Guided Reading Instruction Starts This Week!
Get the most out of mCLASS!
How to generate parent reports based on mCLASS - These would be GREAT for parent teacher conferences!
How to create small groups based on mCLASS data - This feature groups your kids based on needs and provides lesson plans for small group instruction based on the deficit skills!
Getting Started with Reading A-Z
Shift 2 - Recommitting to Phonemic Awareness Instruction
A Common Practice to Reconsider:
Taking a 'bit-of-this-and-a-bit-of-that' approach to phonemic awareness instruction -
Phonemic awareness instruction involves teaching children to notice, articulate, and manipulate the smallest sounds in words. One of the most critical opportunities to begin rethinking, rebuilding, and rebalancing our beginning reading practice may be in providing more robust and intentional phonemic awareness instruction.
Things to Remember:
1. Phonemic awareness does not develop naturally - Because the alphabet was a man-made system, it does not come naturally. People have to learn how to use it. The act of learning to efficiently untangle, discriminate, segment, blend, and manipulate those tiny little sound slices, called phonemes, is paramount for students stepping into literacy.
2. Phonemic awareness and phonics are not the same thing - The most basic distinction between phonics and phonemic awareness is the inclusion or exclusion of letters. Phonemic awareness involves ONLY spoken sounds, without letters attached. Once you add letters to the sounds, it becomes phonics. Phonemic awareness and phonics, though different, are reciprocal skill sets that can and should be woven together in complementary ways.
3. Students knowing all of their letters and sounds does not mean they will be able to read - Once students understand alphabetic principle: every spoken word can be broken into phonemes, every written word is made up of symbols from our alphabet, and every sound in a spoken word is represented by a letter or combination of letters, they will be ready to take off with reading.
4. Phonemic awareness is not just a prereading skill - Phonemic awareness plays a vital role for all readers, and students are still developing these phonemic awareness skills into the upper elementary grades. Since phonemic awareness is a thread that winds through many aspects of learning to read and write, students who have difficulty developing awareness of phonemes are much more likely to have reading and writing difficulties.
5. Intentional phonemic awareness instruction does not take a lot of time or resources - You can teach phonemic awareness with just a few minutes a day and a clear understanding of the most important tasks. Consistency is more important than quantity.
Simple and Scientifically Sound Shifts We Can Make:
1. Gather what you need for a thoughtful phonemic awareness lesson - This may include instructional routines, word lists, multisensory scaffolds, and an assessment plan.
2. Learn to use a few high-leverage instructional routines - Because you can do them on the run with few or no instructional materials, PA tasks are easy to weave across the school day.
3. Get intentional with your instructional language - The words "letters" and "sounds" are NOT interchangeable and SHOULD NOT be used interchangeably. It is also critical that we be intentional about clean pronunciation of every phoneme during phonemic awareness instruction. Be careful not to add an "uh" to the end of letter sounds, such as /buh/ instead of /b/.
4. Embed phonemic awareness instruction across the day - Plan for PA to be a part of whole group, small group, and transition times.
5. Let assessment guide you - In order to ensure that every student is developing phonemic awareness alongside early print skills, you may need to add phonemic awareness to your ongoing assessment plan. (mCLASS does this!)
Here are some great resources from the authors:
Hutto ISD Literacy PD Resources
This Canvas Course is a resource for you. Each month's literacy PD will be added in at the time of the PD session. Be sure to have canvas open in another tab to join the course.
Balanced Literacy
Literacy Limelight
Thanks so much for giving of your time Emily Hall, Sarah Barnard, Melissa Siler, Lauralee Medina, Liezl Haskins, Mariela Munoz, Nicole Stratman, Kirstin Horton, Tammy Camp, Dori Waugh, Teresa Reno, Zandra Clay, Adriana Guerrero, Leslie Rolls, Rocio Ramirez, and Stephannie Woelfel!
Amanda Sanchez, M.Ed.
Elementary Literacy Specialist
Certified Reading SpecialistHutto ISD
Email: amanda.sanchez@huttoisd.net
Website: www.hipponation.org
Phone: (512)759-3771
