Chapter 7: Phonological Awareness - A Critical Foundation for Beginning Reading

Key Concepts

• Phonemes: The smallest units of sound in a language that distinguish meaning.

• Blending: The ability to combine individual sounds to form words, essential for decoding.

• Segmenting: The skill of breaking words down into their component sounds, aiding in spelling and reading comprehension.

1. Definition & Importance of Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

   • Phonological Awareness: Broad skill involving recognizing and manipulating units of sound (words, syllables, onsets/ rimes).

   • Phonemic Awareness: The most advanced aspect of phonological awareness - the ability to identify, segment, and manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in spoken words.

   • Key distinction: Phonological awareness involves larger chunks of sound, whereas phonemic awareness focuses on individual phonemes.

   • Phonological awareness can be taught without print - students can learn by listening alone.

   • Research-based importance: Strong correlation between phonemic awareness and reading proficiency (Ehri, 2000; NRP, 2000).

2. Stages of Phonological Awareness Development

   • Follows a hierarchical continuum:

     1. Word awareness: Understanding that sentences contain words.

     2. Syllable awareness: Identifying syllables in words (e.g., “cup-cake”).

     3. Onset-rime awareness: Recognizing initial consonants (onset) and word endings (rime) (e.g., /c/ -at).

     4. Phoneme awareness: The ability to manipulate individual phonemes in words.

3. Relationship Between Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics

   • Phonological Awareness: The broad ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in spoken language.

   • Phonemic Awareness: A subset of phonological awareness that focuses on individual sounds in words.

   • Phonics: The connection between sounds and their corresponding letters (e.g., knowing that the letter “b” represents the /b/ sound).

   • Phonemic awareness must develop before phonics for successful decoding and spelling.

4. Phonemic Awareness and Reading Difficulties

   • Students with dyslexia and learning disabilities often struggle with phonemic awareness.

   • Early identification and intervention are crucial.

   • State laws now mandate early dyslexia screening (IDA, 2018).

   • Signs of phonemic awareness difficulties:

     • Trouble identifying and manipulating sounds.

     • Difficulty blending and segmenting words.

     • Poor decoding and spelling skills.

5. Instructional Strategies for Phonemic Awareness

   • Instruction should be explicit, systematic, and scaffolded:

     • “I Do” (Modeling) → Teacher demonstrates

     • “We Dp” (Guided Practice) → Students practice with teacher.

     • “You Do” (Independent Practice) → Students apply skills alone.

   • Progression of skills:

     • Rhyming and alliteration → Syllable segmentation → Onset-rime → Blending → Phoneme segmentation/ blending → Phoneme manipulation (addition, deletion, substitution).

6. Assessment of Phonological Awareness

   • Types of Assessments:

     • Norm-referenced tests (e.g., CTOPP-2) compare students to national samples

     • Criterion-referenced tests determine if a student has mastered specific skills.

     • Progress monitoring tools track ongoing student growth.

   • Screening in early grade (K-2) is essential for early intervention.

7. Teaching Strategies for Different Learners

   • General Classroom Instruction:

     • Daily Practice (10-15 minutes).

     • Multi-sensory activities (e.g., Elknonin boxes, Say-It-and-Move-It cards).

   • Struggling Students & Intervention:

     • Small-group or one-on-one targeted instruction.

     • Extra phoneme blending and segmentation practice.

     • Use of manipulative (blocks, counters) to represent phonemes.

   • English Language Learners (ELLs):