ORAL LANGUAGE & PHONEMIC AWARENESS

Oral Language & Phonemic Awareness

"Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words." - Reading Rockets

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that graphemes (letters, or groups of letters) have meaning and that they make sound. Phonemic awareness is important because it is predictive of later reading and academic success. Students who are learning phonemic awareness will begin to make connections between graphemes and phonemes, they will learn to identify sound, and they will match sounds. Students will furthermore begin to blend, segment, use deletion, use addition, and use substitution.

Students progress through three basic levels of phonological awareness: early, basic, and advanced. In the basic stage, students are learning syllables, alliteration, and onset-rime. In the basic stage, students are learning phoneme blending and phoneme substitution. Then, in the advanced stage, students learn phoneme deletion, substitution, and reversal. Students are then ready to connect letters and their sounds.

Phonemic awareness is incredibly important. It is the foundation for learning to read and predicts future success in literacy. Students who have a poor start in early reading may have issues with speech, trouble learning the alphabetic code, have slow reading skills, have a stagnant vocabulary, and may not be able to comprehend what they are reading. As students begin learning to read to learn, they will continue to fall behind.

Informational Notes

Intermediate Oral Language - Podcast Notes

Intermediate PA - Guided Notes

Review of PA - Guided Notes

Vocabulary

Phonemic Awareness- The awareness of individual phonemes.
Phonological Awareness- The awareness of sound structures of speech and the ability to manipulate those structures.
Phoneme- Smallest unit of sound in the spoken language.
- Examples:
  - Zoo = /z/ /oo/
  - Dog = /d/ /o/ /g/
  - Red = /r/ /e/ /d/
  - Frog = /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/
  - Block = /b/ /l/ /o/ /ck/
Grapheme- A written letter or group of letters that represent one speech sound.
Morpheme- The smallest meaningful unit of language.
Digraph- Two letters that represent one speech sound.

Oral Language Theory & Theorists

Behavioral Theory by B.F. Skinner
- Children are conditioned to learn how to speak in response to stimuli.

Nativist Linguistic Theory by Noam Chomsky
- Children are born with the hardware necessary for learning language.

Social Interactionist Theory
- Language learning is based in culture and the environment.

Cognitive Theory by Jean Piaget
- A child's capacity to learn increases as they naturally mature.

Oral Language Development Stages

First 12 Months
- Babies make sounds and cry to communicate.
Ages 1-2
- Children begin speaking with one to two words.
Ages 2-3
- Children are now speaking in full, simple sentences.
Ages 3-4
- These are know as the "why" years because children are constantly asking questions about their environment! Children now know 1,000-1,500 new words.
Ages 4-6
- These are the years of growth and refinement. Children now know about 2,500-6,000 new words.

The 44 Phonemes

Dark Green Chalk Board Good Luck Card.jp

Concepts of Print

Print has meaning and represents language.

Examples:
- In English we read from left to right and from top to bottom.
- There are uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Punctuation holds importance.
- There are spaces between words.
- We typically turn pages of a book from left to right.

Note: Concepts of print teaches children how reading English works. It is a major predictor of reading success because of its influence on fluency and accuracy.

Order of The Introduction to Letters According To Stephen Parker

a,e,i,o,u,m,n,s
d,g,p,t
b,f,c,k
l
r
h,j,qu,v,w,x,y,z
ch,sh,th
Reading sentences part I
ng,nk, multiple syllable words
Long vowel sounds
Reading sentences part II
More vowel sounds
Words ending with long vowels
Reading sentences part III
Unusual spellings, open/closed syllables
Soft c, soft g, contractions
Independent reading

Instructional Approaches

Direct Instruction- When directly teaching students, you are setting them up for success with the foundational skills necessary to learn to read.
Explicit Instruction- Explicit teaching helps target specific skills that students need to work on. It is a good way to teach phonemic awareness because it is straight to the point.
Small Group Instruction- Small group instruction is a method that is great for targeting the skills that different groups of students need more practice with.

Levels of Phonemic Awareness Development

Isolation- A student recognizes the individual sounds in a word.
- Example: The first sound in "cat" is /c/.
Identification- A student recognizes the same sounds in different words.
- Example: The words "fish" and "fin" share the same first sound /f/.
Blending- A student listens to separate phonemes and is able to combine them to make a word.
- Example: /d/ /o/ /g/ is "dog".
Segmentation- A student breaks a word into its separate sounds by tapping or counting.
- Example: The word "bit" has three sounds, /b /i/ /t/.
Deletion- A student recognizes a word that remains when a phoneme is removed from the original word.
- Example: The word "rice" without /r/ is "ice".
Addition- A student is able to make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.
- Example: If you add /f/ to "lip" it makes the new word, "flip".
Substitution- A student is able to substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.
- Example: If you put in the sound /s/ for the sound /f/ in the word "fat", you will get the new word "sat".

Lap Reading/Shared Reading

Lap reading/shared reading helps to increase what a child knows of the world around them and about print and literature.
Asking questions while reading helps facilitate early comprehension skills, listening behaviors, and introduces concepts of print.
- Example: "Why would the character do that?" "What kind of animal is this?" "Do you like to ride your bike?"

Applications

Duolingo ABC

Duolingo ABC is an app for beginning readers. The application acts like a game and teaches basic phonics, reading, and writing skills.

This would be a good application for students to play with alone or with a teacher/guardian.

Khan Academy Kids

The Khan Academy Kids app is good for classrooms and for families. With this application, teachers/guardians can make an account that ties to their student's.

There are games, books, and videos that focus on letter identification, phonics, learning to read, and more.

Websites

Starfall

Starfall is a great website for all early elementary readers. The website is designed to engage readers with games, activities, and interesting stories.

Using Starfall for independent practice would be beneficial for students because of its repetition and high level of engagement.

Education.com

Education.com allows for a few free activities a month before having to join their membership service. They have a variety of different games that allow for work on various skills for Kindergarten through 7th grade.

I think this website would work well for review exercises or as an over view for learning new skills.

Phonics Bloom

Phonics Bloom is a great site that has six different levels for learning about phonics. The website also has great resources for teachers and parents.

This would be a good website to get information from for phonics instruction and for students to practice with on their own.

Activities

Phonemic Awareness: Isolation Card Game

This game is focused on isolation because it focuses on the first sound that a word makes. Both players start with 7 cards in their hand. There is a face down deck in the middle of the players that will serve as a draw pile. Player one starts by drawing a card from the face down pile and placing it right side up. Each player takes turns matching a card in their hand with the card in the middle (they must share the same first sound). If a player has no matching card, they must draw from the draw pile. In addition to the initial picture cards there are also *special* cards that are found in the deck:

Pick a new sound! — The player with this card has the power to choose a new sound
- Sounds include: /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /j/, and /k/
Draw 2! — The other player must draw 2 new cards from the draw pile
Swap decks —The player who plays this card can swap decks with their opposing player

The game continues until a player runs out of all seven cards! That player is then the winner.

Less challenging—Work together to sort the cards by sounds before playing the game to familiarize oneself with the sounds

More challenging—Add in the *challenge* cards that include diagraphs /zh/, /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ (NOTE: These sounds can be found anywhere in the word!)

Phonemic Awareness: Letter Identification Game

This game focuses on the identification of sounds for different letters. To play, first print out a board game template. Then fill in the blank spaces with letters that the student is currently working on. Roll a dice to determine the number of spaces a player moves. When a player lands on a space, say the letter name and say the sound out loud.

Phonemic Awareness: Segmentation Activity

Segmentation involves breaking a word into separate sounds and saying each sound as it is physically expressed. Simon says can be a great way to introduce this skill. This game works just like the classic Simon Says game, but instead of out rightly saying the action or word, you sound out the sounds. An example would be: "Simon says, /t//a//p/ your foot!" The student then has to listen to each of the individual sounds of the word to understand what it is Simon wants them to do.

Phonemic Awareness: Understanding Syllables

Listening to and singing songs with students is a great way to promote engagement while learning new skills. This song, "Syllable Sound-Off" by the Sing, Sound, & Count With Me Album, helps students recognize parts of words.

Phonemic Awareness: Segmenting/Blending Activity

Oral Language: Wordless Picture Books

Focus Skill: Oral Language & Comprehension

Reading Level: Early & Intermediate Readers

Materials:

Wordless Picture Books - https://readingmiddlegrade.com/wordless-picture-books/

Wordless picture books contain no words only pictures. Students work to develop a story based on what is happening in the illustrations. This helps students to work on their oral language abilities and comprehension skills

Allow students access to a variety of wordless picture books.
Encourage students to “read aloud” to themselves or with a partner. Creativity and imagination are highly encouraged!

Oral Language: Rebus Puzzles

Focus Skill: Oral Language

Reading Level: Intermediate Readers

Materials:

Rebus Puzzle Templates - https://teachables.scholastic.com/teachables/books/Guess-What-It-Says-Rebuses-98765432TEA00_214.html

Rebus puzzles are words or syllables that are represented by a picture. The puzzles help to develop language skills and oral language.

Prepare rebus puzzles on a worksheet or with flashcards.
Allow students ample time to look at the rebus puzzle. Encourage students to guess what the puzzles are trying to say. Students may need to use context clues to determine what the puzzle says.

Oral Language: Impromptu Speaking

Focus Skill: Oral Language

Reading Level: Intermediate Readers

Materials:

List of Prompts - https://www.thoughtco.com/impromptu-speech-topics-1857489

Impromptu speeches are speeches in which students do not prepare material ahead of time. Impromptu speeches help students to work on their oral language skills. Impromptu speeches also help to develop public speaking confidence.

Student will select a prompt for their impromptu speech.
Then the student will give the speech on their chosen topic in front of the class or small group. These speeches should be brief and should be focused on the topic at hand.

Oral Language: Cooperative Presentations

Focus Skill: Oral Language

Reading Level: Begins at the end of 5th grade

Materials:

Computer or Tablet Access
Internet Access
PowerPoint Software
Projector, Smartboard
Books, Relevant Resources

Cooperative presentations give students a creative platform to share their learning and ideas with their peers. Presentations can allow students to extend their learning and explore topics that are of interest to them.

Students will determine what the goal of their project is.
Students will research their topic and explore the resources available to them.
Students will deliver their presentation and share their knowledge with their peers.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/expanding-students-ideas-about-how-give-presentations

Listening Skills: "Terrible Whatzit" by Dr. Joan Bendix

Focus Skill: Listening

Reading Level: Intermediate Readers

Materials:

"Terrible Whatzit" Prompt
Paper
Crayons

Read the “Terrible Whatzit!” aloud to the class. As the prompt is being read, have students draw what they think the Terrible Whatzit looks like. This helps students to work on listening skills.

Provide students with paper and crayons.
Read the "Terrible Whatzit" aloud.
As the story is read aloud, students will be drawing what they think the terrible whatzit looks like.
When the prompt is done, review with students what was said and what features the whatzit should have.

Assessment

This assessment is by Reading Rockets and tests for phonemic awareness ability. This assessment should be done three times in kindergarten and three times in first grade to determine where students are at with their phonemic awareness abilities. The test should be done in a quiet environment one on one with a teacher. The teacher should aim to make the test game-like and provide examples with each step.