Phonemic Awareness

The two articles assigned this week about concepts, terminology, and teaching phonemic awareness had an impact on my thinking about teaching my future students to read. In, From Phonics to Fluency-Effective Teaching of Decoding and Reading Fluency in the Elementary School, Rasinski and Padak discuss the importance of having a common language and understanding of terminology among teachers. Chapter two is mainly a guide for teachers to gain a better handle on what each specific term means, and how it relates to teaching reading and phonemic awareness. As soon as I started to read the long list of vocabulary and definitions I immediately felt a bit overwhelmed. While there were some obvious and recognized words described in the chapter, there were also several that I did not recognize and have not heard of before. One of those terms for example is Digraph. This is defined as two or more consonants grouped together that produce one sound. After looking over the examples given I knew exactly what it meant, I just was not aware there was a technical term for the case. The word phone has the letters p and h that make a different sound than the routinely taught “puh” and “ha” sounds that phonics teaches. This chapter mainly brought light to terms that I knew about, but was unaware of their technical name. Because authentic experiences and direct instruction give students the opportunity to learn and grow through their learning in regards to sounds, it is not necessarily important that students learn these technical terms. It is more important for teachers to have this knowledge so they are able to teach and incorporate the definitions. This is probably why I do not recognize some of the terms. I was never taught in school that certain combinations of sounds had a specific term. From my understanding and recognition of the concepts though, it becomes apparent that I was introduced to the terms at some point in school. It really comes down to teachers having the students read and practicing before worrying about labeling.

In Chapter 4, the authors provide a more detailed explanation of ways in which to teach phonemic awareness. BY using poems, rhyming songs, and nursery rhymes, such as “hickory dickory dock,” the students are able to hear the sounds the letters make. Changing the first letter of some of the poems and rhymes can also show the child that there are multiple words that use the same sounds but may have different endings and beginnings. The authors also stress the importance of introducing these types of activities daily so that the students may build and grow with practice. A lot of what phonemic awareness provides for students becomes the foundation for reading and can be incorporated through play. Informed teachers become the essential part of teaching phonemic awareness. Teachers need to guide the students in the proper activities in order for the learning to take place. By developing sensitivity to sounds, students learn to become independent and are able to self-monitor as they read. This is why inventive spelling is encouraged for beginner readers. This teaches the student to work through a word by listening to the sounds they hear. Overall, there should be stimulating and authentic practice in reading daily for younger aged students to develop phonemic awareness.