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Phonological Awareness

  • 1.  Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-21-2020 02:25 PM

    I would like anyone's thoughts on teaching Phonological Awareness? Does your school dictate whether or not you teach phonics for reading skills? If you do teach Phonological Awareness, what do you suggest as guides for learning to teach it? 

    Thank you! 



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    Susan Frizsell
    Curriculum Coordinator
    Nashville, TN
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  • 2.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-22-2020 08:24 AM
    I am required to teach Phonemic awareness at our 4 year old preschool.  The curriculum that we use is the Purple book Phonemic Awareness by Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.  I like it.  The daily lessons are short and easy to implement.  Each lesson takes less than 10 minutes to complete and covers letter naming, rhyming, onset fluency, blending syllables, identifying final sounds, segmenting syllables, adding syllables, deleting syllables and language awareness every day.

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    Mary Townsley
    Teacher
    St. Joseph School
    De Witt IA
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  • 3.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-22-2020 08:25 AM
    Our district recently purchased Launchpad - a foundational skills curriculum for 4-year-olds. It is part of a larger "phonics suite" of programs by a company, Really Great Reading. They use the Simple View of Reading (Comprehension + Phonics = Reading) and focuses heavily on the foundational skills (instructional vocabulary, phonemic awareness, etc). Within the program, teachers gain a better understanding of which skills to teach, and when. Example - letters are not even introduced until unit 8, because so much time needs to be spent on the virtual manipulation of sounds (rhyming, initial sound, syllabication, etc). So once children have lots of experience with skills they can do with their eyes closed, then it is time to begin adding symbols to sounds. It's a much more sequenced approach to teaching foundational reading skills!

    Good Luck!

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    Leslie Frei
    Supervisor for Early Childhood Education and Judy Centers
    Frederick County Public Schools
    Frederick, MD
    USA
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  • 4.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-22-2020 09:02 AM
    Hello!
    In PreK we include phonological awareness under the category of Language, Literacy and Communication. Below is the exact description of how to engage this through play - rhyming, songs, poems, chants, and clapping are all part of my classroom! Hope this helps, feel free to reach out if you want specifics!
    Jessica
    Definition of objectives for preK


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    Jessica Prestegord
    Head Teacher
    MNM
    Philadelphia, PA
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  • 5.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-22-2020 02:29 PM
    Phonological awareness is so important. We do lots of rhyming and alliteration activities. We also have a more structured curriculum guide from Heggerty which is a nice reference tool even though we don't use it daily as it's written.

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    Diane Eakes
    Director
    Tiny Tot School
    Bel Air MD
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  • 6.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-23-2020 08:06 AM
    In our preschool program, phonological awareness is embedded in learning throughout the day in the form of songs, rhymes, and books. Direct instruction begins in Kindergarten with the addition of actual "lessons".

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    Barbara Wilchensky
    City of Bridgeton
    Bridgeton NJ
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  • 7.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-24-2020 08:32 PM
    Hello everyone , Phonological Awareness is an important way of learning to read and write later for children to be successful in school. This take place throughout the day in a preschool classroom in the form of letter recognition, syllables, rhyming which is ending sound, alliteration which is beginning sound, and even daily reading of books for the learning and recognition of letters and simple words. ​

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    Doris Lawson
    Saint Paul MN
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  • 8.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-26-2020 03:22 PM
    how is everyone dealing with masks and children hearing and responding to different sounds? Phonological awareness and letter sounds are much more difficult when we cant see how each others mouths are moving to produce the sounds.

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    Geula Zamist
    Director Early Childhood
    Cong Agudath Israel
    Passaic NJ
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  • 9.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-23-2020 01:19 PM
    There is a book called "What Works: An Introductory Teacher Guide for Early Language and Emergent Literacy Instruction". It is an excellent read and a "go to" book for me. It helped me understand the findings and recommendations of the National Early Literacy Panel report.  Easy to read, and provides a model of teacher's plans for teaching literacy skills, which includes Phonological Awareness. I highly recommend this as a starting point to get a good foundational understanding of what skills children need to become good readers and thinkers.

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    Kathleen Fong
    Curriculum Specialist
    Partners in Development Foundation: Ka Pa'alana
    Kapolei HI
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  • 10.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-26-2020 11:57 AM
    Thank you all for the advice. I am running into contradictory explanations, so perhaps you all can help clear this up. It was my understanding that PHONOLOGICAL awareness, was only about learning the sounds of letters and letter blends. That it can be "done in the dark". A video I watched today on the subject from NavaED explained PHONEMIC awareness was only about learning the sounds and can be done in the dark and that Phonological Awareness was the whole instruction that includes Phonics instruction (need to SEE the letters) and Phonemic awareness (HEAR sounds only). Which actually makes more sense to me. 
    However, I have been on a webinar recently and read other articles that Phonological Awareness IS learning sounds ONLY. So, who is correct? This only confirms that it is confusing even in the academic circles. 
    Before I continue to create this Teacher Training, I really need to be absolutely sure I am teaching the terms correctly. 
    Thank you!

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    Susan Frizsell
    Curriculum Coordinator
    Nashville, TN
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  • 11.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-29-2020 08:25 AM
    It can be extremely confusing with so many terms used interchangeably and often time correct. I explain the Phonological Awareness is an umbrella term for "Oral Language". Included underneath the umbrella is the Spoken word, Rhyming, Syllables, and Phonemes. I explain that phonemes are the individual sounds that make up a word. In the English language, there are 44 phonemes for the 26 letters of the alphabet. Phonemic Awareness is the understanding between these letters and sounds, as well as the ability to isolate sounds. Phonics is the ability to manipulate phonemes in order to create new words when reading and writing. You must have secure phonological awareness in order to be successful at phonics. When explaining how this all relates to reading comprehension, I explain that

    Phonological Awareness is essential for decoding...Accurate decoding is essential for fluency...Fluency is essential for meaning and comprehension.




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    Barbara Wilchensky
    City of Bridgeton
    Bridgeton NJ
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  • 12.  RE: Phonological Awareness

    Posted 10-30-2020 11:06 AM
    Phonemic awareness is the development of hearing the differences between sounds, including the sounds of letters, while oral language means exactly what it says: being able to express yourself using language. Phonics is knowing and being able to decode individual sounds in the language, essential for reading for most children, especially second language learners.

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    Nora Krieger, PhD
    Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park, NJ
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