Phonological+Awareness

Jeanne Leon Phonological awareness is the understanding of different ways that oral language can be divided into smaller components and manipulated. This may include sentences into words, words into syllables, onset and rime, and individual phonemes. The sounds may be manipulated, or added to, and deleted. Phonological awareness involves the auditory and oral manipulation of sounds (Chard & Dickson, 1999). English language learners enter school with a thousand word or more vocabulary, exposure to rhymes and alliterations, a print rich environment, and are able to write their names and other symbols. Students who are not English speakers may not enter school equipped with the same tools and experiences (August, 2003). When children start to enjoy and appreciate rhyme and alliteration they are demonstrating the initial stage of phonological awareness. For many, this begins early and is often facilitated by being read to from books that are based on rhyme and alliteration. Some examples of books are: The B Book by Stanley and Janice Berenstain, or Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
 * Recommendation for Phonological Awareness:**


 * Scenario:**

Mrs. L. is a veteran teacher at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school and has taught kindergarten for many years. In a kindergarten classroom with the majority of the students second language learners their range of readiness skills in reading are vast. Mrs. L. must model as she introduces each activity for phonological awareness. A common method she implements is the direct, explicit instruction of my turn, your turn. Students’ watch Mrs. L. model, the whole class responds in unison, and then individual children may be called on to check for understanding. Mrs. L. would begin by sharing rhyming books and alliteration daily with the students to aide in the auditory component of Phonological Awareness. This is beneficial to all students regardless of the literacy home life they have experienced. Stories and songs on a C.D. can be often heard in her classroom. In teaching phonological awareness, following are some examples that may be used to prepare them to become successful readers. Mrs. L. would begin with the sounds in words and demonstrate how each sound may be stretched out and then snapped back together to reveal the word. This may be done using a rubber band so students can visualize the stretching and snapping back of the sounds. In segmenting sounds the teacher would give the students the word and they would say each sound they hear in the word. As the student says a sound the teacher puts up one finger for each sound. In blending, the teacher touches a cube or block as she says the sounds and then sweeps her finger across the top of the cubes as they blend the sounds together and say the word. Onset and rime is another activity Mrs. L. implements with a green marker and a red cap. As the students say the onset Mrs. L. touches the red cap and then as they say the rime she slides her finger over the green part of the marker. This enables the students to see the separation of the onset and rime more clearly. When working on syllables, Mrs. L. has the students’ clap, tap, or jump up for each syllable. In first grade the students continue to work on phonological awareness by adding, substituting, and deleting sounds in words. In the students move to first grade they continue to work on phonological awareness by adding, substituting, and deleting sounds in words as well as the other areas mentioned above. Activities for Phonological Awareness should be fun and engaging for all students.

References: August, D. (2003).　Supporting the development of English literacy in English language learners: Key issues and promising practices. //,//, . ERIC. Retrieved from __ [] __

Chard, D. J., & Dickson, S. V. (1999,　May). Phonological awareness: Instructional and assessment guidelines. //Intervention in// //School and Clinic//, //34//(5), 261-270.