back to. It shows signs about what students struggle with in phonological awareness and how both parents and teachers can go about teaching it. Reading Rockets is a great website that I will incorporate in my classroom one day to help with the involvement of parents and to educate parents about what phonological awareness is and why it’s important that their young readers need those essential skills.
HearBuilder
In this app it allows students to segment, blend, and manipulate sounds while doing it in game form. This app would be nice to use after students are done with homework or also if there is free time.
Syllable Splash
Syllable splash is an app that involves segmenting words. This app is really engaging for students because of the underwater theme. Students are able to play multiplayer which allows more involvement with the class.
Phonological Awareness Lab
Phonological Awareness Lab is a game created by a speech pathologist. This app allows students to improve their phonological awareness through four different labs.
The Sentence Experiment Lab
The Decoding Room
The Rhyming Compound
The Syllable X-Ray
Students are to play at different levels and also have the option to play with more than one person.