Mercer County
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Structured Literacy
Phonological Awareness
The awareness that words are composed of sounds and those sounds have distinct articulatory features
*note: phonemic awareness is most critical for reading - phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten should focus on early phoneme awareness, not phonological sensitivity
If a student has difficulty with phonemic awareness tasks...
Incorporate manipulatives into phonemic awareness tasks (elkonin boxes, sound circles)
*Note: focus on position in isolation tasks - begin with easier tasks then move to more difficult as students’ skills develop (see chart below)
Students’ development in phonemic awareness strongly correlates to later reading achievement - according to research, blending & segmenting are two of the most important phonemic awareness tasks needed for reading development. When possible, connect phonemes with graphemes (letters) in your phonemic awareness tasks.
Phonemic awareness tasks can include the following (note: blending/segmentation most important)
phoneme isolation: first sound in <mit> is /m/ (watch me & see chart left)
phoneme blending: /m/ /i/ /t/ → mit (watch me for blending & segmenting examples)
phoneme segmentation: what are the sounds in <mit> → /m/ /i/ /t/
If a student has difficulty identifying the syllables within words given orally..
*note: a syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel phoneme (includes single vowel letters and vowel combinations)
*Video shows how to teach students to count the syllables in a word - Examples: “whale talk”/hum the word & “call the word to dinner”
Read this article that talks more about elkonin boxes and ways in which they can be incorporated into instruction
If a student has difficulty identifying syllable stress in a word given orally or when presented visually..
Why is syllable stress important? Depending on which syllable you emphasize/stress, you get the correct or incorrect word. Students need explicit instruction in this practice.
Examples: “call the word to dinner” & “get the word in trouble”
If a student has difficulty with spelling...
Provide explicit, systematic structured literacy instruction on a given phonics pattern, then reinforce the pattern through targeted spelling instruction - this includes phoneme/grapheme mapping, writing words following the pattern in the context of sentences, and then reading words following the given pattern in context (phrases, sentences, a paragraph)
References
Achieve the Core. The Power of Text Sets. https://achievethecore.org/content/upload/Text%20Set%20Guidance.pdf
Gibbons, E. (2016). 44 Decodable Stories. Emily Gibbons, 18, 20. Heggerty. Elkonin Boxes. Retrieved from https://heggerty.org/downloads/elkonin-box-download/
Institute of Education Sciences. Video 36: Choral Reading [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQFlnAukEFs
Institute of Education Sciences. Video 37: Echo Reading [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gRXca5G-Ow
Learning At The Primary Pond. 5 Tips for Teaching Letter Sounds to Kindergarten Students [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOga43qK9E
Learning At The Primary Pond. 5 Secrets for Teaching Beginning Readers to Blend Sounds [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCxzvprqDY
Lee, K., (2020). MSLE Training Teacher Resources. Kara Lee, 9-14.
Lee, K., (2023). Phonological Processing: Phonemes, Syllables, & Stress. Kara Lee, 1-18.
MsDWLearns. 2020, July 6. Fundations Drill Sounds Warm Up (Letter-Keyword-Sound Cards) [Video]. SchoolTube. https://www.schooltube.com/media/Fundations+Drill+Sounds+Warm+Up+%28Letter-Keyword-Sound+Cards%29/0_fla5ojm1/171825242
National Center on Improving Literacy. Big 5 in Under 5: Phonemic Awareness [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLsCodzmJ6U
PRIDE Reading Program. DIY Tactile Letter Cards [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34LJNCzO7I
Reading Rockets. Comprehension. https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/comprehension
Reading A-Z. Comprehension Skill Packs - Short Passages to Model and Practice Comprehension Skills. https://www.readinga-z.com/comprehension/comprehension-skill-packs/
Reading Rockets. "Elkonin Boxes". Reading Rockets, https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/elkonin_boxes
Reading Rockets. Learning ‘b’ and ‘d’ and Reading Short Vowel Words with Aiko, Second Grader [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apQ2-dwu4AE
Reading Rockets. Semantic Gradients [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTaYuYw8GNc&t=168s
Rowland, J., (2022). Building strong alphabet skills. Jennifer Rowland, 1-3.
The Dyslexia Classroom. 2022, April 29. How Does Scooping Phrases Help Fluency [Video]. https://www.thedyslexiaclassroom.com/blog/how-does-scooping-phrases-help-fluency
The Dyslexia Classroom. 2022, March 11. Understanding Reversals in Literacy Instruction [Video]. https://www.thedyslexiaclassroom.com/blog/is-there-a-link-between-reversals-and-dyslexia
University of Florida Learning Institute. https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/ Accessed 27 June 2023.