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"Before children can make any sense of the alphabetic
principle, they must understand that those sounds that are paired with the
letters are one and the same as the sounds of speech."
Marilyn Jager Adams, Barbara
Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri Beeler, 1998
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Upcoming
Events
The 57th
Annual Conference of the New England Reading Association (NERA), "Bridging
Research and Practice", will be held in 2 locations:
·
Marlborough, MA on October 19-20, 2005
·
Fairlee, VT on October 20-21, 2005
Additional details and
registration information about the NERA conference can be found on their
website:
www.nereading.org
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"Woof! Woof! This is
how many children respond when asked to tell the sounds they hear in the word
dog.
Though many children enter school with a substantial vocabulary,
adequate syntax, and clear speech pronunciation, few are phonemically
aware."
Author Unknown
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This is the third newsletter which is being devoted to one of
the five essential elements of reading instruction. The May. 2005 edition of "Literacy Links"
provided an in-depth look at reading
fluency and the June, 2005 edition provided an in-depth look at vocabulary. This month's edition of "Literacy Links"
focuses on phonemic awareness.
Spotlight on.
Phonemic
Awareness
Phonemic awareness is a small subset of the larger
concept of phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness is a broad term which refers to the awareness
of sounds in oral language. It
includes the ability to detect and produce rhyme and alliteration. In addition, phonological awareness
includes an understanding that sentences are composed of words; that words
are composed of syllables and onset-rime chunks; and that words are composed
of individual sounds or phonemes. A
student who demonstrates phonological awareness can successfully segment,
blend, and manipulate words or sounds at any of these levels.
The most complex level of phonological awareness-the
recognition that words are composed of phonemes and
the ability to manipulate these phonemes-is termed phonemic awareness. A
student who is phonemically aware can successfully complete the following
tasks:
·
Segment the word grass
into its 4 phonemes-/g/ /r/ /ă/ /s/
·
Blend the 3 phonemes /b/ /ŭ/ /g/ into the word bug
·
Delete the first sound in hat
to make the word at
·
Change the last sound in hen
to /d/ to make the word head (Placement
of letters within / / indicates the sound, not the name, of the letter.)
Phonological and phonemic
awareness are not the same as phonics.
Phonological and phonemic awareness are based on the sounds of spoken
language; phonics is based on the connection between these sounds and the
letters that represent them in written language. Success with phonemic awareness provides the
foundation for phonics because students who are phonemically aware can then
more easily make the connection between sounds and letters. Phonemic awareness is typically included in
instruction during Kindergarten and Grade 1 so this connection is mastered
for students early in their reading development. Segmenting and blending are the two types
of phoneme manipulation which most closely correspond with the skills needed
to decode text while reading or encode text while writing. Therefore, phonemic awareness instruction
should highlight the processes of segmenting and blending phonemes in
words. Phonemic awareness is one of
the five essential elements of reading within a balanced literacy program and
therefore phonemic awareness instruction by itself does not constitute a
complete reading program.
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Summary of Professional Literacy Text.
Phonemic
Awareness in Young Children
Some of the leading experts in the field of phonemic
awareness (Marilyn Jager Adams, Barbara Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri
Beeler) have collaborated to create a curriculum resource book which includes
a wealth of activities. The activities
included in Phonemic Awareness in Young
Children are developmentally sequenced through the different levels of
phonological awareness beginning with listening and rhyming games. The next chapters share activities to build
students' awareness of words in sentences and syllables in words. Phonemic awareness activities are presented
that include sound identification, segmenting,
blending, and manipulation. A section
on assessing phonological awareness is also included to provide information
about which activities would best support students' current phonemic
awareness needs. The assessment
section also encourages frequent monitoring of progress as students
participate in the tasks so the instruction closely matches their
developmental abilities. Several
appendices include supporting materials and appear at the end of this
resource book. Additional information
and details about the content of Phonemic
Awareness in Young Children can be obtained at http://www.brookespublishing.com/store/books/adams-3211/index.htm
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Description of Instructional Idea.
Elkonin Sound
Boxes
A Russian psychologist, D. B. Elkonin,
developed sound boxes as an instructional technique which can quickly and
easily teach students to segment the individual sounds (or phonemes) of
words. Students can use pre-made sound
boxes (a row of connected boxes corresponding to the number of phonemes
within a word-see below for an example which would be used for three-phoneme
words).
Students
can also create their own sound boxes on a sheet of paper or a dry-erase
board. Students begin by placing one
counter below each box within the sound box.
When orally given a word, students first repeat the word and then move
the counters one at a time up into the sound boxes in a left-to-right
progression as they slowly segment the phonemes in the word. Instead of orally reciting words for sound
boxes, picture cards can be used.
After students segment the phonemes in the word using the sound box, they
blend the sounds back together and say the word normally as they move their
fingers along the bottom of the sound box.
This final step of blending the word assists students in realizing
that words should be blended back into wholes after the individual parts are
segmented.
For example, when given the word
dog, students would move a counter
up into the first sound box as they articulate /d/. Students would then move the next counter
up into the second sound box as they articulate /ŏ/. Finally, students would move the last counter
up in the third sound box as they articulate /g/. Students would complete this task by saying
the word dog as they slide their finger under the counters in the sound box.
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News from Maine
Reading First.
Welcome back to
a new school year!
Maine Reading First is excited to
announce there are now 17 Reading First schools in the state of Maine. Ten new schools were awarded Maine Reading
First sub-grants last spring.
Maine Reading First is also pleased
to share that the professional development events held during the summer were
a huge success! The two Maine Reading
First Summer Institutes each attracted approximately 100 enthusiastic
educators from across the state. Over
60 participants enjoyed the Maine Reading First Seminar for School Leaders.
Stay tuned for details about the
professional development offerings over the course of the 2005-2006 school
year and during the summer of 2006!
Check it out.
The Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory (SEDL) with support from the United States Department
of Education has created a quarterly newsletter, "Reading First
Notebook". The themed issues of this
newsletter share articles and information on various topics. Links to new resources and articles are
also included. The Winter, 2004
edition explores the "Three Must-Haves
for Early Reading Instruction". The
direct link for this edition is http://www.readingfirstsupport.us/docs/RF-Notebook-1204_1.pdf
The Spring, 2005 edition is guided by the question "What is Instructional
Leadership and Why is it So Important?"
The direct link for this edition is http://www.readingfirstsupport.us/docs/RF-notebook-0305.pdf
The Summer, 2005 edition is devoted to "Why is
Professional Development So Important?"
The direct link for this edition is http://www.readingfirstsupport.us/docs/RF-summer-05.pdf
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