Early Reading Skills: Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Brandy Clarke

CBC 2002

The Need for Early Reading InterventionsPoor reading ability correlates with long-

term negative outcomes.Reading is the cornerstone of academic

success.Students with poor reading skills in the

beginning are likely to have poor skills in the future.

Learning in Steps Research has demonstrated a need for children to

learn to recognize words with speed and accuracy to read with fluency and comprehension.

Progression of learning: Understanding the concept of words Alphabetic Awareness Phonemic Awareness Phonics Word Recognition Fluency Comprehension

What is Phonemic Awareness?Phonemic awareness is an

understanding that speech is composed of individual sounds.

It is part of the hierarchy of reading skills developed in early reading.

It is not a unitary skill, but is comprised of various components.

Five levels of Phonemic Awareness (Adams,1990).1 Appreciation of sound in spoken language

(recitation of nursery rhymes).2 Ability to compare and contrast sounds in words

by grouping words with similar or dissimilar sounds (beginning, middle, and end of words).

3 Ability to blend and split syllables.4 Phonemic segmentation or the ability to isolate

individual sounds in syllables.5 Ability to manipulate phonemes by omitting and

deleting phonemes to make new words.

Why is it important? It is necessary in learning to read and

spell the English language because English is alphabetic. Sounds correlate with letters to make

words.Research has demonstrated a strong

link between phonemic awareness and beginning reading.

Why Phonemic Awareness over Whole-language? The Whole-language approach

Focuses on teaching reading by immersing students in literature while providing minimal direct skill instruction.

Provides students with ample opportunities to read and write and provides guidance as needed.

Students learn to read through whole-word recognition which creates a guessing game when presented with new words.

Students taught with phonics instruction read 54% of new words correctly, students with whole-language read 3%.

However, balance is necessary.

What skills are taught? Early Reading Skills (Good III, Simmons &

Smith, 1998) Area 1: Phonological Awareness

Awareness of correlation of sounds to words Area 2: Alphabetic Understanding

Link between a letter and a sound Area 3: Phonological Recoding

Use of relationship between phonemes and letters to recognize printed words, then read and spell them

Area 4: Accuracy and Fluency with Connected Text Comprehending what is read

How to assess skillsDynamic Indicators of Basic Early

Literacy Skills (DIBELS), University of Oregon Dynamic: continuing evaluation of skills Indicators: representative and correlated

with important skill areas Predictive: future reading performance Functional: related to reading aquisition

DIBELS Assessments: Target age range: Preschool – Second grade

Onset Recognition Fluency Late preschool through winter of kindergarten Appropriate for monitoring progress of older

children with low phonological awareness Letter Naming Fluency

Fall of kindergarten through fall of first grade Appropriate for monitoring progress of older

children with low skills in letter naming

DIBELS Assessments cont.: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

Winter of kindergarten through fall of first grade Appropriate for monitoring progress of older

children with low phonological awareness Nonsense Word Fluency

Fall of first grade through summer of first grade Appropriate for monitoring progress of older

children with low skills in letter-sound correspondence

How to teach Phonemic Awareness 5 Features of effective interventions (Good III

et.al., 1998)1. Provide instruction at the phoneme level.2. Scaffold tasks and examples.3. Model skills prior to practice and provide opportunities

for students to produce isolated sounds orally.4. Provide systematic and strategic instruction for

identifying sounds in words, blending and segmenting, and culminate with integration of phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence instruction.

5. Use concrete materials to represent sounds .

Modeling activities Teaching vs. practice

The importance of scope and sequence: Larger units before smaller units (words before syllables) Continuous before stop sounds (cont.: f, l, m, n, stop: b, c,

d, g) Fewer sounds before more sounds (VC or CV before CVC) Auditory blending before segmenting (e.g. foooot-baaaall

vs. mmm-aaaaa-t) Blending and segmenting before manipulation (e.g.

removing sounds to make new words) Oral before written language

Phonemic Teaching Methods Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A

Classroom Curriculum.(Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998) The use of language games

Play regularly (15-20 min) Go in order of sequence Use both segmenting (analysis) and blending (synthesis)

activities Child should feel as though s/he is playing while learning Consistently pronounce words slowly and clearly

The Language Games: Listening game: Listening to Sounds Rhyming: Poetry, Songs, and Jingles Words and Sentences: Introducing the Idea of

sentences Awareness of Syllables: Clapping Names Initial and Final Sounds: Guess Who Phonemes: Two-Sound Words Introducing Letters and Spellings: Guess Who:

Introducing Sounds and Letters

Reading Intervention ProgramReading Recovery Program

Goal: Help struggling students catch up to peers

Requires a lot of teacher monitoring (1:1) Daily sessions last 30-40 minutes per

session and run 10-20 weeks

Reading Recovery Program Strategies Reading left to right Using a return sweep rather than a slow

return Monitoring whether story makes sense Searching for cues from context Rereading when unclear Self-correction

Important Resourceshttp://dibels.uoregon.edu/

Provides explanation of DIBELS research and application

http://reading.uroegon.edu/ Big Ideas in Beginning Reading

http://www.nifl.gov National Institute for Literacy National Reading Panel Update

Application for CBC It is important to understand what is needed to

promote early reading skills so that problems can be identified and treated before negative trajectory is established.

Assessment techniques allow for problem areas to be targeted and monitored throughout interventions.

Teaching techniques can be used across settings to facilitate partnerships in learning.

Consultants can provide consultees with further resources to provide guidance throughout reading development.

ReferencesAdams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Adams, M.J., Foorman, B.R., Lundberg, I, & Beeler, T. (1998). Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A classroom curriculum. Baltimore, MD : Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.

Good III, R. H. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with CBM. Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and Development. Eugene, OR.

Good III, R. H., Simmons, D. C., & Smith, S. B. (1998). Effective academic intervention in the United States: Evaluating and enhancing the acquistion of early reading skills. School Psychology Review. Vol 27, No. 1, pp 45-56.

References cont.Grossen, B. & Carnine, D. (1991). Strategies for maximizing

reading success in the regular classroom. In Stoner, G., Shinn, M. R., & Walker, H. M. (Eds) Interventions for achievement and behavior problems. Silver Spring, MD: NASP

Pressley, M. (1998). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Snider, V. E. (1995). A primer on phonemic awareness: What is it, why it’s important, and how to teach it. School Psychology Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, 443-455.