Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

There are many terms that a reading instructor should be aware of. They aren't important to the leaner, but should be researched and understood by the instructor.

One way to incorporate phonemic awareness into the classroom is through music. Bringing the playfulness that children use outside of the classroom that taught them their basic phonemic awareness skills, (nursery rhymes, hand games, jump-rope songs) inside of the classroom is an easy way to continue their learning. The two music classes that I have taken through the education department have taught me plenty of these songs to use within my classroom and will help my children start to hear and listen for phonemic sounds.

Within my field experience I have seen the Yopp-singer test take place. The Kindergarten teach has taught children to listen for each individual sound in every word. They do this my sticking out one arm and patting their shoulder for the first sound, elbow for the second, and hand for the third. Then they slide their hand down their arm when they say all the sounds together to produce the word. This allows the students to become aware that spoken words are small units of sounds put together.

Armstrong Panel

I attended the Armstrong Panel on September 26 about setting up your classroom for the first day of school. The panel consisted of nine Armstrong teachers that taught all over the state and different grade levels. All of the teachers had their own personal opinion on how to set up for the first day of school, but all of the teachers agreed on a few things. Organization, structure, parent relationships, and confidence were the ideas that each teacher talked about and stood out to me.

            Being organized on the first day of school helps you set up for a successful year. The more organized you are, the better the day will go. Setting up a structure on the first day of school that will be similar to the one you use on a regular school day allows students to get in a familiar rhythm which will benefit them as well as yourself in the long run. Parent relationships should also be made early in the year. This helps you get to know your students and their background. It also makes it easier when having to call their parents later in the year for any circumstance that may occur. Finally, it can provide you with parent volunteers that are very beneficial. My favorite talk was the one on confidence. Eric Ambler, one of the Armstrong teachers talked on confidence stood out to me. He talked about looking confident even if you do not feel confident. Never let your student’s see you sweat is wonderful advice that I want to take with me into my future career.

Podcast- Making Decisions for Individual Learners within a Small Group

The podcast talked about making instruction decisions and small group instruction. Pat Johnson talked about making instructional decisions and mentioned four points, assessment drives instruction, supporting the reading process system, providing opportunities to practice with real books so children can use their reading processing system correctly, and keeping meaning at the forefront. Teachers can support the reading process system through teaching the readers, not the book. The goal should be for readers to self-initiate strategies and behaviors by using a balance of sources and information. The reading process system is brainwork, not a collection of items and words and has phonics intertwined into it. Reading is not about remembering all the words; it’s about trying out strategies such as meaning, visual, and semantic. In order to keep meaning at the forefront teachers should give opportunities to talk about and reread the book as well as making the book about something.

Diane DeFord also talked about making instructional decisions. It is a complex task that teachers have to handle. Teachers need to know their students. Know their strengths, interests, experimental base, language and strategies that they can use. The lesson needs to be focused in order to assess easily. Assessment will be done with recording a child read a book that is matched to the reader. The teacher can find books that match by seeing what strategies the books use and how the book assists those strategies. It is important to remember that books are not neutral, they each have their own strategies that are needed in order to successfully read them. After the assessment, the teacher decides on one or two things to work on next. Teachers need to plan for change because students learning must change in order for them to progress. Through all of the instructional time comprehension has to be on the forefront of the teacher and student’s mind because it leads the reading processing system.

Mary Cappellini talks about small group instruction. Small group instruction also calls for the teacher to know each student individually in order to successfully group the students. Look at their language patterns in order to choose book that are leveled with not only their reading level, but also speaking level. Students with various levels, but use of similar strategies, are good to put in the same group because they can cross check with each other. Pick developmental stage of reading first by seeing if the student can successfully use their strategies and reading process system, then pick the book that matches the developmental stage. Do not go down or up a level after one book, test many books before making a final decision. It is possible to sit with an individual child during small groups to help them.