Phonemic Awareness Screeners and Strategies for Struggling Students

South Todd Elementary SchoolJanuary 9, 2012Betsy Madison (betsy.madison@grrec.ky.gov)www.betsymadison.com

Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page

Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness = • the ability to recognize the sounds of spoken language and how

they can be segmented, blended, and manipulated. • includes awareness at the phoneme level, syllable level, word

level, and sentence level

Phonemic Awareness = • awareness at the level of a single unit of sound, regardless of the

number of letters in the sound (/m/ in made, /th/ in thing, /dge/ in bridge)

Phonological Awareness vs. Phonics

Phonological Awareness = • sound only, listening to sounds and producing

sounds without print

Phonics = • Phonological Awareness + letters

“You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say, ‘I’m gonna build the biggest,baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built.’ You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall.” Will Smith

Phonemic Awareness Continuum

• Phoneme Isolation (recognize individual sounds in a word)

• Phoneme Identification (recognize same sound in different words)

• Phoneme Categorization (recognize the odd word in a set)

• Phoneme Blending (combining phonemes to form a word)

Phonemic Awareness, continued…

• Phoneme Segmentation (break a word into its separate sounds)

• Phoneme Deletion (identify how a word would sound if one sound were omitted)

• Phoneme Addition (add a single phoneme to a word to create a new word)

• Phoneme Substitution (replace a phoneme in a word with another phoneme to create a new word)

When should Phonemic Awareness Instruction occur?

• All kindergartners should receive formal instruction

• Once assessment indicates students have a skill, instruction should be discontinued.

• Most children have acquired phonemic awareness by the middle of the first grade.

• Don’t delay phonics instruction for students who haven’t yet acquired phonemic awareness.

When should you suspect a student is not phonemically aware?

• After First Grade, if a student reads with…– poor fluency,– has difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words,– has difficulty sounding out multi-syllabic

words,– has poor comprehension,

screen student for phonemic awareness.

“Some estimates suggest that approximately 90% of students

identified as having learning disabilities lack phonemic

awareness.” (Stanovich, 1986)

Screeners

• Phonemic Awareness Screen• easyCBM.com

• Phonological Awareness Skills Screener (PASS)

• Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST)

• Teacher-Made

Let’s Practice

• Give a partner 2 sections of the Phonemic Awareness Screener

• Partner administer 2 different sections

• “Students”– Please make several errors on one of the

sections administered to you.

Strategies

• KDE Phonemic Awareness Instructional Menu

• Phonemic Awareness Activity Cards• speech-language development.com• Florida Center for Reading Research

Phonemic Awareness Intervention

• Explicit modeling• Many opportunities for practice with

new words• Small, discrete steps• If student isn’t responding…

– Slow down– repeat

With Older Students

• Teach phonemic awareness only to students who are struggling with it.

• Teach only the skills they need.• Assess and screen to determine needed

skills.• If student isn’t responding….

– Slow down– Switch it up & repeat skill

Let’s Practice

• In which area does your student need help?

• Using the resources you’ve been given, locate a strategy/activity you could do to address your student’s need.

• Share

Minimal, Advanced and Adapted Competencies

Minimal Essential Skill

Adapted Level II

Adapted Level

I

Advanced Level I

Advanced Level II

• Betsy.madison@grrec.ky.gov• Betsymadison.com