Module+4+Questions

Participants: Ashly Call, Lori Jones, Audra Bull, PJ Parsons - Group 2

Module 4 Questions:

1. What does research say about the topic?

AC - Much of the research in this chapter supports the teaching of phonemic awareness. The research indicates that phonemic awareness instructions should be paired with students manipulating letters. Also, phonemic awareness seems to be more effective when taught in small groups and when focused on for 5 to 20 hours. From this chapter, I've learned that it is probably best practice to teach phonemic awareness for a short period of time in small groups.

LJ - Reserach does support the benefits of teaching phonemic awareness. It is best to do as skill (small) groups when just a few students need it and to do new skills as a mini lesson for the whole class.

AB - Research say one of the leading school entry predictors of how will children will learn to read in kindergarten and first grade. In addition teaching phonemc awareness significantly improves beginners' success in learning to read.

PJ - Audra, right on, the research says phonemic awareness is one of two best predictors of children's success in learning to read. It is helpful to know this in prek and K to help identify children who are struggling or will struggle with reading. I agree with you, Ashly, that PA does need to be taught in small groups for short periods of time, as the research states. The one thing I took away from this chapter is PA is only a small part of teaching students skills needed in reading, one foundational piece (p. 135). I thought for a long time, PA WAS teaching reading. I also have learned, I need to assess more, especially pretesting, to be more effective in teaching my students what they need to know.

2. Describe the relationship between phonemic awareness and phonological awareness.

AC - Phonological awareness is the big category that includes phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness only deals with manipulating phonemes - the smallest unit of sound that signals meaning.

LJ - Phonemic awarness is the manipulating of the smallest unit of spoken language. phonological awareness encompasses larger spoken units including onsets and rimes.

PJ- Phonological awareness is the macro part of with phonemic awareness being the micro part. Phonological awareness is the manipulation of larger onsets, rimes, and rhymes and can be easier for young children to begin with when manipulating sounds. Phonemic awareness is the smallest unit of speech, like Ashly and Lori said, and is more difficult for young children to manipulate who have little experience with speech and sounds.

MS: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS IS THE BIG UMBRELLA AND PHONEMIC AWARENESS IS JUST ONE RIB WITHIN THE UMBRELLA. THE OTHER RIBS ARE RIME AND ONSET, RHYMING, WORD PLAY AND MORE. TOO MANY TEACHERS DO NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE TWO. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS CAN BE STARTED EARLIER AND EXTENDED LATER IN YEARS. PHONEMIC AWARENESS SHOULD BE A SHORT TIME FOR TEACHING.

AB - Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. A student can not be phonemically aware without being phonologically aware.

3. What are ways you can adapt these concepts to the older ELL students who are beginning to read in English?

AC - Often ELL students are confused about the sounds in English. I think doing a few phonemic awareness activities in weekly small groups would be highly beneficial.

LJ - Working with ELL students on phonemic awareness activities can help them with the language. I would work with these students 3-4 days a week until they start being able to manipulate the sounds. Knowing though that some students just can't learn this way and they will need more instruction with other strategies.

PJ- Phonemic awareness is necessary for ELL students learning English, just remember, when assessing them, they are responding in context of their own learned language parts. "eeee" for the letter "i" is common in Spanish and French children, for example. If I were tutoring an ELL older child, we would sip sodas, sit in easy chairs and play verbal word games, at first. Then, we would add letters for manipulation of sounds and rhymes. We would sing songs, then analyze the language of the songs to identify ways the lyrics could be changed to be real English sentences. All teenagers love some kind of music. That's how I would try to reach my adolescent ELL student(s).

MS: WORD PLAY CAN HAPPEN AT ANY YEAR. MALAPROPRISM, WORD GAMES, ETC CAN ALL HELP WITH WORD KNOWLEDGE AND I CONSIDER WORD PLAY AS A FORM OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS.

4. Your questions for your group.

AC - A. It appeared that the most effective PA research included having students physically manipulate letters while learning Phonemic Awareness. Could this be considered phonics more than phonemic awareness?

B. Although there were only seven studies that researched prekindergarteners, the positive effect of phonemic awareness seems huge in this field. Do you think that PASS objectives should include more difficult tasks (such as blending and segmentation) besides the required identification of initial phonemes?*

AB - Honestly, I think the PASS objectives are misguided. If you think those tasks should happen at a particular level, then make it happen. There were so many different writers of the PASS objectives. They do not align from grade to grade through elementary. Then you get to middle school and the same thing is repeated for 6th, 7th, and 8th. I am so glad they are being redone.

C. If you have taught phonemic awareness, what are some of your favorite ways to teach it? LJ - I like to teach using literature and pulling PA activities from it.

LJ - A. What works best to teach phonemic awarness? Small groups, whole group, or both?

AC - When I taught kindergarten, I typically used phonemic awareness activities in a whole group situation. However, if you have students that struggle with it, then I would suggest working on phonemic awareness during small groups.


 * B. I use books like The Rainbow Fish to pull PA skills from to do with whole group. Is this a good practice? ANY BOOK CAN BE USED FOR PA SKILLS AS LONG AS IT MEETS THE SKILL YOU ARE GOING TO TEACH. FOR EXAMPLE, DR. SEUSS BOOKS ARE GREAT FOR RHYME. CAT IN THE HAT BOOKS ARE GREAT FOR WORD FAMILIES (ONSET AND RIME),

C. Does PA just not work from some kids?

AB - A. As a econdary teacher, what kind of intensive phonemic awaremess is warrented? meaning, how many times per week with the child? For how long per session?

AC - I think this depends on how bad your reader is struggling. If your student is reading at a first or second grade level, then I would work on phonemic awareness every day until it is achieved. If they can read higher than that, I would assume that they have phonemic awareness down. If you want to know for sure about their abilities, you could do the Yopp-Singer Segmentation test.

MS;THE FIRST STEP IS ALWAYS THE CONSONANTS. THE STUDENT MUST BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE BEGINNING AND ENDING CONSONANTS OF THE WORDS. THEN THE STUDENTS CAN SUBSTITUTE IN ANOTHER BEGINNING CONSONANT ORALLY. THEN COMES THE BLENDS AND THE DIGRAPHS. AFTER A FIRM FOUNDATION OF THESE PHONEME, THEN COMES THE VOWELS.
 * B. Are there certain phonemes that are more important to focus upon than others?

C. At what grade level do elementary teachers stop focusing on phonemic awareness?

AC - I would say 2nd grade or the end of first grade. Once students start decoding the need for explicit instruction in phonemic awareness decreases.

PJ- A. Does phonemic awareness help with spelling activities?

AC - I think so. I think I remember that the research on phonemic awareness resulted in students being able to spell better. It might not be that useful in upper grades, but in early childhood I always ask my students to stretch out the sounds they hear to spell words. I think for easier spelling words (like 3 letter words such as man and hat) students could apply their knowledge of phonemic awareness to come up with correct spellings.

MS: SPELLING WORDS SHOULD BE SELF-SELECTED WORDS ALONG WITH THE WORDS THAT YOU DEEM AS IMPORTANT. YOU KNOW RESEARCH SAYS THAT 1/4 OF YOUR STUDENTS ALREADY KNOW THE WORDS SO SPELLING IS IRRELEVANT. ANOTHER 1/4 CAN'T SPELL THE WORDS, SO THE WORDS ARE IRRELEVANT. THAT MEANS THAT WHEN YOU GIVE A SET OF WORDS, ONLY 1/2 OF YOUR STUDENTS MIGHT BE ABLE TO LEARN FROM THE LESSON. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO TEACH ALL STUDENTS? C. I don't believe in "canned" programs, but why can't phonological skills and the reading series along with spelling and comprehension skills be together in one set? Reading Street comes close, but its spelling lists are inappropriately geared for teaching patterns. Its comprehension questions mostly deal with knowledge level questioning.
 * B. Should spelling words be more syllabic than the PA activities in lower grades? Since we teach PA with one and two-syllable words in K, 1st and 2nd grades, shouldn't their spelling words reflect one and two-syllable words, not three and four syllable words with all different kinds of spelling patterns mixed up in one spelling lesson?

AC - Although I have only taught for a few years, I have discovered there is no one resource to go to for everything. I use Reading Street as well, but I notice that many things are missing (appropriate leveled readers, comprehension, and phonics activities) and I have to make do with other resources.

Step 6 - Case Study #2 is due--See Wiki Swansomf.