Balanced Literacy Program
Phonemic awareness and phonics are two components of a balanced literacy program in K -- 3 classrooms. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made of sounds. Phonics builds on this awareness by teaching the relationships between sounds and letter-symbols. Research supports direct instruction of these components as a precursor to reading success. Commercially-published programs and books, software and apps, and numerous Internet sources can provide teachers with materials needed for a strong program of direct, explicit instruction. Kindergarten programs level attempt to level the playing field, as students begin school at various stages of reading readiness. Phonics builds on early phonemic awareness activities. By the time students are in third grade, they are starting to "read to learn" instead of "learning to read."
Balanced Literacy Program for K --
Phonemic awareness and phonics are two components of a balanced literacy program in K -- 3 classrooms. They are the foundations on which the teaching of reading is built. A student's skill in these areas is a good predictor of future reading success.
Phonemic awareness is the first step in getting students ready to read. Words are comprised of sounds, or phonemes. Before children can learn to read print, they must be able to hear and identify the phonemes in spoken words. Phonics builds on phonemic awareness as it teaches "the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language" ("Reading Recovery: Phonics," 2012).
Students come to kindergarten in various stages of readiness to read. Some children spend their pre-school years in the home, where the caregiver -- usually a parent, nanny or grandparent -- may provide some academic structure. Similarly, some children who are placed in day care may have a learning component within the day. Some children may attend a program such as Head Start or other school-readiness program developed in a community or by a school district. However, other children come to kindergarten without having had a structured pre-reading program. Many preschools use a play-based curriculum where child-initiated learning fosters important developmental, rather than academic, skills (Callaghan and Madelaine, 2012, p. 13). Other children have caregivers (typically parents) who believe there will be plenty of time for academics in the child's life, and the pre-school years are meant for play.
Calleghan and Madelaine (2012) point out there is "overwhelming evidence" that kindergarten-entry literacy skills are significant predictors of first grade reading scores. Numerous studies also show there is a widening gap in reading between students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and their more affluent peers. Clearly, what takes place in the pre-school years matters very much to reading success. The kindergarten teacher has no control over what happened prior to a student's arrival in her classroom; because the playing field is not level, the kindergarten program must meet the needs of all students in preparing them to become readers.
Phonemic awareness is developed with various activities in the kindergarten classroom; these activities typically continue through first and second grades. Activities are oral activities, since they deal with the sounds in spoken words. Children demonstrate phonemic awareness in several ways, including:
Recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (e.g., mat, mop, and mud all have / m / at the beginning)
Isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word (e.g., the beginning sound of dog is / d/. The ending sound of sit is / t/)
Combining, or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word (e.g., / m/, / a/, / p / -- map)
Segmenting a word into its separate sounds (e.g., dog -- / d/, / o/, / g/)
(Partnership for Reading, 2012).
Phonemic awareness activities typically make use of variations on listening and response games. Adams, Foorman, Lundberg and Beeler (2012) even suggest beginning with a game in which children are challenged to identify single non-language-based sounds (e.g., clapping, tongue clicks, crumpling paper) and then remembering sequences of these sounds. Children usually find listen-and-response games engaging, which is exactly what needs to happen for learning to take place. These activities often include rhythm (e.g., clapping, chants), music, question-and-answer, and listen-and-repeat. The activities are designed to be playful and quick-paced without a great deal of instruction. Teachers should not expect mastery of all skills; because these are pre-school/kindergarten activities, some children will need many opportunities with various tasks in order to become successful ("Explicit Systematic Phonics,.," n.d.).
One commercial program with demonstrated...
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