1. Maine Reading First Course
Session #7 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Research and Assessment
Maine Department of Education 2005
Maine Department of Education 2005

2. Maine Department of Education 2005
Key Learning Goals Session 2 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Research and Assessment
To provide theoretical understanding of the research supporting development of phonological and phonemic awareness in children, including:
knowing the progression of phonological skill development (rhyme, syllable, onset-rime, phoneme)
understanding the difference between speech sounds (phonemes) and letters/letter combinations (graphemes) that represent them
understanding English speech sounds (consonant and vowel phoneme systems).
To enable class participants to use scientifically based assessments to determine a student’s development in phonological and phonemic awareness.
To enable class participants to use assessment data to inform instruction that meets the diverse needs of students.
Maine Department of Education 2005

3. Think-Ink-Pair-Share
Rate your general familiarity with phonemic awareness by placing an X on the continuum and completing the Knowledge Rating Chart
Grapheme
Onset and rime
Phoneme
Phonemic awareness
Phoneme blending
Phoneme categorization
Phoneme isolation
Phoneme segmenting
Maine Department of Education 2005

4. Changing Emphasis of Five Essential Elements
Maine Department of Education 2005

5. Critical Components of Reading
Alphabetics Fluency Comprehension
Phonological Awareness Rate Vocabulary
-Words
-Syllables Accuracy Text Comprehension
-Rhymes
-Onsets and Rimes Expression
-Phonemic Awareness
Sound Isolation
Discrimination
Segmenting & Blending
Manipulation
Phonics
-Letter Sound Correspondence
-Decoding
-Encoding
(LINKS 2002)
Maine Department of Education 2005

6. What Makes the English Language an Alphabetic System?
It uses….
written characters or symbols (graphemes) to represent sounds (phonemes).
However, written English is not just a phonetic system. It is also….
an orthographic or spelling system that often reflects meaning rather than sound.
(LINKS 2002)
Maine Department of Education 2005

7. What is Phonological Awareness?
The term that describes the awareness of sounds in oral language. Phonological awareness includes the understanding and skills of rhyming, segmenting, blending and manipulating at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels.
(LINKS 2002)
Maine Department of Education 2005

8. What is phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate phonemes or speech sounds.
Children who are phonemically aware can:
Segment the word hat into its 3 sounds: /h/ /a/ /t/
Blend the 3 sounds /d/ /o/ /g/ into the word dog
Delete the last sound of cart and make the word car
(NRP 2000, Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)
Maine Department of Education 2005

9. Maine Department of Education 2005
What is phonics?
Phonics is the relationship between printed letters and spoken sounds. Phonics involves the visual aspects of print, as well as the auditory aspects of spoken language.
Children who know phonics skills can:
Tell you which letter makes the first sound in bat
Tell you which letter makes the last sound in car
(IRA’s Position Statement on PA, 1998)
Maine Department of Education 2005

10. How are Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Different?
Brainstorm your answers to this question with a partner.
Maine Department of Education 2005

11. Maine Department of Education 2005
“Woof! Woof!”
This is how many children respond when asked to tell the sounds they hear in the word dog. Though many children enter school with a substantial vocabulary, adequate syntax, and clear speech, few are phonemically aware.
Maine Department of Education 2005

12. What Does Research Tell Us About Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic Awareness does not constitute a complete reading program, however it is a key component and critical foundational piece of the complex literacy process. Generally, 20 hours of instruction in a year is sufficient.
Phonemic Awareness instruction helps all children improve their reading and spelling.
Phonemic Awareness instruction for most students should be accomplished by the end of first grade.
Teachers need to be aware that English Language Learners categorize phonemes in their first language.
(NRP, 2000)
Maine Department of Education 2005

13. What Does Research Tell Us about Phonemic Awareness Instruction?
Phonemic Awareness instruction is most effective when:
Instruction is explicit and focused on one or two PA skills at a time (segmenting and blending are two most critical skills);
Children are taught to manipulate phonemes with letters;
Children are taught in small groups;
Single sessions last no more than 30 minutes;
Sounds, letters, and letter names are over-learned so children can work with them automatically to read and spell words; and
Instruction is based on student needs identified through assessment.
(NRP, 2000)
Maine Department of Education 2005

14. Levels of Phonological Awareness
Type of Tasks
Levels
Rhyme & Alliteration
Word Level
Discrimination Tasks
Segmentation
Sentence, syllable, onset/rime, & phoneme levels
Blending
Manipulation
Deletion
Substitution
Maine Department of Education 2005

15. Explicit Teaching How To Let’s Do You Do (Model)
(Guided Practice with Feedback)
You Do
(Independent Application)
Maine Department of Education 2005

16. Rhyme and Alliteration Tasks
Detection: Do the words cat/bat rhyme? Do the words mug/fin rhyme?
Production: What word rhymes with snake?
Alliteration
Detection: Do the words bat, bear, balloon sound have the same beginning sound?
Production: What is a word that begins with the same sound as cat does?
Maine Department of Education 2005

17. Maine Department of Education 2005
Discrimination Tasks
Identify Rhyming Words
Which word does not rhyme….goat/coat/door?
Identify Words with Same Initial Sounds
Which word does not sound the same at the beginning…pig/tub/pen?
Identify Words with Same Final Sounds
Which word does not sound the same at the end…snake/like/dog?
Identify Words with Same Medial Sounds
Which word does not sound the same in the middle….road/gate/bake?
Maine Department of Education 2005

18. Maine Department of Education 2005
Segmentation Tasks
Words in a Sentence
Tell me the words you hear in this sentence: The cat went home.
Syllables in a Word
Tell me the syllables you hear in this word: pretty pret-ty
Onset/Rime
Tell me sound that begins this word and then the rest of this word: bug /b/-ug
Phonemes in Words
Tell me the sounds you hear in the word:
hat /h/ /a/ /t/
Maine Department of Education 2005

19. Maine Department of Education 2005
Blending Tasks
Words in a Sentence
Listen to these words. Tell me the sentence: The -- cat – walks.
Syllables in a Word
Listen to the parts of this word. Tell me the word:
hap—py happy
Onset/Rime
/n/ et net
Phonemes in Words
Listen to the sounds in this word. Tell me the word:
/l/ /a/ /p/ lap
Maine Department of Education 2005

20. Manipulation Tasks Deletion
Words in a Sentence
Listen to this sentence: The black cat went home.
Tell me the sentence without the word black: The cat went home.
Syllables in a Word
Listen to this word: table
Tell me the word without ta-: -ble
Phonemes in Words (initial, medial, or final sounds)
Listen to this word: pat
Tell me the word without /t/: pa-
Maine Department of Education 2005

21. Manipulation Tasks Substitution
Words in a Sentence
Listen to this sentence: The black cat went home.
Change the word black to white. Tell me the new sentence: The white cat went home.
Syllables in a Word
Listen to this word: happy
Change –py to pen. Tell me the new word: happen
Phonemes in Words (initial, medial, or final sounds)
Listen to this word: stop
Change /o/ to /e/. Tell me the word: step
Maine Department of Education 2005

22. Skill Mastery (Straight Talk About Reading, Hall & Moats)
Age 3
Recitation of rhymes
Rhyming by pattern
Alliteration
Age 6
Initial consonant matching
Blending 2-3 phonemes
Counting phonemes (70% of children by age 6)
Rhyme identification
Onset-rime division
Age 4
Syllable counting (50% of children by age 4)
Age 7
Blending 3 phonemes
Segmentation of 3-4 phonemes (blends)
Phonetic spelling
Phoneme deletion
Age 5
Syllable counting (90% of children by age 5)
Age 8
Consonant cluster segmentation
Deletion within clusters
Maine Department of Education 2005

23. Why do We Assess Early Literacy Skills?
To ensure that children have the necessary early literacy skills so that reading instruction can establish a trajectory of satisfactory literacy acquisition.
Maine Department of Education 2005

24. What are the purposes of Early Literacy Assessment?
Focuses attention on critical reading skills strongly predictive of future reading growth and development.
Helps inform classroom instruction for all students.
Helps identify children at risk of reading failure who need additional support.
Helps monitor student achievement over time to insure that adequate progress is being made.
Maine Department of Education 2005

25. How do We Assess Phonemic Awareness?
Usually 1:1
Recommended to assess by mid kindergarten year
Focus on assessing blending and segmenting phonemes
Use information to make data driven decisions for instruction
Maine Department of Education 2005

26. Maine Department of Education 2005
What are Some Methods of Assessing Phonological and Phonemic Awareness?
Kirwan Assessment (6 Subtests)
Blending (onset-rime and phonemes)
Sound Identification (initial and final)
Segmenting phonemes
Initial letter-sound identification
Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)
Initial Sound Fluency
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
Maine Department of Education 2005

27. Maine Department of Education 2005
Kirwan Assessment
Oral Blending of Onset-Rime (s….eem)
Oral Blending of Phonemes (b..a..ck)
Identifying Initial Consonant Sounds (/m/ is the first sound in meet)
Identifying Final Consonant Sounds (/s/ is the final sound in base)
Phoneme Segmentation (the phonemes in get are /g/../e/../t/
Linking Letters to Sounds (point to the letter that says the sound you hear at the beginning of frog: n, t, f )
Maine Department of Education 2005

28. Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
Students are individually asked to segment the sounds in a list of 22 common words.
Examples:
dog /d/…/o/…/g/
grew /g/…/r/…/ew/
Maine Department of Education 2005

29. The Importance of Fluency
Automaticity means the less effort students devote to sound/word identification, the more attention they have available to devote to meaning.
Students who lack fluency may not easily acquire more complex skills; this holds true in other academic areas as well.
It is a worthwhile measure for judging the effectiveness of instruction.
Maine Department of Education 2005

30. Maine Department of Education 2005
Research Says...
Shaw, R. & Shaw, D. (2002). DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency-Based
Indicators of Third Grade Reading Skills for Colorado State Assessment
Program (CSAP). (Technical Report) Eugene, OR: University of Oregon.
Buck, J. & Torgesen, J. (2003). The Relationship Between Performance
on a Measure of Oral Reading Fluency and Performance on the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test. (FCRR Technical Report #1)
Tallahassee, FL: Florida Center for Reading Research.
Barger, J. (2003). Comparing the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency
indicator and the North Carolina end of grade reading assessment.
(Technical Report). Asheville, NC: North Carolina Teacher Academy.
Maine Department of Education 2005

31. DIBELS Measures – Grades K-3
Letter Naming Fluency – Predictor of later reading skills, taps into letter knowledge and rapid naming ability. One-minute timed task.
Initial Sounds Fluency – Taps into emerging phonological awareness with beginning sound identification tasks. About 3 minutes to administer.
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency – Measures a child’s skills in breaking short words into individual phonemes, or sounds. One-minute timed task.
Nonsense Word Fluency – Taps into alphabetic principle skills by measuring letter-sound correspondence skills as well as decoding skills. One-minute timed task.
Oral Reading Fluency – Measures a child’s skills in reading connected text accurately and fluently. One-minute timed task.
Retell Fluency – Measures a child’s basic skills in comprehending connected text. One-minute timed task.
Word Use Fluency – Measures a child’s vocabulary knowledge and expressive language skills. One-minute timed task.
Maine Department of Education 2005

32. DIBELS Assessment Schedule
Maine Department of Education 2005

33. DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency (K)
This is tomato, bear, plate, and jail.
Which picture begins with /t/?
What sound does “bear” begin with?
Maine Department of Education 2005

34. DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (K-1)
Maine Department of Education 2005

35. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Assessment Hands-On Activity
Examine the samples of Amy’s Yopp-Singer and Kirwan Assessments and make notes about the following…..
What phonological and phonemic awareness knowledge/skills does the student demonstrate control of?
What phonological and phonemic awareness knowledge/skills does the student need more practice with?
What phonological and phonemic awareness knowledge/skills might be good next teaching steps?
Maine Department of Education 2005

36. Maine Department of Education 2005
In Summary……
Phoneme awareness is necessary, but not sufficient.
Phoneme awareness can be directly taught.
Phoneme awareness does not require extensive teaching time.
Phoneme awareness should be assessed in kindergarten and first grade.
Focus majority of instruction on blending and segmenting sounds, and connect sounds to visual letters.
Maine Department of Education 2005

37. Maine Department of Education 2005
3—2—1
3—things worth remembering
2—things to learn more about
1—burning question
Maine Department of Education 2005