Competency 002

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

The teacher understands phonological and phonemic awareness and employs a variety of approaches to help students develop phonological and phonemic awareness.

The Beginning Teacher:

• A. Understands the significance of phonological and phonemic awareness for reading, is familiar with typical patterns in the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and recognizes that individual variations occur, in accordance with the STR.
  • What does this mean?
    • Both Phonological and Phonemic Awareness builds into reading for each student as there is always a pattern of skill acquisition and development. In fact, phonemic awareness is the first step to reading comprehension. Not all students, however, will follow the steps of skill development to the letter, therefore the teacher must be prepared to find the student where they are and assist where additional development is needed.
  • How do you apply this?
    • The teacher should have phonetic based activities in their tool kit that benefit the student orally and visually and bridge the connection between the two. Activities that require the student to sound out the letters that are presented are one way to start. Again, be prepared for variation to occur in where the student may be developmentally.
• B. Understands differences in students’ development of phonological and phonemic awareness and adjusts instruction to meet the needs of individual students, including English-language learners.
  • What does this mean?
    • Find where the student is in their development and create a lesson plan to benefit the student at that stage. At the same time, ELLs may require extra assistance in order to have their developmental needs met. The English language has many elements that differ from other languages such as the letters/symbols used to communicate, their corresponding sounds, and the rules of the language among many other aspects. Modifications will be necessary for students who need additional assistance and students who are ahead of where they should be.
  • How do you apply this?
    • As stated in the previous sub-competency, the teacher’s tool kit must be prepared with activities and methods of teaching in order to best benefit the student. Again there will be students who may be behind, on track, or ahead of where they need to be. Create challenge for the students ahead by allowing opportunities to work with material a step or two ahead while you reinforce the knowledge with the students who are on track and scaffold for students who need assistance. 
• C. Plans, implements and adjusts instruction based on the continual use of formal and informal assessments of individual students’ phonological development, in accordance with the STR.
  • What does this mean?
    • The teacher must monitor and support student learning and plan their instruction on where the student is in their learning. This data is gathered through formal and informal assessment of the student’s phonological development.
  • How do you apply this?
    • Informal assessments are as easy as observation and formal assessments are used to guide the lesson. Should a formal assessment yield that a student is struggling with a component in the current stage of phonological awareness, then it would be necessary to plan a review or extended lesson on the topic to help said student and figure out exactly what they’re struggling with. 
• D. Knows the age ranges at which the expected stages and patterns of various phonological and phonemic awareness skills should be acquired, the implications of individual variations in the development of phonological and phonemic awareness and ways to accelerate students’ phonological and phonemic awareness, in accordance with the STR.
  • What does this mean?
    • Every age group is expected to be at certain stages of their phonological and phonemic awareness development, therefore the teacher is to understand how to advance these skills from one stage to the next. At the same time, some students may be at an earlier stage than anticipated and some students may be ahead of the curve. It is the teacher’s job to know where each student is and how to best help them reach the next stage of development. 
  • How do you apply this?
    • After using both formal and informal assessments as stated in the previous sub competency, utilize individual learning time to work with students who may need additional instruction and create challenges to benefit the students who are ahead.   
• E. Uses a variety of instructional approaches and materials (e.g., language games, informal interactions, direct instruction) to promote students’ phonological and phonemic awareness (e.g., hearing and manipulating beginning, medial and final sounds in spoken words; recognizing spoken alliteration).
  • What does this mean?
    • A teacher’s tool kit must be filled with ideas for instructing students and promoting the development of their phonemic and phonological awareness skills. Instruction alone cannot cement knowledge; with casual interaction and play-like activities we help students retain what we teach.
  • How do you apply this?
    • After introducing a concept or skill, have a whole class activity to reinforce what was introduced to allow for informal interactions with peers. Then have a small group activity followed by individual work to see what may need review or what has been mastered.
• F. Understands how to foster collaboration with families and with other professionals to promote all students’ phonological and phonemic awareness both at school and at home.
  • What does this mean?
    • Collaboration is a great way to have parents involved with their child’s learning; this enables parents to see what the student is learning and communicate with the teacher on how to best benefit the student academically at home. Just the same collaborating with other professionals can give insight into different ways to teach or integrate a lesson.
  • How do you apply this?
    • Inform the parent on what elements of phonological and phonemic awareness the student may struggle with and figure out how to integrate this into a game or into an element of something that the student may like to do for fun. As for working with other professionals, work together brainstorming activities for whole group and individualized learning.
• G. Recognizes the interrelationships between phonological and phonemic awareness and the other components of reading (vocabulary, fluency and comprehension), in accordance with the STR.
  • What does this mean?
    • Phonemic awareness is the first step in the Science of Teaching Reading; everything builds from here. Word recognition feeds into fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
  • How do you apply this?
    • A building is only as good as its foundation and phonemic awareness and phonics is the foundation of reading. Teachers should be able to recognize if a student has their “foundation” at the appropriate stage in which they can successfully build their learning skills in reading. If not, additional instruction may be required to promote success.

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Questions:

1. Are there pre-made activities that can be bought for phonological learning or are teacher made activities be better? 
2. What are some activities to challenge students phonemically?
3. Are there any books available that parents can read to students that can help build phonemic skills?
4. What are some manipulatives that can be used for phonemic instruction?
5. What are some signs that a student is behind in their phonological development?
6. When adapting instruction, what are some activities for students who are ahead in their instruction?
7. What type of observation techniques would one use for assessing student in their phonological development? 
8. Why might a student be student struggle with certain phonemes?
9. Does speech issues have an impact on phonemic learning? 
10. What is an activity that parents can utilize to work with students at home?