Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

     Last semester in my graduate studies class load, I had Advanced Studies of Teaching Math in Elementary School (Math Methods).  The math calculations were not so horrible; and although I was stuck on solving base 5 problems for a short bit, I feel confident I can solve those types of problems now.  My Math Methods class was probably one of the hardest classes I've ever had.  What made that class so difficult?  Understanding how a child learns to do math.  I had never stopped to think about the stages a child goes through when learning mathematics.  Suddenly, I was being required to be able to identify and know exactly what stage a child might be in, what they failed to learn (or what they needed help with), how to help them understand what they were doing, and how to push them ahead to the next stage.  That task seems daunting to me when I think...a teacher has 25 students and needs to think about and help each one.

     This semester, in my Reading and Language Arts class, I am revisiting learning how a child learns, but this time...how to read, and also write.  I feel like I actually all ready know most of what I will be learning in this class.  Not because I am a smarty.  For the past 13 years, I truly have been doing exactly what our readings are explaining!  I feel I have an advantage over my classmates in these particular lessons.  I am most curious about what I may have been doing incorrectly, if anything.  But I am confident in saying, nothing.  I have made mistakes, but I've learned from them.  What didn't go over well the first time in a lesson, I polished and refined for the next time I taught it. But, when terminology is tossed about in our class, such as Picture Walk, 1-to-1 matching, leveled readers, Reading (or Running) Records, miscues, DRA, strategies and cueing, I see puzzled looks on faces around the room.  I have never been an expert on something, but our instructor is speaking a language I know well.  I am looking forward to sharing my experiences, and having things I learned refreshed in my mind.

     In our readings this week, it was suggested that parents can help their child/ren by reading aloud to them, take them to the library, show them all the things they read (and write) daily.  Exposing children to reading and writing, and allowing them to "play" and get comfortable with reading and writing materials is a great way to start a child's learning process.  If parents can do these things, a child has an advantage when they come to a formalized learning program.  They will be a step ahead of their average peers.  Exposure alone to reading and writing materials can give a struggling student an edge to get ahead, or to at least help them not fall behind their peers.   It's never too early to read to a child!  It's never too early to write with a child. It's never too late, either!

     Caution should be used, however, to encourage exploring rather then to expect perfection, especially at an early age.  Too easily adults forget that they did not read or write perfectly the first time they tried.  Children need to be allowed to play as they learn, and that may mean exploring, being creative or experimenting.  Playing takes time.  Some children shut down when expectations are set too high.  Some children shut down if they haven't appropriately developed the necessary skills needed before they begin to read and write (pre-reading skills).  *** Phonemic Awareness is part of the pre-reading skills a child acquires through just being exposed to materials, both visually and orally.   Phonemic Awareness is something I became aware of about three years ago in my literacy teaching.  I was introduced to it when I was to teach kindergarteners how to read.  I had all ready been teaching first graders for a decade.  How different could adding kindergarteners be, really?

     My Job/What I did: I worked with first graders, in groups no larger than 6 students for 30 minutes a day, four days a week.  On day five, the literacy facilitators would meet with the classroom teachers to discuss how our students were progressing.  If one child was pushing ahead or falling behind her/his peers, we would move that student to a group which better met their needs.  Our groups were flexible and could change weekly.  As instructors, we changed tables weekly as well.  By doing this, our students may hear the same instruction said in a different way; they would hear another competent adult sing their praises and encourage them.  When there were three first grade classes at our school, I spent an hour and a half teaching reading; 30 minutes per class.  When there were four first grade classes, I spent two hours teaching.  Each class would enter the literacy room and the students would disperse to tables that each contained a literacy teacher, like myself or their classroom teacher.  Typically first grade classrooms have no more than 24 students.  Each first grade class would come into our room at the same time each day and every single student received this instruction.  Our daily routine, varied depending on the day, but we always had familiar reading, writing, a new book and word work to do.

     When kindergarten classes were added to the mix: The kindergarteners would see me three days a week.  Initially, I would teach the kindergarteners using a different (Kindergarten) model, but eventually I would segue them into the First Grade Model.  The Kindergarten Model went for 16 weeks, I would read and sing a nursery rhyme with them, read them a story book then discuss First, Next, Then, and Last sequencing of the story, define characters, setting, plot, theme (maybe), do Phonemic Awareness, and play with magnetic letters of there alphabet.

     I was shocked when I witnessed children who did not know a nursery rhyme.  I live in a college town where I feel most parents are educated.  I worked at one of the more affluent schools.  Children who hadn't heard, what I think are, familiar nursery rhymes?  The children of today are missing out if they don't get to watch Barney, the purple dinosaur on PBS.  If parents aren't teaching children nursery rhymes, someone must!  Hickory, Dickory, Dock! Kindergarten is a good place for children to hear and learn nursery rhymes.  From these easy rhymes phonemic awareness can happen.  Phonemic awareness differs from Phonics in that it is learning sounds in words(hearing and saying).  Phonics is when letters are recognized and actually matched with the sound they make (hearing, seeing and saying).  A phonemic awareness activity I might do after singing Hickory, Dickory, Dock with students would be to say, "Which word starts like hickory? Dog or Hog?"   Phonemic awareness, hearing sounds, needs to happen before children can learn to read.  Hearing sounds means one can distinguish words from one another.  Phonemes are those tiny sounds that we move around within a word.  What sounds are in CAT?   /c/ /a/ /t/  What sounds are in MOTHER? /ma/ /th/ /er/  What sound is at the beginning of CAT? At the ending of CAT? In the middle of CAT? This is an easy, simple little thing anyone can do just when passing time with a little one.  The only requirements, ears and a mouth!


*** Older children who are struggling as readers/writers may have been forced to do drill work as an attempt to help them learn.  Surely the thought process is, if we drill them enough eventually it should sink in.  Possibly that is true.  But it is also possible that we turn students off with this type of lesson.  I have been guilty of doing this.  My readings this week have emphasized, and reminded me of, the importance of focusing on the positive children do as readers and writers.  Encouraging attempts and successes leads to a student willing to practice more.  With more practice and continued exposer to text, both written and oral, students will make connections and start to mimic what they see.  Students should be given opportunities to be successful at reading, where they can make real connections and make meaning out of drill work they are doing.

blog post based on readings for this week:

Johnson, P. and Keier, K. 2010. Catching Readers Before They Fall. ch 7. I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading, but Whoa! (107-130)

Cusumano, K. (2008, September).  Language Arts.  Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing. 86 (1), 9-17.

Rasinski, T.V. and Padak, N.  (2008) Teaching Phonemic Awareness. In Rasinski, T.V. and Padak, N. From Phonics to Fluency: Effective Teaching of Decoding and Reading Fluency in the Elementary School.  (42-60).  Boston, MA. Pearson Education, Inc.