What is Phonological/Phonemic Awareness?
Phonological Awareness is the capability to distinguish, hear, count and manipulate units of sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much research. According to Reading Rockets, these are the 5 levels of phonological awareness.
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to learn and understand the relationships between letters and sounds. A Phoneme is the smallest segment of speech. Phonological awareness is vital to the reading process because it teaches the early literacy skills that build the foundation for students to become successful readers.
How to Teach it:
- Adopt a reading program that includes specific scope, sequence, and progression of skills
- Focus is on speech sounds before focusing on letters. Letters reinforce speech sounds but should only be used in correlation after students have learned to listen and attend to sounds.
- Use multisensory approaches, including focusing on the mouth and the formation of phonemes
- Spend about 10 minutes per day to teach and practice explicitly
- Give immediate feedback and demonstrate to students what you want them to do.
Activities for Reinforcement:
- Read books with Rhymes
- Practice the alphabet
- Play letter games
- Clap out the sounds to words
- Magnetic letter or dry erase boards for early writing