1. West Virginia Phonological Awareness Project
West Virginia Department of Education
Office of Special Programs
Extended and Early Learning
Adapted from information by
C. Melanie Schuele, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University
This presentation was developed by the West Virginia Department of Education using information developed by Dr. Melanie Schuele and the WVDE.
The WVDE Phonological Awareness Program was initially implemented in 2001 and has now expanded to over 200 school sites.
The program will be expanded to all elementary schools by fall 2010.

2. What do you remember about learning to read?
Most educators were very successful at learning to read.
Most educators like to read.
What does it mean that people who are good at reading are trying to teach reading to children who are not very good at learning to read and probably don’t like reading very much?
Give them one minute to talk to their partner about what their learning to read experiences were. Then make this comment….
If we were successful at learning to read, we may not have any idea of the real frustrations for children who are having difficulty learning to read. This is not to say that we can’t help them. Rather, it is to remind us who it is that we are working with. And what a challenge it is to help children who are having difficulty learning to read.

3. Discussion Topics WVDE PROGRAM OVERVIEW/RATIONALE How did we get here?
WHAT IS PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS?
What is your phonological awareness?
PROGRAM COMPONENTS
How does this program relate to tiered instruction?
PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
Classroom Component
Intensive Phonemic Awareness Program (IPAP) Intervention
SCHOOL IMPLEMENTATION
School Team Roles
Materials
Assessment
Monitoring
These are the major areas we will be addressing during the training today.

4. Why Worry About Reading?
20% of elementary students nationwide have significant problems learning to read.
80% of all referrals to special education involve reading difficulties (Kavale and Reese, 1992).
The rate of reading failure for African-Americans, Hispanic, limited-English speakers and poor children ranges from 60% to 70%.
75% of children behind in reading in 3rd grade remain behind through high school.
Share information on slide.

5. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of school.
One-third of fourth graders who are poor readers come from college-educated families.
75% of children with oral language impairments are reading disabled in fourth grade.
Children with language impairments are 6 times more likely to be reading disabled than peers.
Effective prevention and early intervention programs can increase the reading skills of 85 to 90% of poor readers to average levels. (Lyon, 1997)
Here are some facts to make us think … [read these statements]

6. Why Focus on Phonemic Awareness?
Longitudinal studies of reading acquisition have demonstrated that…
the acquisition of phonemic awareness is highly predictive of reading success.
At the kindergarten level, phonemic awareness abilities appear to be the best single predictor of successful reading acquisition.
Without direct phonemic awareness instructional support….
25% of middle-class first graders and substantially more children from less literacy–rich backgrounds will evidence serious difficulty in learning to read and write.
Why did we focus on phonemic awareness when developing this project?

7. Why are we here? To improve children’s early reading achievement
Poor phonemic awareness
significant factor in the poor early reading achievement of many children.
Through instruction….
children’s phonemic awareness skills can be improved.
Improvement in phonemic awareness skills
leads to greater reading achievement.
We know that phonemic awareness plays a critical role in learning to read.
The purpose of this training is to improve the reading achievement of students by focusing on the acquisition of phonemic awareness skills.

8. What are the Implications?
According to Research, Best Practice, Evidence- based Practice…………….
All children should receive phonological awareness instruction as part of literacy instruction.
In the early grades, especially kindergarten.
Children who do NOT have an adequate foundation of phonological awareness…
Require intensive phonemic awareness intervention (e.g., small group) at the end of kindergarten and/or beginning of first grade.

9. What Motivated the WVDE Phonological Awareness Project?
Student Achievement
Data from Statewide Assessment
Low literacy scores
Legal Implications
No Child Left Behind
IDEA
ASHA
Changing Roles and Responsibilities of SLPs in literacy initiatives
Initiated by WVDE in 2001
The WVDE was motivated by data indicating that WV needed to address reading scores.
NCLB ‘s focus on literacy and accountability.
IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) includes language that directs states to actively implement early intervention strategies for students PRIOR to referral for special education in an effort to PREVENT reading problems.
ASHA (American Speech-language Hearing Association) recognized the expertise of the SLP in language and encouraged SLPs to become more involved in early literacy initiatives.
WVDE staff involved in reading initiatives and speech/language pathology met to discuss possible intervention strategies using SLPs, reading specialists, Title I and/or personnel, etc.

10. Project Goals To increase To provide professional educators with
Number of students reading on grade level.
Third Grade
Professional educators’ knowledge base
Importance of phonemic awareness in the reading program.
To provide professional educators with
Strategies
Teach and promote student mastery of phonological awareness.
Appropriate intervention strategies when student mastery has not been met.
Program Expansion to additional school sites.
It was important to develop a program that was cost-efficient and easily replicated in other school sites.

11. Project Collaboration
Collaboration with university researchers.
Dr. Melanie Schuele
to plan the project
to in-service the professional staff
Evaluation: Dr. Laura Justice
Collaboration across WVDE to fund and coordinate the project.
Reading First
Special Education
Title I
Collaboration with local county school districts to implement the project.
Collaboration of the WVDE with local county school districts in order to implement the project.
Office of Instructional Services:
Office of Special EducatioN
Dr. Melanie Schuele is a speech-language pathologist who has spent her career researching phonological awareness and reading. – Vanderbilt University
Dr. Justice – a nationally known expert in early literacy – University of Virginia.

12. What was the rationale for program development?
By teaching specific phonemic awareness skills to kindergarten and first-grade children….
Provide them the opportunity to “catch up” to their peers before they experience failure.
One-on-one training is highly effective but not cost efficient.
Training must be effective and cost-efficient and time- efficient.
Group instruction can be effective and efficient.
Educational practice needs to reflect research- based practice.
Research based rationale

13. Rationale……
Many materials are available for phonemic awareness training, but…..
Little guidance as to how to effectively implement comprehensive, systematic, intensive training with children.
Textbooks
Phonemic awareness training must be……
Adequate in scope, intensity and duration.
Materials and programs must……
Explain “how to teach” skills as well as describe activities.
Intensive, early intervention can…..
Prevent reading difficulties.
Textbooks at the time the project was initiated did not adequately address phonological awareness and there was a need for supplemental materials –
However, currently adopted textbooks are much improved with regard to PA.
We encourage teachers to maintain fidelity of the WVDE Phonological Program by continuing to implement the classroom component on a daily basis.

14. Who are the children we anticipated would benefit?
All children benefit from instruction that reflects best practice.
Children lacking early literacy experiences.
Children needing an extra push.
Children with speech/language disabilities.
Children with learning disabilities.
All children will benefit from phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten.
Indeed, current research clearly supports that phonological awareness instruction should be a visible, critical part of the kindergarten early literacy curriculum.

15. WVDE Pilot Project How did we get here?
Program Design
Classroom Based Instruction
Intensive Phonological Awareness Program
Selection of School Sites
Training/Materials
Pre and Post Assessment
Evaluation
The next few slides will offer a brief background on the initial development and implementation of the project.

16. Program Design Classroom- Based Phonological Awareness Instruction
Instruction provided to all children in kindergarten and first grade classes.
Incorporated into classroom daily activities.
Teacher or collaboration w/ SLP or Title I
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
Data Collected
______________________________________________________
Intensive Phonological Awareness Training Program (IPAP)
Small Group Instruction: (6 students)
Fall: First Grade Spring: Kindergarten
Three 30 min sessions/week for 12 weeks
Letter names/sounds reviewed each session
Weeks 1-3: Rhyme Training
Weeks 4-8: Initial Phoneme Segmentation
Weeks 7-9: Final Phoneme Segmentation
Weeks 10-12: Word Segmentation and Blending
Data Collection
Based on the research we have just discussed – the WVDE in collaboration with Dr. Schuele designed this program specifically for West Virginia.

17. WVDE Pilot Project Selection of School Sites
Schools: 15 Sites Selected
Funding
Application Process
Criteria
Administrative Support
School Commitment
Geographic Considerations
Representative Cross Section of Schools
School Teams
Classroom Component:
Kindergarten/First Grade Teachers
Intensive Intervention:
Speech-language pathologist
Title I teacher
Special Educator
Funding was the basis for the selection of the 15 sites. There was a limited amount of funding available – so we estimated total training/materials cost and determined that we could support 15 sites.
Developed and disseminated an application.
Selected sites based on the criteria listed.

18. Training School Teams trained by Dr. Schuele.
Intensive – 5 days
Two strands of instruction/intervention.
(1) Classroom based instruction:
Kindergarten/First Grade
Material: Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
________________________________________________
(2) Small group intervention
Low-achieving first graders
Low-achieving kindergartners
Material: Intensive Phonemic Awareness Program (IPAP) Book
IPAP Materials Box box
Evaluate child outcomes.
Kindergarten classrooms
Small group intervention participants
Dr. Schuele provided the initial training.
We have now reduced the training from 5 days to 1 day for program implementation and 1 day for Dibels.
Evaluation was a critical part of the program design – did not want to waste time replicating if the data did not support this intervention.

19. Training Materials Intensive Program Classroom Program Resource
Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPAP) Manual
Dr. Melanie Schuele
IPAP Implementation Record Forms
IPAP Materials Box
All materials to implement IPAP
Resource
Sounds Abound: Listening, Rhyming, and Reading
LinguiSystems
Classroom Program
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
Brookes Publishing Company
Activity Implementation Record
Kindergarten and First Grade
Resource
Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers
Materials needed to Implement Program
Resource materials are suggested:
Speech to Print is an excellent resource for teachers to provide background in language and phonology
by Louisa Moats.
Sounds Abound: Pictures in this resource were used to develop IPAP Materials Box

20. Assessment: Pre and Post Intervention
Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA)
PALS ( Phonological Awareness Screening)
Invented Spelling Task
Alphabet Knowledge and Letter-Sound Knowledge Task
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)
Initially used TOPA and PALS – now use DIBELS

21. Evaluation Questions
What improvement in phonological awareness do kindergarten children exhibit as a result of consistent classroom based instruction?
_________________________________________
For kindergarten and 1st grade students who are identified as deficient in phonological awareness, what improvement in phonological awareness is realized as a result of a small group, 12-week intensive intervention program?
________________________________________
Dr. Laura Justice – University of Virginia

22. PALS-K Word Recognition
Statistically significant

23. Children Below Benchmark End of Year
Add-On
Regular
Rhyme
26%
41%
Beginning Sounds 9%
20%
Alphabet Knowledge
30%
Letter Sounds
61%
66%
Spelling 4%
16%
Concept of Word
44%
57%

24. Developmental Spelling First Grade Change Over 12 Weeks/first grade
Statistically significant.
Across 12 weeks, on a developmental spelling assessment, IPA groups’ mean score changed 10 points and comparison children’s mean changed less than 9 points

25. Alphabet Knowledge Kindergarten Change Across 12 Weeks
Both group means in May approached mastery on the measure of naming letters. However, the change across the 12 weeks was far greater for the IPA group.
Statistically significant.

26. What were the school teams’ perceptions of the project?

27. CURRENT STATUS 200 SCHOOLS MONITOR CURRENT SCHOOLS
READING FIRST SCHOOLS
RTI SCHOOLS
MONITOR CURRENT SCHOOLS
HIGH NEEDS TASK FORCE
FULL IMPLEMENTATION – 2010
RESA TRAININGS ANNUALLY

28. Phonological Awareness Training Objectives
Increase knowledge ….
in order to provide effective phonemic awareness instruction.
Analyze the sound structure of language ….
in order to understand the importance and skills necessary to analyze sounds.
Develop effective teaching strategies ….
in order to provide effective phonemic awareness instruction.
These are the goals we have for each of you during the training:
Increase your knowledge about the relationship of phonemic awareness and reading achievement. This knowledge will help you understand the WHYs – why you are learning new information, why you will provide the specialized phonemic awareness instruction to children, and so on.
Increase your ability to analyze the sound structure of language. This sounds a little bit odd. If you are going to teach something to children that is necessary for them to learn to read, it seems that you should already be able to do this. Afterall, you know how to read. But in fact, many literate adults have difficulty analyzing language at the level of speech sounds. You might have trouble doing this because you think about PRINT more than you think about SPEECH. But I assure you, by the end of training - you will be much better at analyzing the sound structure of language!
Develop effective teaching strategies so that you are able to effectively teach children to analyze the sounds in words. So that you are able to promote the development of phonemic awareness skills in young children.
A word of CAUTION – we all come to this training with different levels of knowledge, with different types of expertise. For the most part, teachers are experts in print. And speech-language pathologists are experts in speech. We are going to begin to make teachers experts in SPEECH, or the act of analyzing speech. That is, we are going to increase everyone’s phonemic awareness. This can be a frustrating process for everyone.
Also, recognize that each member of your team comes to this training with a different set of knowledge and you will leave with varying levels of understanding. One goal is that you work collaboratively and help each other out. As we go through some of the content today things may make a lot more sense to the SLP on the team than it does to everyone else. Don’t worry about that –we expect that to happen. Our goal is that each of you increase in your understanding of phonemic awareness, not that you all have identical skills at the end of this training.

29. What do we know about children who display difficulties in learning to read from the outset?
Two decades of research have clearly illustrated that children who fail at the initial stages of reading have poor phonemic awareness skills.
Okay, we’ve used the terms phonemic awareness and phonological awareness a lot already this morning. Now, let’s get clarity on exactly what these words really mean.
Poor word recognition skills with underlying deficits in phonemic awareness.

30. models of READING DEVELOPMENT
Chall’s (1983) Six Stages of Reading
Stage 0: Preceding (0-5 yrs.)
Stage 1: Initial Reading or Decoding (5-7 yrs.)
Stage 2: Ungluing from Print (7-9 yrs.)
Stage 3: Reading to Learn (9-14 yrs.)
Stage 4: Multiple Viewpoints (14-18 yrs.)
Stage 5: Construction and Reconstruction (above 18 yrs.)
This project is looking to effect the achievement of children in Stage 1 of reading development, when they are beginning to figure out how print works. We are looking at providing instruction that will make children more successful at decoding words. We want to help children BEFORE they fail at learning to read. Thus, this is a pro-active project.

31. READING word identification comprehension sight word recognition
word attack skills
comprehension
word level comprehension
sentence level comprehension
text level comprehension
Clearly reading consists of many things. At a simple level, we can think of reading as figuring out words and understanding the meaning of the words. The instruction that we are going to implement likely will influence children's abilities to identify words. It won’t directly influence children's reading comprehension. But many children have great difficulties identifying words. We want to minimize these difficulties. And identifying words is a critical step in the early stages of learning to read.

32. WHAT IS PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS. WHAT IS PHONEMIC AWARENESS
WHAT IS PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS? WHAT IS PHONEMIC AWARENESS? WHAT IS PHONICS?
Before we continue our discussion of the program – it is important that we understand the difference between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics.

33. Phonological Awareness
An awareness of the sound structure of spoken language
An aspect of metalinguistic ability or metalinguistic awareness.
Think about language as an object of thought,
……….separate from language meaning.
Not important for communicative uses of language.
Crucial for literacy acquisition
Let’s start with the term “phonological awareness” – this term broadly means “the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of a word.” Phonological awareness is an analysis skill – you analyze the sound structure of the words. You can analyze this at many levels. Importantly, you are not going to think about the meaning of the word when you analyze the sound structure of words. This is a challenge for young children – because they are skilled at the meaning of words. They aren’t skilled at analyzing sounds.
What I want to emphasize here is that phonological awareness is a metalinguistic skill. It calls upon a child's ability to analyze the sound structure of language. This analysis ability is quite different than producing phonemes correctly in a word. So just because I can say BOX, does not mean I can analyze the sounds in BOX. Phonological awareness tasks do not require children to “hear” differences between sounds, rather phonological awareness tasks require children to analyze the sounds in words.
Importantly, these abilities to analyze the sound structure of words in our language is crucial to development of reading skills. But it is not important for using words to communicate effectively. Societies that do not have print, may never have a need to develop the ability to analyze the sound structure of words.

34. Phonological Awareness
The ability to analyze the the sound units (phonemes, syllables) of language.
metalinguistic skill
NOT hear, NOT discriminate
Phonemic awareness critical to early reading ability.
An awareness of the sound structure of spoken language
an aspect of metalinguistic ability or metalinguistic awareness:
think about language as an object of thought, separate from language meaning
not important for communicative uses of language
crucial for literacy acquisition

35. Phonological Awareness Phonemic Awareness
The critical achievement is taking the whole word apart into individual sounds or phonemes. It is not just “slow” talk…but definite separation… Also critical is the blending of phonemes…
Phonemic Awareness

36. Phonemic awareness ??????? Phonological awareness ???????
Phonological awareness – a broader term; analyze the overall sound structure of words.
What rhymes with cat? Which word is longer – watermelon or house?
Phonemic awareness – a more narrow term, analyze the specific sounds in words.
What sound does box start with? Tell me the three sounds in the word cat.
Terms are often used synonymously.
. What is the difference between these two words?
The words actually have different meanings. In the research literature, phonological awareness is the broader term. It actually an umbrella term for all tasks that require analysis of the sounds of language.
Phonemic awareness is one type of phonological awareness skill. Phonemic awareness is the term we would use to refer to tasks that require us to specifically segment out the sounds in words.
Rhyming words would be a phonological awareness task but not a phonemic awareness task. But telling me the sounds in the word BOX as /b/ /a/ /k/ /s/ is a phonological awareness task AND a phonemic awareness task. It is a phonemic awareness task because you have to specifically analyze the sounds in the word. In rhymes you generally pay attention to the overall sound structure of the word.
The challenge is that in the educational practice literature, the terms get used interchangeably. Look at the title of the book for the kindergarten curriculum we have – PHONEMIC awareness in young children. Now flip to the table of contents and see that the curriculum includes lots of phonological awareness tasks that are not phonemic awareness tasks – for example, the whole chapter on rhymes!
You decide how you want to use the terms. What is more important that how you use the terms is that you recognize that when we talk about tasks that require children to analyze the sound structure of words, we have tasks of many different levels of complexity. Because a child is good or skilled on one type of task, does not necessarily mean they will be successful on more complex tasks.

37. Phonological Processing Predicts Reading Achievement
Phonological memory
repeat nonsense words of increasing length
Rapid automatized naming
names of common objects, colors
Phonological or phonemic awareness
To digress for just a moment .. many of you may have encountered the word “phonological processing”. Phonological processing is an umbrella term for three skills or behaviors that correlate with reading achievement. Phonemic awareness is one type of phonological processing skill. You might come across these terms when you are reading articles about phonemic awareness.
Typically, speech professionals deal with the first two tasks. Most students even in kindergarten, can do these easily.
Phonological memory – repeat: “brist – teep - spim”
Rapid automatized naming – flash colors on screen – name them quickly

38. Why is the acquisition of phonological awareness a challenge for so many children?

39. ROW B: Sounds /f/ /i/ /sh/
ROW A: Letters f i sh
ROW B: Sounds /f/ /i/ /sh/
Row C:
Pronunciation
And
Meaning
Row A …
Row C .. Child’s tendency to react to spoken word as a meaning, without paying conscious attention to the sounds at all.
Sounds overlap, give examples also of stop word – bat
Individual sounds (phonemes) are not psychologically real.
Breaks in words – no
Breaks in syllables – yes
Syllables are the natural break – they have psychological reality.
Equate to hearing a foreign language spoken…
Sounds are influenced by the letters (sounds) around them.
KAY KEY Not really the same placement/sound with /k/ in these words…The position of the tongue shifts in anticipation of the vowels.
Lewkowicz, 1980

40. What can a child do with phonological awareness? phonemic awareness?
Color the picture that rhymes with cat.
Tell me a word that rhymes with moon.
Do cat and cow begin with the same sound?
Circle the pictures that begin with the “kuh” sound.
Tell me a word that begins with mmm.
What word does /k/ – /ae/ – /t/ make? Put the sounds together.
What are the three sounds in the word phone?
Pig Latin – alktay igpay atinlay

41. Letter-Sound Correspondences
Alphabet Knowledge
Letter names
Letter Sounds
Alphabetic principle……
Words can be divided into sounds…….phonemic awareness
Sounds can be linked to letters………..Alphabet Knowledge
26 letters, 44 sounds, 245 letter patterns
_______________________________________________
What can a child do with phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle?
Write the letter for the beginning sound in box.
Write the letter for the ending sound in house.
Read this word: fish. Sound it out.
How many different spellings can you think of for the sound /sh/?
shell
nation
special
ocean
sure
chef
Schmidt

42. Phonological Phonics Awareness
Focus: sound structure of words
Intervention tasks involve identifying, segmenting, and manipulating the sounds in words, without reference to the letters that represent the sounds
Achievement: ability to segment a spoken word into its component sounds (a metalinguistic skill); ability to combine sounds into words
Focus: print representation of sounds and words
Intervention tasks involve identifying, categorizing the print symbols (i.e., letters) that are used to represent speech sounds
Achievement: ability to represent a spoken word in print with conventional sound-symbol correspondences; ability to create a spoken production of a written word by “sounding out” the written word
Memory can get “in the way” with some kids – it may seem like they have knowledge, when all they have done is to memorize a limited amount of information.
Letter of the week – M - /m/ - What words: mail, monkey moon (memorized from series)
Which of your cousins has a name that starts with /m/ (asks for application of knowledge) –
“Jennifer? Adam?” “No, it’s Melissa.” “No, not her!”

43. New names for old concepts?
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS =
AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION? NO
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS = PHONICS?
Phonological awareness is not the same as auditory discrimination.
Auditory discrimination relates to one’s ability to tell you that two words are different, there is no analysis involved. If children had trouble discriminating words then they would never have learned to talk.

44. LINKING: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics and Reading
Phonological Awareness

45. What Phonemic Awareness Instruction Will and Won’t Do?
Benefit students who don’t figure it out on their own
Benefit especially students who are having problems learning to decode words
WON’T DO…..
Ameliorate deficits in vocabulary and reading comprehension (language comprehension)
But if you can read, then you have a one more means to learn language comprehension and vocabulary. Otherwise, you are limited to spoken language, which is not very diverse in vocabulary and sentence structure (esp. complex syntax).
However, if you can decode easily, you can learn more vocabulary and comprehension.

46. COMPLEXITY MORE LESS Manipulate phonemes Segment/blend Individual
Onset-rime segment/blend
Alliteration, Sound Sorts
LESS
Continuum of Complexity from Less complex activities to more complex activities
Developing phonological awareness is characterized by a progressively more refined awareness of shorter and more abstract segments of speech.
Segmenting/blending are the foundation for phonological awareness and necessary for reading and writing.
Rhyme
Syllable segmentation

47. Phonological Awareness Tasks Lewkowicz (1980)
sound-to-word matching
word-to-word matching
recognition of rhyme
isolation of beginning, medial or final sound
phonemic segmentation
counting phonemes
blending
deletion of a phoneme
specification of phoneme deleted
phoneme substitution
Direct them to the handout at the end of this section – page 6 – Have them read this on their own.
Those skills which are most critical for kindergarten and first grade are bolded and italicized.

48. DEVELOPMENT: Benchmarks
AGE
Analysis: SKILL or ABILITY
preschool
segmentation of words into syllables, sentences into monosyllabic words
some rhyming ability
some beginning sound ability
early kindergarten
judge rhyming words
generate rhyming words
middle kindergarten
match words with same beginning sounds
match words with same final sounds
segment initial sounds and final sounds
late kindergarten
segment sounds in two and three sound words (e.g., CV, VC, CVC)
early first grade
segment sounds in words with blends (e.g., skate, jump)
This slide gives you a guideline of the skills we expect children to have learned by different ages or early grades.
CSOs use these…
Page 4 from the same handout referenced in the last screen.
Is it OK for a first grade student NOT to be able to read by December??? No…then it is critical for him/her to reach these benchmarks throughout their kindergarten and first grade “career”.

49. Instructional Sequence
Instructional Tasks
Segmenting sentences into words (monosyllabic words)
Segmenting words into syllables
RHYME
rhyme judgment
rhyme matching
rhyme generation
INITIAL SOUNDS
initial sound judgment
initial sound matching
initial sound segmentation
FINAL SOUNDS
final sound judgment
final sound matching
final sound segmentation
SOUND SEGMENTATION AND BLENDING
CV and VC words
CVC words
CCVC and CVCC words
The Intensive PA program mirrors this sequence

50. The Big Question……..
What effort is necessary for the child to acquire a foundation of phonological awareness that enables him or her to benefit from formal classroom reading instruction?
So now that we know something about phonological awareness, and that children need phonological awareness skills to be successful at early reading instruction – We want to ask this question.
We want to know what we need to do to get ALL children to have that foundation of phonological awareness, specifically phonemic awareness. What kind of instruction. How much instruction.

51. The Answer……. Nothing … the child comes to school reading
the child comes to school on the cusp of reading.
Whatever we’ve been doing for the last umpteen years.
Explicit phonological awareness instruction
classroom-based instruction in kindergarten
small group intensive instruction at the end of kindergarten or beginning of first grade.
For some children, we don’t have to do anything. They come to kindergarten with all the skills that they need. Their preschool and home learning experiences helped them to develop a foundation of phonological awareness. Most of these kids seem to be “wired” for reading. Phonological Awareness and Reading seem to come to these kids quite easily and quite readily.
For other children, the curricula we have followed for years has been adequate.
For other children, they need explicit instruction in phonological awareness instruction. Some will develop an adequate foundation if we provide phonological awareness learning activities in the regular kindergarten curriculum each day, through the kindergarten school year.
For some children, even the classroom instruction won’t be enough. Reading researchers have estimated that about 20% of children will not get enough skill from classroom instruction. Rather, those children will need intensive small group instruction to learn a foundation of phonological awareness skills. And even then, some children will continue to struggle.

52. Development of Phonological Awareness
Variability in children's phonological awareness skills at kindergarten entry.
Children gradually develop phonological awareness, as early as preschool and continuing throughout the school years.
Early phonological awareness from experiences.
Instruction is crucial to development of phonological awareness for many children.
Children need a foundation of phonological awareness to succeed at word decoding (phonics).
Next question for us, how do children acquire phonological awareness or phonemic awareness? Will they get it on their own? Or will they need instruction?
Go through this slide and emphasize the variability in children in entry to kindergarten. Some kids are already quite good at analyzing the sounds of words but there are other children that have NO ability to analyze the sound structure of words. They aren’t successful at even the simplest level of figuring out rhyming words.
An important point – children who don’t have phonological awareness skills will get phonological awareness as a result of good instruction that helps them learn to analyze the sounds in words.
Why do children need phonological awareness? Most simply, because to learn word decoding skills you first have to understand that words are comprised of individual sounds. To spell words, to sound out words – you have to understand how words can be divided into sounds, before you can think about how those sounds might be represented with letters.

53. Report: National Reading Panel (2000) Evidence-based Practice Phonemic Awareness
PA can be taught and learned.
PA instruction helps children learn to read.
PA instruction helps children learn to spell.
PA instruction is most effective when it focuses on one or two types of phoneme manipulation rather than several types.
PA instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using alphabet letters.
National Reading Panel addressed this issue in their critical report published in 2000 – and was the foundation of many reading initiatives.

54. What are the essential components of phonological awareness instruction?
Achieve phonemic awareness:
the ability to segment words into sounds.
Incorporate letters/sounds to transition to reading and writing instruction.
Provide a foundation on which to build more complex skills.
Speech before print.
Developmentally appropriate.
Consistent with principles of speech structure.
Phonological awareness plays a causal role in reading development
crucial skill: PHONEMIC AWARENESS: segmenting and blending
Our instruction needs to continue until children develop skill at the level of phonemic awareness, the ability to completely divide a word into its sounds. We can’t limit our instruction to rhyming words and being able to segment the initial sounds in words. Many kindergarten curricula stop at this point. We need to move all the way to dividing words into all the sounds.
We need to show children how sounds relate to letters, and this will provide a transition to formal reading instruction.
We need to start with easier skills that are the stepping stones to more complex skills.
We need to show how SOUNDS relate to LETTERS. This means we need to start by having children analyze words into sounds. Give them lots of practice. Once they are good at this, then we need to show them how we can use letters to represent sounds. Instruction that starts with letters is bound to fail – if you don’t understand that words can be broken up into sounds, then there is not much point in trying to figure out what letters will be used for what sounds.
We need instruction that is meets the needs of kindergarten and first grade children.
We need to know about how speech sounds work. We need teachers and SLPs that understand how words can be divided into speech sounds if we hope to teach this skill to children.

55. What have we learned from phonological awareness interventions?
Earlier is better – provide instruction before reading failure is experienced
Phonological awareness develops as a result of appropriate instruction, not maturation.
Children respond differently to instruction.
Phonemic awareness is a precursor to reading achievement.
The big point to emphasize here is that we want to provide intervention before reading failure. Once children fail at reading, they are unlikely to catch up. We don’t want to wait and see if they will figure this out on their own. We want to provide instruction that will enable them to figure this out.
Don’t send home “immature” students – they need to hear language – receive PA instruction….what is their home like? Are they apt to get this instruction there?

56. Phonological Awareness Ability and Reading Achievement Torgesen and Mathes, 2000
Review slide.

57. Phonological Awareness Ability and Reading Achievement Torgesen and Mathes, 2000
Solid line = the top 80% of the group…
Dotted line = the bottom 20% of the group.

58. Why are we doing this? No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Individual child is focused
Scientifically-based research reading instruction
Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Prevention
Pre-referral
Response to Intervention (RTI)
Tiered Instruction
Implementation in Elementary Schools
Reading scientists now estimate that 95% of all children can be taught to read at a level constrained only by their reasoning and listening comprehension abilities. (Moats, 2000)
IDEA = Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Have them raise their hands:
Who’s speech? Who’s Sp. Ed?
You CAN work with students w/o IEPs because it is a prevention program. You have an obligation to prevent referrals.
Emphasis at the Federal level is now to reduce referrals.
You do not need to get parental permission, however, it is nice to get parental support.

59. Learning Disabilities
Some children, despite their participation in a preventative phonemic awareness instructional intervention, fail to acquire word reading skill within the “normal” range.
Estimates 2% to 6% of population
Intervention for Learning Disabled students:
Provide more extensive instruction individually or in small group settings.
Recognize that gains in reading will require more instruction and more reading time than most children.
Tier 3 Instruction
These 2-6% are the truly learning disabled.
WV Has implemented RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION project – all schools will implement by 2009 – this program is considered Tier 2 intervention .

60. SOUND STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH

61. Teacher of Phonological Awareness
What do you need to know about the sound structure of language?
What do you need to know about how speech is represented with print?
Okay … now we need to walk you through a few activities to think about speech sounds.

62. Words and Speech Sounds
Words are made up of phonemes.
Children must be able to figure out what sounds are in a word in order to decode words and spell words.
Teachers must assist children in analyzing the sounds in words BEFORE they ask children to think about how print represents speech.

63. Instructional Goal Children segment words into sounds. NOT
Say the word, break the word into its individual sounds.
NOT
differentiate between vowel sounds
classify vowels as long or short
match vowel sounds, and so on…..
We want children to learn to break up words into sounds. This means they break the words into parts, into sounds. To do this, the child needs to analyze the sounds of words. They don’t need to differentiate between vowels, or classify vowels as long or short, or even match vowels sounds. They just need to break the word into sounds.

64. Take a test! Tell me the number of sounds in these words
1. cat 2. cake 3. fish 4. you 5. truck 6. stamp
7. the 8. fuse 9. ring 10.catch 11.box 12. exact 13. coupon
This is a phonemic awareness task. Read each of these words. Figure out what the sounds are in each word. Write down the number of sounds in each word. You need to use your phonemic awareness skills. That is, you’ll need to analyze the sounds in the word.
This task may be very easy for some of you, especially the SLP on your team. She thinks about sounds in words all the time. But for others, this task may be a challenge. Don’t get discouraged. Just give it a try. Do you own work. Don’t look for help from your neighbor. As we tell children, “if you don’t know the answer, I want you to give me your best answer.”
[[give them a few minutes to do this. I think in terms of awareness, this is an important activity. Remind them to do this on their own]]

65. Tell me the number of sounds in these words: ANSWERS
8. fuse -- 4
9. ring -- 3
10. catch – 3
11. box -- 4
12. exact -- 6
13. coupon – it depends`
1. cat -- 3
2. cake -- 3
3. fish -- 3
4. you -- 2
5. truck -- 3
6. stamp -- 5
7. the -- 2
[Set this slide so that when it comes up it will be blank. Then you can “drop in” each word, one at a time, by pressing the “page down” or “spacebar”. This slide IS NOT in the in their handout. You will want to go through each word one at a time, talking about the number of sounds and the actual sounds. I would ask the audience for their answer first, because on some of the words you will get different answers. Then put the word on the screen with the answer, then go through the sounds in the word.]]]/For each word ….How many sounds are in ? [then “drop in” the word] What are the sounds in this word? [[Talk about why some people might be confused]] Some things you might want to point out with each word ---
cat – everyone should get it./cake – everyone should get it, but someone might say 4 if they are paying attention to letters.
fish – most will say three, some might say four. Talk about only three sounds, but in English, the one sound // is represented with two letters./you – might be some problems with this – /j/ /u/ should be the two sounds.(I include this word to set them up for use and fuse)/truck -- /t/ /r/ // /k/ -- everyone should get this. But then use this word to illustrate a mistake that kids consistently make. /Say: Often children say that truck has three sounds. Say truck slowly. If you were a child, what are the three sounds truck seem to have? Again, say the word slowly. What sounds? [see if anyone can give the answer] Yep, you’re right /t/ // /k/
stamp – no one should have trouble with this. But point out that children often find words with blends hard to figure out the sounds. The blends are hard to pull apart into individual sounds./the – two sounds. most should get this. Note again, that TH is used in English to represent one speech sound./use – many will say 2 sounds. go back to you. If you has two sounds, then what about use? And what about fuse? If use had two sounds, then the word would be pronounced as /uz/. /fuse – 4 -- actually has a consonant blend at the beginning, though we no longer spell out this blend in the orthography. /fj/ is the blend at the beginning. Can you think of any other words that have this blend at the beginning (few, fume, fumigate, fuel) Say each of these /fj/ words for them without the blend, so the words would be /fu/ /fum/ /fumI get/ /ful/
ring – some might say four. NG, another example of two letters, one sound./monkey… an example where letters and sounds don’t match up … N is letter use to represent // /catch .. answer should be three, but some may say 4. again, multiple letters for one sound.
box – many folks will say 3. They’ll fail to recognize that X is two sounds/ks/. Remind them to pay attention to SOUNDS and not what letters. But point out that adults are so used to letters that we have to retrain ourselves to think closely about SOUNDS. Kids don’t know anything about letters, so they’ll analyze from the point of sounds./exact – just stuck this in here as another one to confuse them. and in this word the X represents the sound /gz/ because of the two vowels. Say the word for them with X as /ks/ and then X as /gz/
coupon – this word will depend on how it is said. if /kjupan/ then 6, if /kupan/ then 5. Here’s another example of those /j/ blends – cute, coupon, cue, cuneiform.

66. Categorizing Speech Sounds
Place - lips, teeth, tongue, hard palate (roof of mouth) or soft palate (back of mouth)
Manner – stop, nasal, fricative, affricate, glide, liquid
Voiced or voiceless – vibration of vocal cords
Speech sounds are grouped according to three characteristics…
place… where in the mouth the sound is made What structures in the mouth are used to make the sound? For example, /b/ is made with the lips.
manner … what happens to the air as the sound is made? Back to /b/… the air is stopped with the lips.
voicing – do the vocal folds in the larynx vibrate … /b/. Put your hands on your throat. Feel the vibration? Yes. Now say /p/ No vibration.
Each person take the chart and try to fill in the sounds SLPs – don’t give your team the answers. Help them figure out the answers. SLPs should be able to do this task with no problems. They took a class for a whole semester in college on this topic. The rest of you should be in “discovery mode”
Give them about 5 minutes to do this. Then go to the next slide and review

67. With a partner, discuss where these sounds are made:
/b/
/k/
/d/
/f/
/g/
/h/
/j/
/l/
/m/
/n/
/p/
/r/
/s/
/t/
/v/
/w/
/y/
/z/
/ch/
/sh/
/th/

68. Phonetic Symbols p, b t, d k, g m n ng f,v th, th s, z sh, zh ch, j w
Lips
/teeth
Tongue Between
Teeth
Tongue
Behind
Roof of Mouth
Back of Mouth
Throat
Stop e
p, b
t, d
k, g
nasal m n ng
fricative
f,v
th, th
s, z
sh, zh
affricate
ch, j
glide w y h
liquid
l r
Walk through the different consonants. Refer them to the handout in their notebook – Table 2.1 from Speech to Print book.

69. Why do I have so much trouble doing this
Why do I have so much trouble doing this? If I can’t do this, how can a child? _____________________________
Your performance is influenced by your knowledge of print.
You have “lost” some of your ability to analyze speech.

70. Vowel Chart see sit tube put make pet boat cat saw time cup fox
BACK
FRONT
HIGH
see
sit
tube
put
make
pet
boat
cat
Okay… let’s practice saying all the vowels. Let’s start with the vowels sound that is made in the front of our mouth, the highest vowel. We’ll move lower and then back. Notice how the position of our tongue changes.
Say the vowels, not the whole word – start with see and end with tube, but remember just the vowels. Try it without separating the sounds…slide the vowels from one to the next. Do this twice.
Notice how a slight change in the position of your tongue will result in a different vowel being produced.
saw
time
cup
fox
LOW

71. How does speech map to print?
26 Roman letters, more than 40 phonemes or speech sounds
Grapheme:
Single letter or combination of letters
We use 250 graphemes to represent 40 phonemes!!
So, we have about 40 speech sounds in English but only 26 letters. If we look at how letters and combinations of letters are used to represent speech sounds, then we see that there are 250 letters or combinations of letters that are used to represent 40 sounds. WOW!

72. Moral of the Story
Children need lots of practice learning to analyze the sound structure of words before they are asked to figure out how the sounds of words are represented in print.
read this

73. WVDE Phonological Awareness Collaborative Project
Program Components
Classroom-based Instruction
Kindergarten/First Grade
Delivered by: Teacher
May Collaborate with SLP or Title I
_______________________________________
Intensive Intervention (Small Group)
Fall: First Grade Spring: Kindergarten
Delivered by: Interventionist
SLP, Title I Reading Specialist, Special Education
Assessment: Dibels

74. Tier 1: Classroom-Based Phonological Awareness Instruction Kindergarten and First Grade
Best practice: Build a foundation of phonological awareness in all children
Identify those children who struggle and need further intervention
Daily instruction provided to all children regardless of performance level or risk status
15-20 Minutes/day
Material: Phonemic Awareness In Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
Suggested Sequence of Instruction
Cost-effective

75. Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
Sequence of Activities and Teaching Descriptions
Simple to Complex Tasks
Listening Games
Rhyming
Words and Sentences
Awareness of Syllables
Initial and Final Sounds
Phonemes
Introducing Letters and Spellings
Adams, M., Foorman, B., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1997). Phonemic awareness in young children: A classroom curriculum. Baltimore: Brookes.
Just briefly introduce this next group of slides and note that they will learn the specifics the rest of the training time.
Notice that it goes from Simple to complex tasks.
SHOW BOOK.

76. Tier 2 Intervention Small Group Intensive Intervention
Children who have not mastered phonemic awareness as a result of classroom instruction.
DIBELS
Small group instruction (6 students)
Fall: First Grade Spring: Kindergarten
Teach a foundation of phonological awareness to include phonemic awareness and segmentation
Materials: Intensive Phonological Awareness Manual
Instructional Materials Kit

77. Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPAP)
Time Frame: min. sessions per week
18 hours of instruction
Letter names/sounds reviewed each session
Weeks 1-3: Rhyme
Weeks 4-6: Initial Sounds
Weeks 7-9: Final Sounds
Weeks 10-12: Word Segmentation and Blending
Schuele, C. M., & Dayton, N. (2000). Intensive phonological awareness program. Nashville, TN:
With the last 6 weeks, they also incorporate a review of the alphabetic principle. Often these students have difficulty with letters and sounds. Also, research shows that you can increase PA if begin the connection to the alphabet.

78. School Team Roles Kindergarten Teacher:
Implement daily instruction with entire kindergarten class.
SLP, Title I Reading Teacher and/or Special Education Teacher:
Provide 12 week IPAP
6 first graders (Fall) and 6 kindergartners (Spring)
collaborate with the kindergarten teacher in classroom-based instruction.
First Grade Teacher:
Reinforce phonemic awareness skills with entire class.
Assessment Coordinator:
Coordinate all assessment with kindergarten and first grade children.
Contact Person:
Coordinate program and share information from the WVDE.
In the first year of participation, you may only want to include 1 kindergarten and first grade. In subsequent years, you may choose to expand the project to other classes in your school – depends on the resources and need in your school.

79. WVDE Project: Two Tiered Instruction in Kindergarten
September
May
September to May: Implement classroom supplemental curriculum
September: Evaluate all K children in classroom
January: Evaluate all K children in classroom. Identify 6 low achievers
In Reading First, DIBELS will be given in September (not October). Other schools only use the October date if it will assist with classroom instruction. If not, wait until January to evaluate for the program.
February to May: Implement small group intervention with low achievers .
May: Evaluate all K children in classroom

80. WVDE Project: Two-Tiered Instruction in First Grade
August, September and October
September to October: Implement classroom supplemental curriculum
August/September: Evaluate all first grade children in classroom. Identify 6 low achievers
September to December: Implement small group intervention with low achievers
All students receive instruction in August, September and October.
Right now, about 20% of kids fail to read. We can reduce this to 5% if we follow SBRR. .
December: Evaluate low achievers

81. Children Need ….
Initially to realize that words are composed of sounds.
Initially to experience simple tasks of paying attention to sounds in words (e.g., rhyme).
To move gradually from simple to more complex phonological awareness tasks, culminating in phonemic awareness tasks.
Phonemic awareness to benefit from later decoding or phonics instruction.
T0 BECOME SUCCESSFUL READERS!!
just a reminder of some things kids need….

82. Technical Assistance Document
INTRODUCTION
Project Overview
Record Keeping
Teacher Documentation
Student Selection
Monitoring
School Contact
Ordering Information for Program Materials
Timeline

83. Program Implementation
Implementation of Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: Classroom Curriculum
Kindergarten Classroom (p.8)
Activity Implementation Record (p.11)
First Grade Implementation (p.23)
Activity Implementation Record (p. 24)
Implementation of Intensive Phonemic Awareness Program (IPAP) (p.27)
IPAP Record Form

84. TEAM DECISIONS
Who will collaborate with the kindergarten teacher on the classroom instruction?
Who will implement the 12 week intervention program with the group of 6 first grade children?
Who will implement the 12 week intervention program with the group of 6 kindergarten children?
In order for your team to proceed through this training in the next two days, you will have to make some decisions by the end of the morning. These decisions will determine who participates in what activities this afternoon and tomorrow.

85. Resource Information WVDE Power Point Presentation(p.35)
Notes Page/Website
Informational Materials
Research/Background
Parent Notification Letter (p.37)
Monitoring Documentation Form (p.38)
Title I/Reading First/Special Ed
Jean Pearcy
School Contact Information
Liaison w/ WVDE

86. Assessment Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)
DIBELS Analysis: Kindergarten(p.41)
DIBELS Analysis: First Grade (p. 42)
Assessment Guide for IPAP (p.43)
Paper/Pencil Booklets (p. 45)
References (p. 49)

87. QUOTABLE QUOTES FROM IPAP
Wiley Ford Elementary, Mineral County
“This was my first experience with the IPAP . I was very impressed. The student enjoyed it and made great progress for the exercises in the program.”
Jamie Hill Special Ed IPAP Teacher
Fort Gay Elementary , Wayne County
Teachers and parents have come to me and said they have seen major improvement with these kids.”
Crystal Young. IPAP instructor
Point Pleasant Primary, Mason County
We really believe that the emphasis on Phonemic Awareness in kindergarten and early first grade is making a difference in the reading success of our students.
Lois Jones, Title I ,PA Instructor

88. MORE QUOTES Ceredo Elementary, Cabell County
They all have shown great improvement. I’m so proud of them!
Christine Kelly, M. Ed, CCC – SLP
Rosedale Elementary, Fayette County
No funding for DIBELS in the first grade, so we are only doing kindergarten.
Ted Dixon, Principal
Vienna Elementary, Wood County
We have very much enjoyed the IPAP program and can see how beneficial the program has been for our children. I am anxious to see if we get the same progress as we prepare to start the program with kindergarten.
Lana Barlett, IPAP instructor, first year

89. This program really works!”
THE BOTTOM LINE
Bonham Elementary, Kanawha County
Patsy Serles, third year IPAP teacher
“At first I was not sure about this program because of the repetition. But after three years and seeing the turnaround of struggling students who could master phonemic awareness, she said,
” I‘M A BELIEVER!
This program really works!”

90. WEST VIRGINIA KINDERGARTEN IPAP DIBELS SCORES 2007-2008
January Results
ISF
PSF
NWF
Total
Benchmark
24%
20%
22%
Strategic
56%
36%
35%
42%
Deficit
46%
44%
State 07-08
PSF Benchmark Strategic Deficit -34
NWF Benchmark Strategic -6 Deficit -18
Comparison State to 07-08
PSF Benchmark Strategic Deficit -2
NWF Benchmark -1 Strategic -2 Deficit + 12
Total Benchmark +4 Strategic -4 Deficit =
May Results
PSF
NWF
Total
Benchmark
73%
45%
54%
Strategic
26%
29%
27%
Deficit
12%
19%

91. WEST VIRGINIA FIRST GRADE IPAP DIBELS SCORES 2007-2008
September Results
PSF
NWF
Total
Benchmark
32%
19%
26%
Strategic
50%
45%
48%
Deficit
18%
36%
27%
January Results
76%
54%
21% 3%
10%
PSF NWF Total
Benchmark
Strategic
Deficit

92. Contact Information
Kathy Knighton , Program Coordinator
Phyllis Veith, Assistant Director
Office of Special Programs
Extended and Early Learning
West Virginia Department of Education
(304) or Fax (304)