1. Analysis of the reading/issue. Chapter four of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses phonemic awareness which the textbook defines as being different that phonics because phonics is a written form while phonemic awareness is the oral form (Devries, 77). The textbook describes the seven dimensions that are associated with phonic awareness which are defined as abilities are assessed. This assessment process is described in the textbook and references the “quick phonemic awareness assessment device” on page 443 of the textbook. There are several different ways to introduce children to the sound of words and sounds. The textbook suggests using songs, nursery rhymes, poems, jingles, books and “tongue twisters”.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
I read in the textbook that there are many songs that would teach students about phonemic awareness, I was wondering if people know any songs (or any other methods) that they have seen or used that are fun and seem to benefit students.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
It was great how this chapter described the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. I also thought it was great that the textbook gave a figure of the “checklist for phonemic awareness based on the seven dimensions, primary grades” (Devries, 83). This chapter of the textbook also made me think about how much more difficult it can be for children who come from a home that use a different language. Languages are very different from each other on how they sound when spoken. As I read in the textbook there are many sounds in the English language that is different from many other. It is hard for students of other languages to say these sounds because they are not used to them.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
Sounds in the English can very difficult for some students because some of the rules do not always make sense. I remember always having a difficult time reading and understand how sounds work because they do not always follow the “rule”. I always tried to make sense out of these words but never really could. I remember many different songs and rhymes used in the classroom and always thought they were fun. These strategies are great for teachers to use in the classroom because the students tent to “forget” that they are actually learning from the songs they are singing. It seems like fun more than anything else (especially for the younger grades).
I do like your question for this discussion, I have not ever seen phonemic awareness taught in a classroom so I have nothing to go from. So I will be interested in what someone will have to say about this. Also, I do agree with you about how different English is to other languages, I can't imagine how difficult this must seem to a student with a different native language, coming to a new school, and trying to learn all at the same time. Kids amaze me! The book did have a great idea, when teaching phonemic awareness, start with phonemes common in both English and the student's native language. I think this would help the student understand the English language by seeing the commonalities.
Wow, this chapter was very informational on phonemic awareness! It was almost a little overwhelming, for example, there was two sections that battled explicit instruction for phonemic awareness. This stated that professionals disagreed whether instructors should provide explicit instruction and made me wonder what I will be doing in my future class and even in my tutoring. However, in the next section, the topic was how do children become aware of phonemes within words with out explicit instruction and I decided I should probably just follow along with this because the children learn just from being actively engaged in literacy activities. Other information covered in this intense chapter include, assessments, what teachers should know, phonemic awareness for ELL, and most of all activities.
I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the activities provided in this chapter. Many of these would be a great idea to include in my tutoring sessions and could probably even be a part of my trifold.
Another part that I enjoyed was the phonemic awareness and English Learners. I have had very little experience in working with students of a different language. The students I have worked with were already very proficient with English, so I do worry about teaching students to speak English, especially the phonemes because English is very different compared to other languages. I do wonder what I can do to help these students and if I will have a translator in the room and how often. This chapter did state to start phonemic awareness lessons with phonemes that are common in both the English language and the student's native language so I thought that was very helpful.
Danielle, I agree that chapter 4 can be very over whelming at first glance. What helped me is realizing that all of the different components are all interlinked and seem to follow a predictable learning path. Most Students (but not all) will follow the same progression in their reading skills regardless of what their grade level is. I think that I will work on understanding more on how to see the earliest sighs that a child may be struggling in this area.
Danielle, I see the issues that you are talking about. They can be discouraging at times and put you as a student/teacher in a hard spot to decide. I would probably say that as a teacher you probably have a more specific way that you will teacher (whatever that will be). As you continue to teach and feel comfortable I bet there will be chances for you to attempt to other method as added instruction. It may be something that works or does not work that is why it is not your main method of instruction so you will not have lost a lot of time. Ricky
Phonemic Awareness is like the bread of a sandwich without it the whole thing falls apart. I unfortunately found this out with my struggling reader. We had a reading specialist tutoring Ashton 2 times a week from the summer after 1st grade through mid third grade. Even with that he still was not making adequate progress and seemed to have huge holes in his reading ability despite be very intelligent. We found out he was dyslexic and I started him on a tutoring program designed for multi sensory learning that he desperately needed. Reluctantly I started him on level 1, he was a third grader so I thought that was way to low with all of his prior tutoring. I was shocked when I gave him the phonemic awareness screener and he scored in the 50th %. He could not hear many blends such as th, V,F to him is was a guess as to which one he was hearing. He also confused many consonants followed by (r) such as “drag” he would repeat back “grag”. IT was obvious that he needed to start at this very important level before moving one.
I love that the Devriers text talks about using music in you phonemic awareness work. What kids doesn’t love to sing or dance to a song. “Dainty Dotty Dee” on page 86 is a great one to do with older kids. it has rhyming and asks the student to decide on the best rhyming word at the end of the song. I also Loved the “Pop of the beads” this would be great for helping students understand the relationships of each letter in a word. I think that this activity could also be done in pairs to quiz each other with a predetermined set of words that the class is working on at the time. We as teacher take for granted how easily we can read/spell. We need to remember that we mush SLOW DOWN and PRONOUNCE words correctly for our students. Nonsence words have been a huge help with my son because he can’t just guess at the word. He is so smart and old that often reading at his level means that he can guess at most of the words. In reading chapter 4 I am even more certain that phonemic awareness is a must in a good reader. As teachers we need to be aware of this and make sure that we are catching those early phonemic awareness holes.
I also really enjoyed the songs that had a blank at the end. I know for a fact that I will use them if I have a tutee that needs help in phonemic awareness and rhyming. I think having them think of a word and say it would really help a struggling student. You make a good point on how we must slow down and pronounce words correctly. Slowly saying words with emphasis on the sounds can really help. A lot of times we may not think about that when talking with a student because it comes so naturally. The chapter did a good job on showing just how difficult phonemic awareness can be.
It's funny that you talk about nonsense words and how much of a help they were with your son. I can remember when I first started as a Para educator (6 years ago) those nonsense words made no sense to me. I had never had them used when I was a student, that I can remember, and I had no idea why on earth I was doing them with a student. After working with many students since I must say that I agree with you whole-heartedly. They are very effective in helping the students learn letter/sound relationships. I also believe that the song, dance, and other activities that were discussed for phonmeic awareness are great fun for students and should be used in every classroom as a teaching strategy as well.
Great post! Thank you for sharing about your experience with why phonemic awareness is important. The book made me question if I truly think it is important or not. I thought it was and your post just confirmed it for me. Slowing down our words and pronouncing things clearly is something I need to work on. I need to make sure that I am always over-pronouncing my words so that children can clearly hear the differences.
I agree with what you said about taking reading and spelling ability or granted. That is one thing that I am very conscious of. Reading and spelling has always come easily for me and is the area where I excel the most. As a parent, it has helped me to realize that not everyone enjoys reading as much as I do. Additionally, spelling is not always as easy for others as it is for me. Of my four sons, three have difficulty spelling and reading. My youngest son seems to excel in reading and spelling. Having three sons who struggle with reading has helped me to be more patient. I realize that my students will not be like me.
This is a good chapter on phonemic awareness. It focuses on the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness and gives great suggestions on how teachers can help students master these. It is important in my mind for students to have an understanding of all 44 phonemes in order to be successful in reading. I did enjoy the sections on how English phonemes differ from other languages, I was not aware of that. I can honestly say that when I'm helping students with spelling or reading a word I naturally use phonemic awareness. For example just today a student couldn't spell change so I instantly went to what makes the /ch/ sound. It seems like for most people this is the natural way to help students with spelling and reading. The chapter gave a great deal of ideas on how to make this fun for students with songs, poems, rhymes and so on. I especially liked the idea of changing up sounds to make new words in poems and songs, or having students make their own. The interventions section is a key part for us in tutoring I believe. If students need help with this part of speech we have some great suggestions already spelled out for us, along with the manipulatives in the Appendices. This was a good chapter that states just how difficult the English language can be with so many different letter sounds.
Ryan- I was amazed at all the different activities in here that emphasized the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness. One of my favorite parts of this chapter was about the songs, poems, riddles, and jokes to help children with sounds and rhythms of our language.
Chapter four discusses in great detail Phonemic Awareness. During the reading it discusses how phonics and phonemic awareness differ. There are seven dimensions of phonemic awareness, in which the first three should be mastered by the end of kindergarten, and the last four by the end of the students first grade year. Although both phonics and phonemic awareness are both skills that must be mastered there are many different approaches and teaching strategies that teachers can pursue in order for the student to grasp the information. I personally like the songs that Dr. Walizer taught us in Reading and Language Arts Internship. Some other suggestions that the book reviewed were poems, jingles, nursery rhymes, and books. My question in regards to the reading material is if a child is in a higher grade, such as third or fourth and they have not mastered the phonemic awareness skills can they benefit from other skills such as retell, and comprehension? In other words, is it essential that they master these skills before even moving onto to the skills that are taught at their grade level? This reading allowed me to learn about the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness and its importance in mastering the whole phonemic awareness concepts. I am tutoring two ESL students this semester, so this reading really made me think about how hard it must be for these two students to come into our country and have to learn different phonemes their native language. The reading talks about the fact that when phonemes are not present in a person’s native language then it is much harder to hear and produce. The text helped me to realize how different the English language is than other languages, and perhaps put me in my student’s shoes a bit, so I can better understand their personal struggles on a daily basis. I know as an adult who was born and raised in the United States, sometimes it is very difficult for me to understand how the English language sounds work and operate. It would be different if there was always a rule that was followed with our language, but there isn’t. I know that there were many of the types of activities done when I was younger and in the classroom. I learned a lot from many of them. In fact, there are many of them that I do in my head from time to time to help me remember sounds, spellings, and phonemes.
Charelle- As I was reading this chapter and came to nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and jokes I too thought of Dr. Walizer and RLA class. The more courses here at FHSU I take and further to the end I get, I can really see how each class builds on others. I can totally see how things we've learned in Children's Literature and RLA are coming into play with this Corrections class. I think this chapter was full of great information and activities that are going to help our students and I can't wait to use these with my tutoring students!
I truly feel that I may be sounding like a broken record, but I have to say "WOW" to this week's DeVries reading! Phonics and phonemic awareness is very interesting to me, but nothing made me more interested than to learn about phonemic awareness and English Learners. Learning a foreign language is very hard, but I never knew why until reading this chapter. I was amazed when I read, "A phoneme not present in one's native language is more difficult to hear and, in turn, produce." I never thought about that. Not only is all the parts of that second language hard to hear, it's hard to produce because they've never had to produce those kinds of sounds in their native language. The other thing I've starred in my book is introducing children to the wonderful sounds of our language. What better way to engage children than to do so through songs, tongue twisters, jokes, riddles, poems....etc. This is what Ms. Stoppel has been saying all along to include in our Tri-folds! Children love it and they are filled with words and phrases that emphasize sounds and rhythms of our language. I was really amazed at all the activities there are this week that emphasize different parts of the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. This book is quickly becoming one of my most favorite textbooks and I only have one other that I can say that about!
LeAnn, I too liked all the ideas, games, poems, ETC. that were in the book. I can't honestly say that I remember being young and doing fun things like that but I hope that I did. If I want that now it gives me a better idea of what things I want my future students to experience. Ricky
LeAnn, I agree, this chapter was great! I too learned a lot about the different in phonics and phonemic awareness but many of it I already knew. However, the activities and ideas this chapter shared was an awesome tool to utilize with my own students. I also enjoyed the websites they provided for more interactive phonemic awareness games and activities. Great post! Jennifer
I agree that kids love jokes, riddles and tongue twisters. Even my teenagers like them. I am trying to find some jokes and riddles related to the United States or individual states to use for my tutoring lessons. My theme is Reading Adventure and we will be reading stories, fiction and nonfiction, about or from different states.
This was a pretty good chapter with a nice explanation and detailing of what phonemic awareness is. I think that it is important to point out what the book pointed out about phonemic awareness and phonics not being the same thing. When I first started back to school I am sure that I probably at first felt that they were one in the same. I think this is important because I am probably like the majority of people who may need to be educated on the differences. As an educator giving that compare and contrast to parents will be important. Going further in the chapter I really like the information about how many phonemes are not even present in other languages. I have not have a lot of experience with ELL learners but have a better understanding of why they are struggling to hear and produce certain sounds. The graphs were pretty helpful as well giving me a better idea on what is present or not present in certain languages. Lastly I really felt that the games, examples, and strategies were right on. They could be applied to many learners who are beginning the process of the English language but can also be used for another activity to build on what students know. Ricky
Ricky is appears our reflections after reading chapter 4 were similar. I agree the chapter did a positive job in explanation and details of what phonemic awareness it. I also like the information provided later in the chapter. It was also nice to hear someone else found the chapter as beneficial as I did.
After reading chapter 4 of DeVRIES I began to reflect on my own early education. I never knew I was becoming phonemically aware while singing a song in class. I can remember listening to my teachers read poems that contained rhymes and learning songs or chants that still stick in my head. I love how the text states that children learn phonemic awareness through singing, chanting, and reading. Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonics is the understanding that letters represent certain sounds. This chapter was very insightful in the area of phonemic awareness. This text as a whole so far presents information in a manner that is easy to read, understand, and retain. I enjoy reading the real life examples provided at the beginning of each chapter. The first paragraph of the introduction lists the seven topics that surround phonemic awareness. I also enjoyed the songs provided on pages 84-87. I do not have any questions from within the text. But I am interested to see if any other peers can remember songs or chants they learned in their early education that aided them with phonemic awareness. This chapter allowed me to have a better understanding of the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness. I also have a great resource to use when for implementing activities that aide students with developing phonemic awareness. I plan to implement songs, chants, and fun activities that are catchy and exciting to aid students with learning. By finding catchy ways to aid students you are going to keep students engaged and allow for repetition which has a huge impact on learning and retention.
Jade, Great post...I also loved the way that teh textbook discussed that we can use chants and songs to help students learn different material. I think that this is important because even today I still remember these songs because they were fun as a child and still fun to learn even today.
I absolutely LOVED Chapter 4! It was very beneficial and full of great ideas to give teachers regarding phonemic awareness teaching and strategy tips. This chapter also gave great ACTIVITIES in finding patterns to learn (p.98), becoming aware of different sounds and similar words using rhyming and songs (p.77). I have no questions. Like I said before this chapter was very beneficial and gave great ideas and activities to do with students of all grades to help with Phonemic Awareness. Some of the things that I wrote down and filed to use this semester with my own tutoring students were: A. Alphabet Booklet (p.91) B. Toss the Cube (p.92) C. Go Fish (p.93) D. Clowning Around with Rhyming words (p.94) E. Websites (p.99) I want to utilize these games with the three kindergartners that I have to tutor this semester and I am excited to start planning. I do not so much look at phonemic awareness any differently than I did prior to reading this chapter, but I am very excited to get teaching these great ideas and activities. I believe making learning fun and interactive is the best way to capture the attention and learning capabilities of students. The only example I can give when it comes to my own life is that I wish these skills and activities were utilized more when I was growing up. I struggled with reading my entire life and was diagnosed with an IEP when I was younger. I really feel with the things I continue to learn in school, there were so many more ways to foster my education to the point where, I could have been taught in so many more efficient and effective ways than I was when I was younger.
I also like the activities that book listed. I liked the sound boxes activity that is for K-3rd grade! I think some of these lessons can be adapted for fit the needs of the student!
Jennifer, I liked the games listed too and I saved the websites on Evernote for later. I will definitely use the fish patterns and the websites. The clowning around idea will be fun. Our text is a great resource with all of the ideas and materials in the back of the book. I am so glad we have it.
Chapter 4 is about phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is very important for students to have to be successful readers. They need to know letters and the sounds associated with them. Students need to be able to hear rhyming words, know how to manipulate words and sounds. One question/ contradiction, I have about the chapter was the section called "Is Phonemic Awareness Necessary for Students to Become Proficient Readers". In this section of the text, is says "Cunningham, et al. (1998) suggest that phonemic awareness is necessary, but not sufficient, for producing good readers. They contend the the precise relation between phonemic awareness abilities and reading acquisition remains under investigation" (pg. 81). I can say I understand what the text was saying in regards not having to know all the dimensions of phonemic awareness to read. However, I believe that phonemic awareness is very important and the more that a students is phonemic aware the better readers they become. I have some ELL students who knew their sight words and could "read" a book. However, they did not know individual ABC letter sounds! These students also, had comprehension problems. They basically had their sight words memorized but they somehow had skipped knowing letter sounds, and how to sound out simple CVC words! This chapter will helped me understand that phonemic awareness is very important for students. There are many components of it that students need to know that will in return help then with their reading skills. Right now I can connect this chapter to my three year old daughter. She is beginning to learn her letters and letter sounds in preschool. She is learning Zoo phonics there. It has been fun to watch how she is learning and becoming aware of letters and the sounds they make!
Rashawna - I agree with you about how phonemic awareness is so very important for our student to become independent readers. Without many of the knowledge that is associated with phonemic awareness I am not sure how a student would decode words that they do not know. I like how this chapter broke down the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness.
Rashawna, The timing of this class and the age of your daughter is neat. I would have loved to have children at the beginning stages to watch and learn from. My youngest is in the sixth grade and he is a fairly proficient reader at this point. Our problem is keeping him motivated. Hopefully, we will learn more about that also. Happy Reading!
Chapter 4 discusses phonemic awareness. This is a chapter that I did not necessarily feel comfortable with but this chapter has dispersed of that feeling. The difference between rime and rhyme is confusing but seeing it again, it is easier to remember. The book lists that Is Your Mama a Llama? is a good example of a book with rime and rhyme. One of my favorite children’s books and one that my son really enjoys is the Llama Llama Red Pajama series. This is another good example of rime and rhyme.
I know I have said this every week but the visuals and figures that this book provides really help me to think about the content and look at the information in a different light. I thought that Figure 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 were very interesting. I really enjoy looking at the phonemes that are not found in other languages. I have always heard that we have many more than any other language but actually seeing the phonemes is a fun. This is particularly important to me because I live in southwest Kansas. By understanding where students come from, I can better help them learn. The book says that not all linguists agree on how many phonemes the English language has because of different dialects. I wonder how many phonemes are left out of certain dialects. For example, at the last place we lived, many of my husband’s wrestlers talk using slang or what we refer to as ebonics. They would leave out many syllables or phonemes in a word and after talking to them, I’m not sure that phonemes had been emphasized in their homes and classrooms. After this experience, I agree more with the IRA/NAEYC viewpoint and feel that phonemic awareness is an important topic.
In terms of tutoring and my future as an educator, this chapter covered skills that will (hopefully) be well understood by the time they get to me. I am tutoring 5th grade students and hope to teach in the 5th-8th grade levels. If by chance I get a job teaching younger students (in this job market that is not uncommon), then I will know right where to look for ideas!
Chapter 4 was so very interesting to me. I am constantly looking for ways to enhance reading with my son and now with my tutoring students. I like how this chapter broke down the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness and also gave us many activities to use with them. I feel that a reader needs to know how to decode words by knowing what sounds are used to produce each word, the reasons why the sounds are being produced and the ability to determine the syllables in each word. When I think about this chapter I feel that if a child fully has phonemic awareness then they will be able to read at an independent level. More of this should be taught to students to give them the tools to decode words themselves. I feel that too much emphasis is being put on learning the sight words that not enough phonics is being taught.
Hanna, I think there is a balance to be found between learning sight words and phonics instruction. I do feel that phonemic awareness is key for early literacy. When kids learn to write, they will say a word over and over slowly as they try to pick out sounds. The more sounds they can pick out then the more letters they can figure out as well. I also loved the activities! Will probably be referencing this chapter for tutoring lessons.
Hannah, I liked how they broke the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness as well (I learned more from that short section than I have in a whole semester of Reading). I love this text book it is full of great material and activities, I especially like that is an easy read. I will be using much of what I learned from this chapter in my tutoring as well Amy. I think you are probably right Hannah about the sight words being the emphasis and not phonics or phonemic awareness, which makes no sense to me because they do DIBELS assessments which consists of Phonemic Awareness.
This chapter elaborated on the topic of phonemic awareness. I don’t remember learning about the seven different areas of phonemic awareness, but they all make sense and I can see how they are important to literacy. Something that was a little surprising was that the paragraph about the fifth element (the ability to blend sounds together orally to make a word) said to begin teaching onset and rime before individual sounds. For example, teachers should have students practice blending /b/ and /at/ before /b/, /a/, and /t/. This was something I thought should be reversed. I was also surprised that this chapter talked about phonemes being blends, digraphs, and dipthongs, when I thought phonemes were only individual sounds.
In RLA methods, I remember reading about how phonemic awareness is the single greatest indicator of reading success, even more so than alphabet knowledge. This textbook says that statement is up for debate. The textbook did not make any solid conclusions about the matter, but it did say to research for ourselves and make our own decisions.
Since learning about phonics instruction in RLA methods, I began to wonder how people who speak different dialects of English learn phonics. For example, I imagine little schoolchildren in England reciting sounds without r’s. When I read that not all languages have the same phonemes, I began to wonder if perhaps British English has a different set than American English, or if it is just a matter of enunciation or pronunciation. I suppose that’s getting more into linguistics. I still remember one time I was traveling abroad in a group with a guide from New Zealand. After being with him for about 5 day, he started making fun of us (good naturedly) about the way we say “bag” with an emphasis on the short a. It was simply hilarious hearing him say the word “bag” with an American accent, and this is why I wonder if different versions of English have different phonemes.
I was also surprised to read about how some debate the importance of phonemic awareness in developing good readers. I agree that many of the elements of phonemic awareness is needed to grow in to a fluent, independent reader.
Good discussion. In the district that I sub in, we are finding that many of our students who can read well in first and second grade are really struggling in fourth and fifth grade. The reason is that early on, we are not focusing enough on phonemic awareness! Our district leaders are working on fixing the problem with RtI!
Each week, I love the reading. The chapter began with a quote on page 77, “Filling children’s heads with rhyme is one of the most natural ways to focus their attention on the sounds of the English language.” In the back of the chapter the author shares several websites to visit and I absolutely loved www.readinglady.com because of the poems she shares. This is one of my favorites: Read to me by Jane Yolen
Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes Read to me stories of magical times Read to me tales about castles and kings Read to me stories of fabulous things Read to me pirates and read to me knights Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights Read to me spaceships and cowboys and then When you are finished- please read them again.
We’ve already turned in our lesson plans, but I may print pictures of each of the things in this poem and read it to my group instead because it can be done with such drama. To answer the questions for the blog: (1) This chapter gives us a lot of help in working with students to help with their ability to recognize rhyming words, to count syllables, to separate the beginning of a word from its ending and to identify each of the phonemes in a word. DeVries suggest games and provides the tools in the Appendix to do the activities suggested. The information for ELL students was very helpful. There are 20 new sounds they have to learn and some that they already know are different sounds in the English language, so this makes it extremely difficult to learn. The book emphasized the fact that we can learn so much just by observing or “kid watching” (p82). (2) I really don’t have any questions right now, but the book does share the two opposing views on whether to teach phonemic awareness or not. In my opinion, teaching phonemic awareness is like adding the eggs to the cake. If you are missing an ingredient the cake will not turn out right. The opposing view says that it is like trying to take an ingredient out of the cake after it has been baked. I think they are backwards. I come at it from a different direction. We want the cake to turn out right, so we have to begin right. (3) I loved looking through all of the activities beginning on page 89 and going through page 99. I have picked out a few that I think might be a lot of fun with my small group on Mondays and Tuesdays. (4) This chapter is full of songs, nursery rhymes and poems, jump rope jingles, tongue twisters and children’s literature we can use. As a child, I loved all of these things. They are a lot of fun and make learning exciting.
I also feel the quote was a great way to start the chapter. I was happy that you shared information on one of the websites; this is helpful to those who may not have looked into this website. I loved the poem you shared! I thought you presented great information on this chapter and I also agree with you that the activities presented in the chapter will be useful tools for tutoring!
Ch. 4 Blog Zoë Greenemeyer The definition of phonemic awareness is a child’s understanding and conscience awareness that speech is composed of identifiable units, such as spoken words, syllables, and sounds. This is different than phonics which is the understanding that letters represents certain sounds. Having these two definitions is helpful to me as I will sometimes forget the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. The chapter did a nice job of listed phonemes in the text and showing how different languages differed. The section on the topic of phonemic awareness and if it is necessary was interesting to read. I thought it was important that the author suggested reading the research on the subject to help formulate a personal decision regarding phonemic awareness. I find it difficult to believe authors when they push their ideas onto you rather than allowing you to make your own decision. I think over all I feel that reading has changed since I was in school; it seems students are learning more about strategies on how to read and the breakdown of understanding written words. When I was in school I do not remember learning so much about phonemic awareness there more emphasis on phonics. What I would have liked to see more resources for songs, poems, and tongue twisters in the appendix of this book. It is helpful to have these resources to use in class. If the book contained more it would be helpful as a future teacher and with tutoring sessions. I also would have liked to see more intervention strategies, it would be nice to have a separate book with strategies related to every chapter to help guide teachers when they have a struggling reader.
I understand your want/need for more resources. As future teachers, I think we want to have all the resources we can find (there are LOTS!). However, if you do some research on the web, you will be surprised at the songs, poems, and tongue twisters you can find. When I looked for children poems to help me out with my lesson, I was shocked at the number or different resources there were that could directly relate to my teaching.
As I began to read this chapter, I was intrigued by the section that argued whether or not phonemic awareness is needed to create good, strong readers. I absolutely believe that phonemic awareness is part of the reading foundation that students need to become a successful reader. After reading the elements of phonemic awareness such as isolating a sound in a word, blending sounds to form words, and recognizing rhymes, I feel even more strongly that phonemic awareness is necessary to become a good reader. I thought the checklist shown on page 83 is a great way to measure profess and deficiencies in students in regards to phonemic awareness. I think it would be a great tool to use in the primary grades.
I really enjoyed reading about how nursery rhymes and poems can help students develop a sense of rhyming. We have been reading nursery rhymes to our daughter since she was about 2 years old, and she now has many of them memorized. I had received this advice from Dr. Walizer from reading and language arts methods. Lastly, I enjoyed reading about the use of Dr. Suess type rhyming books to teach about rhyme. I worked in a classroom with a teacher who has a Dr. Suess themed room and we did a reading activity last year where they had to find all of the rhyming words in one of the books with a partner. They really had a great time doing that.
One question that I find myself wondering is how you help some of the older students, like 3rd graders, when they are still struggling with phonemic awareness elements such as syllabication and rhyming. I know that they begin to learn a lot more about comprehension, predicting and more at that age.
I think this was a great chapter to get under our belts before we begin our first week of tutoring. This will help us keep an eye out during testing for those students who are missing the phonemic awareness piece, which I am kind of expecting in the group of 3rd graders that I have.
I too agree that phonemic awareness is needed to create strong readers, and I was actually surprised that there were experts who do not agree with this. The checklist you mentioned on page 83 will be a great resource to use in the classroom to help assess students understanding of phonemic awareness. This definitely was a great chapter to read before starting our tutoring.
This chapter is really informative and has given me a better understanding of Phonemic Awareness. I didn’t even know what Phonemic Awareness was until I took Dr. Walizer’s class (I know I shouldn’t probably admit that). I thought the chart on page 83 was something that would be beneficial to primary teachers. We screened students in grades 2-6 on phonemic awareness and phonics and you would not believe how many of them had trouble. That was a little frightening to me, to be honest. So that assessment would be good to have. The jump rope jingles were so cute! I will probably use some in my tutoring sessions after school. I also would like to make sound boxes for my Title 1 students. I like the way it is set up with a picture at the top and then at the bottom beginning, middle, and end to visually represent placement of the sounds. One of my favorite activities from this chapter would be the Children Are Sounds. I think it is helpful to have them stand in the place of the sound to give them a different approach to teaching this concept. This chapter has so many neat activities, how exciting!
I also liked the chart on page 83. I thought it was a great way to organize and keep track of who knows what. I imagine it can be overwhelming and difficult to keep everything in order.
Chapter 4 is all about phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is made up of 7 dimensions, which are the ability to do the following: 1. Hear syllables within a word. 2. Hear initial sounds. 3. Distinguish rime and rhyme. 4. Distinguish oddity. 5. Blend sounds together orally to make a word. 6. Segment words orally. 7. Manipulate sounds orally to create new words. I found the section phonemic awareness and English Learners to be very helpful. The English language contains many phonemes that are not found in other languages. The author provided a list of phonemes that are not found in the Spanish language so that we are able to see what sounds English learners are not familiar with. The author also listed phonemes that are common in both English and Spanish. It is recommended to start with teaching English learners phonemes that are common in both their native language and English language. This chapter also discusses whether or not phonemic awareness is necessary for students to become proficient readers and if students benefit from it. Some experts believe that intense, explicit instruction can actually be harmful when teaching students to read. I had a hard time believing that teaching phonemic awareness as hazardous to a student’s ability to learn to read. I feel that phonemic awareness is absolutely necessary in order to teach students how to read. Chapter 4 is full of great activities to use to help teach students phonemic awareness. I am definitely going to refer back to this chapter throughout the semester to help me in planning activities to use with my students to help them get a better understanding of phonemic awareness.
1. Analysis of the reading/issue. Chapter 4 was about Phonemic Awareness. It discussed the different dimensions, there are seven. The chapter talked about what teachers should know about Phonemic Awareness and then how the students can benefit from the different types of instruction. I really liked the different examples that the book gave on teaching the children about the different sounds. This chapter had so many suggestions and tips that you could use when teaching on phonemic awareness. Overall, I really thought this chapter was more about helping the teacher to understand that you don’t have to just sit and lecture students but that you can be creative and make it fun. 2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue. Is it better to do activities with the whole group when teaching on phonemic awareness? For example, in Kindergarten if you are teaching this topic does it get overwhelming for the kids? Would it be beneficial to teach in small groups? If that was a possibility of course. 3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? This chapter really made me realize how creative and flexible you can be in your classroom. Learning can be fun and sometimes you can take cues from what your students like to do. 4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.I have always really loved using music in my lesson plans. I think it is a really fun way to help the students learn and gets them motivated and excited.
I worked with phonemic awareness quite a bit last semester in my internship. When I was in the classroom, the teacher usually worked in small groups. I usually had three or four students at my work station. I wish I would have asked her her reasoning for doing it this way. I feel like it worked well in her classroom doing it that way, but that is the only way I have practiced it.
Analysis of reading- I thought this reading was full of valuable information. Phonemic awareness is important for young children becoming good readers. I really liked the section discussing all of the dimensions of phonemic awareness. It became aware to me how long it takes for students to master the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. I also thought the section “what teachers should know about phonemic awareness” was very valuable. I find it interesting how the book said we will be forming our own opinions on how children are to become aware of phonemes. The last thing I want to talk about in this section is assessing a child’s level of phonemic awareness. The book mentioned several ways to assess phonemic awareness with your child. It is important to assess and monitor information because like the book mentioned, most states require schools to show growth in phonemic awareness. I do not have a lot of questions over the reading. One thing that caught my attention and got me thinking was how we can introduce our language to children through “wonderful sounds.” Our book listed how nursery rhymes as one of the parts of these “wonderful sounds.” A lot of rhymes are types of books. I was wondering, how can we get parents to read to their children at an early age (before they start school)? A lot of parents don’t realize the importance of reading to their children at a young age. Personally, I was unaware of how important it was until I took reading and language arts methods. One thing I look at differently after reading this chapter is phonemic awareness and English learners. I was unaware of how phonemes can differ from one language to another. It is important to have an understanding of how they can differ because of the increase in English learners in our schools today. I can relate to the reading a little. In my reading and language arts internship last semester, I helped students with phonemic awareness. In fact, it was my main focus in my formal observation lesson plan. In that lesson, I talked about the letter Q. The students combined the sounds of /k/ and /w/ (they had already practiced these letters) to make the sound /q/. I really enjoyed that reading internship in kindergarten because we worked a lot with phonemic awareness, which we discussed quite a bit in language arts.
Jarett, reading to children is very important. As a parent and a future teacher I read about this all the time. There are organizations all over the state of Kansas and across the nation that work to promoting reading.
A few I love are Reach out and Read Kansas City and Reading is Fundamental. I'm sure that there are similar groups in your area!
The seven dimensions of phonemic awareness were interesting. I had not thought about breaking it down to these dimensions. It was interesting to see that some of the English phonemes are not found in six major languages. The text also indicates that studies have indicated that when a phoneme is not in a person's native language, it is difficult for the individual to hear AND produce that phoneme. This chapter contains many different ways that teachers can use to make learning phonemic awareness fun for students.
I am familiar with the German language, although not fluent. I can attest to the fact that some phonemes are difficult to hear and pronounce. German contains a "hard R". For me, it is easy to hear the sound, but more difficult to produce it. At many different times during the past 20 years as a mom, preschool teacher and cub scout leader, I have often used music as a way to help children learn a variety of things.
I really like the idea of using music to help students learn. I was observing my sons classroom a few weeks ago (he goes to a preschool that focuses on language acquisition and 1/3 of the students, my son included, have speech and language disabilities.) but they were all singing the apples and bananas/opples and ba-no-nos song and the kids loved it. I had never given too much thought to using music as part of a lesson but learned just by this simple observation how much kids can enjoy it. I'm curious what good music ideas you will bring to the table in our 5th grade discussion board!
There were many things that I liked about this chapter: the activities and the directions that accompanied them, the fact that so many grade levels were identified/present, and the fact that they stress making it fun. I found this refreshing because there are so many things to memorize but having the directions fun activities that accompanied the learning made it easier to both remember and want to participate in I have not had much experience working with phonics with students but feel that it will be something I enjoy. There are so many ways to integrate both within and outside of reading lessons. One of the reasons why I have not had a chance to work with phonics much is because I have been consistently in classrooms with older students. As a result,I had never really thought of phonics as something for older students. I was surprised when I noticed that there was an activity for older students as well (rhyming words in poetry) and this made me realize yet again that I have a lot to learn. The good news is that i look forward to finding more ways make teaching fun and be better prepared to help my students.
Jessica, it's so refreshing knowing that you are open minded and realize how much you have to learn in order to help students learn as well. I find it great as well that they stress in this chapter making things fun. My dad has always told me that if I'm not having fun doing things I need to rethink doing them. This is in the sense of roping and showing horses. I think it's important for us as educators to show children that lessons don't necissarily have to be hard they can be fun as well and maybe they'll get more out of it.
I thought the activities were fantastic as well! I loved that they were detailed and listed what grades they would work in. I don't always think of text books as a great useable resource, but this text is fantastic for that! I also appreciated that it is all about having fun. Students are encouraged to play with words and sounds, and use props and movement. I was kind of shocked too that they talked about doing these things with older kids as well. I didn't have a chance to look at the technology resources yet, but I bet they will be extremely helpful too.
I loved this chapter! I thought that it gave me a ton of great information and a more solid understanding of phonemic awareness and why students need to have phonemic awareness instruction. Until reading this chapter, I was unaware of the controversy over how to teach phonemic awareness. I think it is important that students understand all the little parts of our language and find it hard to believe that they would be able to be really successful without that knowledge. However, I don’t feel knowledgeable or experienced enough to take a stand one way or another but I hope the tutoring sessions and working with students in the future will clear this topic up for me. I took some French in high school, but I haven’t had any foreign language since. I remember it being hard and how we had to make new and different sounds, but I didn’t quite realize that there were so many different phonemes and sounds between all languages. It is no wonder learning foreign languages is so difficult. I truly loved the reminders on why nursery rhymes, poems, and songs are so important to our children and language. Sometimes I get bored with my daughter’s nursery rhyme and lullaby books because we are reading them constantly, but this served as a great reminder on why I bought them in the first place. I actually bought a few of them after Dr. Walizer spoke about how important they were in RLA methods! This chapter was also a great reminder on how to have fun with words, sounds, and our language and it had some great activities listed that I would love to try out this semester. I was excited that they talked about tongue twisters and Dr. Seuss. I am actually reading Oh Say Can You Say! By Dr. Seuss on Tuesday to my students and can’t wait to practice all the tongue twisters and have them create their own. In that aspect, this chapter gave me some reassurance that I was on the right track for my tutoring sessions.
Phonemic awareness is "a child's understanding and conscious awareness that speech is composed of identifiable units, such as spoken words, syllables, and sounds." I think this chapter did a great job explaining all the dimensions of phonemic awareness and how it differs from phonics. I love teaching and being around the younger students as well as english language learners and this chapter gave me insight on several tools that will allow me to incorporate activities into the classroom for each level. I also enjoyed the section of the chapter where it identified what teachers should know about phonemic awareness. Another strong section of the chapter the I LOVED was how to assess phonemic awareness and then all the songs and nursery rhymes and poems. It's important to familiarize children to things they may have heard previous to entering school and they nursery rhymes are a wonderful example of that.
Phonemic awareness is a hot topic in our district. Much of the instruction that is taking place in our RtI sessions for the lower grades is going back to phonemic awareness. I found it interesting that there are seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. The chapter began by differentiating between phonics and phonemic awareness. It is important to note that they are two different categories. I am in SW Kansas where many of our students are ELL. The chapter pointed out that phonemes differ from one language to another. This makes it very difficult for our students to be able to read and write what we are instructing. The discussion on pg. 81 is what our district is dealing with. Our students who are good readers in first and second grade are struggling by the time they get to fourth and fifth grade because phonemic awareness was not taught hard in the lower grades. Through my experience while substitute teaching and reinforcing the facts with this text, I see the importance of phonemic awareness in the lower grades.
1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter four of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses phonemic awareness which the textbook defines as being different that phonics because phonics is a written form while phonemic awareness is the oral form (Devries, 77). The textbook describes the seven dimensions that are associated with phonic awareness which are defined as abilities are assessed. This assessment process is described in the textbook and references the “quick phonemic awareness assessment device” on page 443 of the textbook.
There are several different ways to introduce children to the sound of words and sounds. The textbook suggests using songs, nursery rhymes, poems, jingles, books and “tongue twisters”.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
I read in the textbook that there are many songs that would teach students about phonemic awareness, I was wondering if people know any songs (or any other methods) that they have seen or used that are fun and seem to benefit students.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
It was great how this chapter described the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. I also thought it was great that the textbook gave a figure of the “checklist for phonemic awareness based on the seven dimensions, primary grades” (Devries, 83). This chapter of the textbook also made me think about how much more difficult it can be for children who come from a home that use a different language. Languages are very different from each other on how they sound when spoken. As I read in the textbook there are many sounds in the English language that is different from many other. It is hard for students of other languages to say these sounds because they are not used to them.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
Sounds in the English can very difficult for some students because some of the rules do not always make sense. I remember always having a difficult time reading and understand how sounds work because they do not always follow the “rule”. I always tried to make sense out of these words but never really could.
I remember many different songs and rhymes used in the classroom and always thought they were fun. These strategies are great for teachers to use in the classroom because the students tent to “forget” that they are actually learning from the songs they are singing. It seems like fun more than anything else (especially for the younger grades).
I do like your question for this discussion, I have not ever seen phonemic awareness taught in a classroom so I have nothing to go from. So I will be interested in what someone will have to say about this. Also, I do agree with you about how different English is to other languages, I can't imagine how difficult this must seem to a student with a different native language, coming to a new school, and trying to learn all at the same time. Kids amaze me! The book did have a great idea, when teaching phonemic awareness, start with phonemes common in both English and the student's native language. I think this would help the student understand the English language by seeing the commonalities.
DeleteWow, this chapter was very informational on phonemic awareness! It was almost a little overwhelming, for example, there was two sections that battled explicit instruction for phonemic awareness. This stated that professionals disagreed whether instructors should provide explicit instruction and made me wonder what I will be doing in my future class and even in my tutoring. However, in the next section, the topic was how do children become aware of phonemes within words with out explicit instruction and I decided I should probably just follow along with this because the children learn just from being actively engaged in literacy activities.
ReplyDeleteOther information covered in this intense chapter include, assessments, what teachers should know, phonemic awareness for ELL, and most of all activities.
I thoroughly enjoyed looking through the activities provided in this chapter. Many of these would be a great idea to include in my tutoring sessions and could probably even be a part of my trifold.
Another part that I enjoyed was the phonemic awareness and English Learners. I have had very little experience in working with students of a different language. The students I have worked with were already very proficient with English, so I do worry about teaching students to speak English, especially the phonemes because English is very different compared to other languages. I do wonder what I can do to help these students and if I will have a translator in the room and how often. This chapter did state to start phonemic awareness lessons with phonemes that are common in both the English language and the student's native language so I thought that was very helpful.
Danielle,
DeleteI agree that chapter 4 can be very over whelming at first glance. What helped me is realizing that all of the different components are all interlinked and seem to follow a predictable learning path. Most Students (but not all) will follow the same progression in their reading skills regardless of what their grade level is. I think that I will work on understanding more on how to see the earliest sighs that a child may be struggling in this area.
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DeleteDanielle, I see the issues that you are talking about. They can be discouraging at times and put you as a student/teacher in a hard spot to decide. I would probably say that as a teacher you probably have a more specific way that you will teacher (whatever that will be). As you continue to teach and feel comfortable I bet there will be chances for you to attempt to other method as added instruction. It may be something that works or does not work that is why it is not your main method of instruction so you will not have lost a lot of time.
DeleteRicky
Phonemic Awareness is like the bread of a sandwich without it the whole thing falls apart. I unfortunately found this out with my struggling reader. We had a reading specialist tutoring Ashton 2 times a week from the summer after 1st grade through mid third grade. Even with that he still was not making adequate progress and seemed to have huge holes in his reading ability despite be very intelligent. We found out he was dyslexic and I started him on a tutoring program designed for multi sensory learning that he desperately needed. Reluctantly I started him on level 1, he was a third grader so I thought that was way to low with all of his prior tutoring. I was shocked when I gave him the phonemic awareness screener and he scored in the 50th %. He could not hear many blends such as th, V,F to him is was a guess as to which one he was hearing. He also confused many consonants followed by (r) such as “drag” he would repeat back “grag”. IT was obvious that he needed to start at this very important level before moving one.
ReplyDeleteI love that the Devriers text talks about using music in you phonemic awareness work. What kids doesn’t love to sing or dance to a song. “Dainty Dotty Dee” on page 86 is a great one to do with older kids. it has rhyming and asks the student to decide on the best rhyming word at the end of the song. I also Loved the “Pop of the beads” this would be great for helping students understand the relationships of each letter in a word. I think that this activity could also be done in pairs to quiz each other with a predetermined set of words that the class is working on at the time.
We as teacher take for granted how easily we can read/spell. We need to remember that we mush SLOW DOWN and PRONOUNCE words correctly for our students. Nonsence words have been a huge help with my son because he can’t just guess at the word. He is so smart and old that often reading at his level means that he can guess at most of the words. In reading chapter 4 I am even more certain that phonemic awareness is a must in a good reader. As teachers we need to be aware of this and make sure that we are catching those early phonemic awareness holes.
I also really enjoyed the songs that had a blank at the end. I know for a fact that I will use them if I have a tutee that needs help in phonemic awareness and rhyming. I think having them think of a word and say it would really help a struggling student. You make a good point on how we must slow down and pronounce words correctly. Slowly saying words with emphasis on the sounds can really help. A lot of times we may not think about that when talking with a student because it comes so naturally. The chapter did a good job on showing just how difficult phonemic awareness can be.
DeleteHi Cathryn,
DeleteIt's funny that you talk about nonsense words and how much of a help they were with your son. I can remember when I first started as a Para educator (6 years ago) those nonsense words made no sense to me. I had never had them used when I was a student, that I can remember, and I had no idea why on earth I was doing them with a student. After working with many students since I must say that I agree with you whole-heartedly. They are very effective in helping the students learn letter/sound relationships. I also believe that the song, dance, and other activities that were discussed for phonmeic awareness are great fun for students and should be used in every classroom as a teaching strategy as well.
Great post! Thank you for sharing about your experience with why phonemic awareness is important. The book made me question if I truly think it is important or not. I thought it was and your post just confirmed it for me. Slowing down our words and pronouncing things clearly is something I need to work on. I need to make sure that I am always over-pronouncing my words so that children can clearly hear the differences.
DeleteI agree with what you said about taking reading and spelling ability or granted. That is one thing that I am very conscious of. Reading and spelling has always come easily for me and is the area where I excel the most. As a parent, it has helped me to realize that not everyone enjoys reading as much as I do. Additionally, spelling is not always as easy for others as it is for me. Of my four sons, three have difficulty spelling and reading. My youngest son seems to excel in reading and spelling. Having three sons who struggle with reading has helped me to be more patient. I realize that my students will not be like me.
DeleteThis is a good chapter on phonemic awareness. It focuses on the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness and gives great suggestions on how teachers can help students master these. It is important in my mind for students to have an understanding of all 44 phonemes in order to be successful in reading. I did enjoy the sections on how English phonemes differ from other languages, I was not aware of that. I can honestly say that when I'm helping students with spelling or reading a word I naturally use phonemic awareness. For example just today a student couldn't spell change so I instantly went to what makes the /ch/ sound. It seems like for most people this is the natural way to help students with spelling and reading. The chapter gave a great deal of ideas on how to make this fun for students with songs, poems, rhymes and so on. I especially liked the idea of changing up sounds to make new words in poems and songs, or having students make their own. The interventions section is a key part for us in tutoring I believe. If students need help with this part of speech we have some great suggestions already spelled out for us, along with the manipulatives in the Appendices. This was a good chapter that states just how difficult the English language can be with so many different letter sounds.
ReplyDeleteRyan- I was amazed at all the different activities in here that emphasized the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness. One of my favorite parts of this chapter was about the songs, poems, riddles, and jokes to help children with sounds and rhythms of our language.
DeleteChapter four discusses in great detail Phonemic Awareness. During the reading it discusses how phonics and phonemic awareness differ. There are seven dimensions of phonemic awareness, in which the first three should be mastered by the end of kindergarten, and the last four by the end of the students first grade year. Although both phonics and phonemic awareness are both skills that must be mastered there are many different approaches and teaching strategies that teachers can pursue in order for the student to grasp the information. I personally like the songs that Dr. Walizer taught us in Reading and Language Arts Internship. Some other suggestions that the book reviewed were poems, jingles, nursery rhymes, and books. My question in regards to the reading material is if a child is in a higher grade, such as third or fourth and they have not mastered the phonemic awareness skills can they benefit from other skills such as retell, and comprehension? In other words, is it essential that they master these skills before even moving onto to the skills that are taught at their grade level? This reading allowed me to learn about the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness and its importance in mastering the whole phonemic awareness concepts. I am tutoring two ESL students this semester, so this reading really made me think about how hard it must be for these two students to come into our country and have to learn different phonemes their native language. The reading talks about the fact that when phonemes are not present in a person’s native language then it is much harder to hear and produce. The text helped me to realize how different the English language is than other languages, and perhaps put me in my student’s shoes a bit, so I can better understand their personal struggles on a daily basis. I know as an adult who was born and raised in the United States, sometimes it is very difficult for me to understand how the English language sounds work and operate. It would be different if there was always a rule that was followed with our language, but there isn’t. I know that there were many of the types of activities done when I was younger and in the classroom. I learned a lot from many of them. In fact, there are many of them that I do in my head from time to time to help me remember sounds, spellings, and phonemes.
ReplyDeleteCharelle- As I was reading this chapter and came to nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and jokes I too thought of Dr. Walizer and RLA class. The more courses here at FHSU I take and further to the end I get, I can really see how each class builds on others. I can totally see how things we've learned in Children's Literature and RLA are coming into play with this Corrections class. I think this chapter was full of great information and activities that are going to help our students and I can't wait to use these with my tutoring students!
DeleteI truly feel that I may be sounding like a broken record, but I have to say "WOW" to this week's DeVries reading! Phonics and phonemic awareness is very interesting to me, but nothing made me more interested than to learn about phonemic awareness and English Learners. Learning a foreign language is very hard, but I never knew why until reading this chapter. I was amazed when I read, "A phoneme not present in one's native language is more difficult to hear and, in turn, produce." I never thought about that. Not only is all the parts of that second language hard to hear, it's hard to produce because they've never had to produce those kinds of sounds in their native language. The other thing I've starred in my book is introducing children to the wonderful sounds of our language. What better way to engage children than to do so through songs, tongue twisters, jokes, riddles, poems....etc. This is what Ms. Stoppel has been saying all along to include in our Tri-folds! Children love it and they are filled with words and phrases that emphasize sounds and rhythms of our language. I was really amazed at all the activities there are this week that emphasize different parts of the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. This book is quickly becoming one of my most favorite textbooks and I only have one other that I can say that about!
ReplyDeleteLeAnn, I too liked all the ideas, games, poems, ETC. that were in the book. I can't honestly say that I remember being young and doing fun things like that but I hope that I did. If I want that now it gives me a better idea of what things I want my future students to experience.
DeleteRicky
LeAnn, I agree, this chapter was great! I too learned a lot about the different in phonics and phonemic awareness but many of it I already knew. However, the activities and ideas this chapter shared was an awesome tool to utilize with my own students. I also enjoyed the websites they provided for more interactive phonemic awareness games and activities. Great post! Jennifer
DeleteI agree that kids love jokes, riddles and tongue twisters. Even my teenagers like them. I am trying to find some jokes and riddles related to the United States or individual states to use for my tutoring lessons. My theme is Reading Adventure and we will be reading stories, fiction and nonfiction, about or from different states.
DeleteLiteracy
ReplyDeleteChapter 4
This was a pretty good chapter with a nice explanation and detailing of what phonemic awareness is. I think that it is important to point out what the book pointed out about phonemic awareness and phonics not being the same thing. When I first started back to school I am sure that I probably at first felt that they were one in the same. I think this is important because I am probably like the majority of people who may need to be educated on the differences. As an educator giving that compare and contrast to parents will be important. Going further in the chapter I really like the information about how many phonemes are not even present in other languages. I have not have a lot of experience with ELL learners but have a better understanding of why they are struggling to hear and produce certain sounds. The graphs were pretty helpful as well giving me a better idea on what is present or not present in certain languages. Lastly I really felt that the games, examples, and strategies were right on. They could be applied to many learners who are beginning the process of the English language but can also be used for another activity to build on what students know.
Ricky
Ricky is appears our reflections after reading chapter 4 were similar. I agree the chapter did a positive job in explanation and details of what phonemic awareness it. I also like the information provided later in the chapter. It was also nice to hear someone else found the chapter as beneficial as I did.
DeleteAfter reading chapter 4 of DeVRIES I began to reflect on my own early education. I never knew I was becoming phonemically aware while singing a song in class. I can remember listening to my teachers read poems that contained rhymes and learning songs or chants that still stick in my head. I love how the text states that children learn phonemic awareness through singing, chanting, and reading. Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonics is the understanding that letters represent certain sounds. This chapter was very insightful in the area of phonemic awareness. This text as a whole so far presents information in a manner that is easy to read, understand, and retain. I enjoy reading the real life examples provided at the beginning of each chapter. The first paragraph of the introduction lists the seven topics that surround phonemic awareness. I also enjoyed the songs provided on pages 84-87. I do not have any questions from within the text. But I am interested to see if any other peers can remember songs or chants they learned in their early education that aided them with phonemic awareness. This chapter allowed me to have a better understanding of the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness. I also have a great resource to use when for implementing activities that aide students with developing phonemic awareness. I plan to implement songs, chants, and fun activities that are catchy and exciting to aid students with learning. By finding catchy ways to aid students you are going to keep students engaged and allow for repetition which has a huge impact on learning and retention.
ReplyDeleteJade,
DeleteGreat post...I also loved the way that teh textbook discussed that we can use chants and songs to help students learn different material. I think that this is important because even today I still remember these songs because they were fun as a child and still fun to learn even today.
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ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVED Chapter 4! It was very beneficial and full of great ideas to give teachers regarding phonemic awareness teaching and strategy tips. This chapter also gave great ACTIVITIES in finding patterns to learn (p.98), becoming aware of different sounds and similar words using rhyming and songs (p.77).
ReplyDeleteI have no questions.
Like I said before this chapter was very beneficial and gave great ideas and activities to do with students of all grades to help with Phonemic Awareness. Some of the things that I wrote down and filed to use this semester with my own tutoring students were:
A. Alphabet Booklet (p.91)
B. Toss the Cube (p.92)
C. Go Fish (p.93)
D. Clowning Around with Rhyming words (p.94)
E. Websites (p.99)
I want to utilize these games with the three kindergartners that I have to tutor this semester and I am excited to start planning. I do not so much look at phonemic awareness any differently than I did prior to reading this chapter, but I am very excited to get teaching these great ideas and activities. I believe making learning fun and interactive is the best way to capture the attention and learning capabilities of students. The only example I can give when it comes to my own life is that I wish these skills and activities were utilized more when I was growing up. I struggled with reading my entire life and was diagnosed with an IEP when I was younger. I really feel with the things I continue to learn in school, there were so many more ways to foster my education to the point where, I could have been taught in so many more efficient and effective ways than I was when I was younger.
I also like the activities that book listed. I liked the sound boxes activity that is for K-3rd grade! I think some of these lessons can be adapted for fit the needs of the student!
DeleteJennifer,
DeleteI liked the games listed too and I saved the websites on Evernote for later. I will definitely use the fish patterns and the websites. The clowning around idea will be fun. Our text is a great resource with all of the ideas and materials in the back of the book. I am so glad we have it.
Chapter 4 is about phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is very important for students to have to be successful readers. They need to know letters and the sounds associated with them. Students need to be able to hear rhyming words, know how to manipulate words and sounds.
ReplyDeleteOne question/ contradiction, I have about the chapter was the section called "Is Phonemic Awareness Necessary for Students to Become Proficient Readers". In this section of the text, is says "Cunningham, et al. (1998) suggest that phonemic awareness is necessary, but not sufficient, for producing good readers. They contend the the precise relation between phonemic awareness abilities and reading acquisition remains under investigation" (pg. 81). I can say I understand what the text was saying in regards not having to know all the dimensions of phonemic awareness to read. However, I believe that phonemic awareness is very important and the more that a students is phonemic aware the better readers they become. I have some ELL students who knew their sight words and could "read" a book. However, they did not know individual ABC letter sounds! These students also, had comprehension problems. They basically had their sight words memorized but they somehow had skipped knowing letter sounds, and how to sound out simple CVC words!
This chapter will helped me understand that phonemic awareness is very important for students. There are many components of it that students need to know that will in return help then with their reading skills.
Right now I can connect this chapter to my three year old daughter. She is beginning to learn her letters and letter sounds in preschool. She is learning Zoo phonics there. It has been fun to watch how she is learning and becoming aware of letters and the sounds they make!
Rashawna -
DeleteI agree with you about how phonemic awareness is so very important for our student to become independent readers. Without many of the knowledge that is associated with phonemic awareness I am not sure how a student would decode words that they do not know. I like how this chapter broke down the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness.
Rashawna,
DeleteThe timing of this class and the age of your daughter is neat. I would have loved to have children at the beginning stages to watch and learn from. My youngest is in the sixth grade and he is a fairly proficient reader at this point. Our problem is keeping him motivated. Hopefully, we will learn more about that also. Happy Reading!
Chapter 4 discusses phonemic awareness. This is a chapter that I did not necessarily feel comfortable with but this chapter has dispersed of that feeling. The difference between rime and rhyme is confusing but seeing it again, it is easier to remember. The book lists that Is Your Mama a Llama? is a good example of a book with rime and rhyme. One of my favorite children’s books and one that my son really enjoys is the Llama Llama Red Pajama series. This is another good example of rime and rhyme.
ReplyDeleteI know I have said this every week but the visuals and figures that this book provides really help me to think about the content and look at the information in a different light. I thought that Figure 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 were very interesting. I really enjoy looking at the phonemes that are not found in other languages. I have always heard that we have many more than any other language but actually seeing the phonemes is a fun. This is particularly important to me because I live in southwest Kansas. By understanding where students come from, I can better help them learn. The book says that not all linguists agree on how many phonemes the English language has because of different dialects. I wonder how many phonemes are left out of certain dialects. For example, at the last place we lived, many of my husband’s wrestlers talk using slang or what we refer to as ebonics. They would leave out many syllables or phonemes in a word and after talking to them, I’m not sure that phonemes had been emphasized in their homes and classrooms. After this experience, I agree more with the IRA/NAEYC viewpoint and feel that phonemic awareness is an important topic.
In terms of tutoring and my future as an educator, this chapter covered skills that will (hopefully) be well understood by the time they get to me. I am tutoring 5th grade students and hope to teach in the 5th-8th grade levels. If by chance I get a job teaching younger students (in this job market that is not uncommon), then I will know right where to look for ideas!
Chapter 4 was so very interesting to me. I am constantly looking for ways to enhance reading with my son and now with my tutoring students. I like how this chapter broke down the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness and also gave us many activities to use with them. I feel that a reader needs to know how to decode words by knowing what sounds are used to produce each word, the reasons why the sounds are being produced and the ability to determine the syllables in each word. When I think about this chapter I feel that if a child fully has phonemic awareness then they will be able to read at an independent level. More of this should be taught to students to give them the tools to decode words themselves. I feel that too much emphasis is being put on learning the sight words that not enough phonics is being taught.
ReplyDeleteHanna,
DeleteI think there is a balance to be found between learning sight words and phonics instruction. I do feel that phonemic awareness is key for early literacy. When kids learn to write, they will say a word over and over slowly as they try to pick out sounds. The more sounds they can pick out then the more letters they can figure out as well. I also loved the activities! Will probably be referencing this chapter for tutoring lessons.
Amy
Hannah, I liked how they broke the 7 dimensions of phonemic awareness as well (I learned more from that short section than I have in a whole semester of Reading). I love this text book it is full of great material and activities, I especially like that is an easy read. I will be using much of what I learned from this chapter in my tutoring as well Amy. I think you are probably right Hannah about the sight words being the emphasis and not phonics or phonemic awareness, which makes no sense to me because they do DIBELS assessments which consists of Phonemic Awareness.
DeleteThis chapter elaborated on the topic of phonemic awareness. I don’t remember learning about the seven different areas of phonemic awareness, but they all make sense and I can see how they are important to literacy. Something that was a little surprising was that the paragraph about the fifth element (the ability to blend sounds together orally to make a word) said to begin teaching onset and rime before individual sounds. For example, teachers should have students practice blending /b/ and /at/ before /b/, /a/, and /t/. This was something I thought should be reversed. I was also surprised that this chapter talked about phonemes being blends, digraphs, and dipthongs, when I thought phonemes were only individual sounds.
ReplyDeleteIn RLA methods, I remember reading about how phonemic awareness is the single greatest indicator of reading success, even more so than alphabet knowledge. This textbook says that statement is up for debate. The textbook did not make any solid conclusions about the matter, but it did say to research for ourselves and make our own decisions.
Since learning about phonics instruction in RLA methods, I began to wonder how people who speak different dialects of English learn phonics. For example, I imagine little schoolchildren in England reciting sounds without r’s. When I read that not all languages have the same phonemes, I began to wonder if perhaps British English has a different set than American English, or if it is just a matter of enunciation or pronunciation. I suppose that’s getting more into linguistics. I still remember one time I was traveling abroad in a group with a guide from New Zealand. After being with him for about 5 day, he started making fun of us (good naturedly) about the way we say “bag” with an emphasis on the short a. It was simply hilarious hearing him say the word “bag” with an American accent, and this is why I wonder if different versions of English have different phonemes.
Amy,
DeleteI was also surprised to read about how some debate the importance of phonemic awareness in developing good readers. I agree that many of the elements of phonemic awareness is needed to grow in to a fluent, independent reader.
Good discussion. In the district that I sub in, we are finding that many of our students who can read well in first and second grade are really struggling in fourth and fifth grade. The reason is that early on, we are not focusing enough on phonemic awareness! Our district leaders are working on fixing the problem with RtI!
DeleteEach week, I love the reading. The chapter began with a quote on page 77, “Filling children’s heads with rhyme is one of the most natural ways to focus their attention on the sounds of the English language.” In the back of the chapter the author shares several websites to visit and I absolutely loved www.readinglady.com because of the poems she shares. This is one of my favorites:
ReplyDeleteRead to me
by Jane Yolen
Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes
Read to me stories of magical times
Read to me tales about castles and kings
Read to me stories of fabulous things
Read to me pirates and read to me knights
Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights
Read to me spaceships and cowboys and then
When you are finished- please read them again.
We’ve already turned in our lesson plans, but I may print pictures of each of the things in this poem and read it to my group instead because it can be done with such drama.
To answer the questions for the blog: (1) This chapter gives us a lot of help in working with students to help with their ability to recognize rhyming words, to count syllables, to separate the beginning of a word from its ending and to identify each of the phonemes in a word. DeVries suggest games and provides the tools in the Appendix to do the activities suggested. The information for ELL students was very helpful. There are 20 new sounds they have to learn and some that they already know are different sounds in the English language, so this makes it extremely difficult to learn. The book emphasized the fact that we can learn so much just by observing or “kid watching” (p82). (2) I really don’t have any questions right now, but the book does share the two opposing views on whether to teach phonemic awareness or not. In my opinion, teaching phonemic awareness is like adding the eggs to the cake. If you are missing an ingredient the cake will not turn out right. The opposing view says that it is like trying to take an ingredient out of the cake after it has been baked. I think they are backwards. I come at it from a different direction. We want the cake to turn out right, so we have to begin right. (3) I loved looking through all of the activities beginning on page 89 and going through page 99. I have picked out a few that I think might be a lot of fun with my small group on Mondays and Tuesdays. (4) This chapter is full of songs, nursery rhymes and poems, jump rope jingles, tongue twisters and children’s literature we can use. As a child, I loved all of these things. They are a lot of fun and make learning exciting.
I also feel the quote was a great way to start the chapter. I was happy that you shared information on one of the websites; this is helpful to those who may not have looked into this website. I loved the poem you shared! I thought you presented great information on this chapter and I also agree with you that the activities presented in the chapter will be useful tools for tutoring!
DeletePoems and little tunes stick in the student's minds (as well as the teachers!) and enforces learning!! Great post!!
DeleteCh. 4 Blog
ReplyDeleteZoë Greenemeyer
The definition of phonemic awareness is a child’s understanding and conscience awareness that speech is composed of identifiable units, such as spoken words, syllables, and sounds. This is different than phonics which is the understanding that letters represents certain sounds. Having these two definitions is helpful to me as I will sometimes forget the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. The chapter did a nice job of listed phonemes in the text and showing how different languages differed.
The section on the topic of phonemic awareness and if it is necessary was interesting to read. I thought it was important that the author suggested reading the research on the subject to help formulate a personal decision regarding phonemic awareness. I find it difficult to believe authors when they push their ideas onto you rather than allowing you to make your own decision. I think over all I feel that reading has changed since I was in school; it seems students are learning more about strategies on how to read and the breakdown of understanding written words. When I was in school I do not remember learning so much about phonemic awareness there more emphasis on phonics.
What I would have liked to see more resources for songs, poems, and tongue twisters in the appendix of this book. It is helpful to have these resources to use in class. If the book contained more it would be helpful as a future teacher and with tutoring sessions. I also would have liked to see more intervention strategies, it would be nice to have a separate book with strategies related to every chapter to help guide teachers when they have a struggling reader.
I understand your want/need for more resources. As future teachers, I think we want to have all the resources we can find (there are LOTS!). However, if you do some research on the web, you will be surprised at the songs, poems, and tongue twisters you can find. When I looked for children poems to help me out with my lesson, I was shocked at the number or different resources there were that could directly relate to my teaching.
DeleteAs I began to read this chapter, I was intrigued by the section that argued whether or not phonemic awareness is needed to create good, strong readers. I absolutely believe that phonemic awareness is part of the reading foundation that students need to become a successful reader. After reading the elements of phonemic awareness such as isolating a sound in a word, blending sounds to form words, and recognizing rhymes, I feel even more strongly that phonemic awareness is necessary to become a good reader. I thought the checklist shown on page 83 is a great way to measure profess and deficiencies in students in regards to phonemic awareness. I think it would be a great tool to use in the primary grades.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about how nursery rhymes and poems can help students develop a sense of rhyming. We have been reading nursery rhymes to our daughter since she was about 2 years old, and she now has many of them memorized. I had received this advice from Dr. Walizer from reading and language arts methods. Lastly, I enjoyed reading about the use of Dr. Suess type rhyming books to teach about rhyme. I worked in a classroom with a teacher who has a Dr. Suess themed room and we did a reading activity last year where they had to find all of the rhyming words in one of the books with a partner. They really had a great time doing that.
One question that I find myself wondering is how you help some of the older students, like 3rd graders, when they are still struggling with phonemic awareness elements such as syllabication and rhyming. I know that they begin to learn a lot more about comprehension, predicting and more at that age.
I think this was a great chapter to get under our belts before we begin our first week of tutoring. This will help us keep an eye out during testing for those students who are missing the phonemic awareness piece, which I am kind of expecting in the group of 3rd graders that I have.
I too agree that phonemic awareness is needed to create strong readers, and I was actually surprised that there were experts who do not agree with this. The checklist you mentioned on page 83 will be a great resource to use in the classroom to help assess students understanding of phonemic awareness. This definitely was a great chapter to read before starting our tutoring.
DeleteThis chapter is really informative and has given me a better understanding of Phonemic Awareness. I didn’t even know what Phonemic Awareness was until I took Dr. Walizer’s class (I know I shouldn’t probably admit that). I thought the chart on page 83 was something that would be beneficial to primary teachers. We screened students in grades 2-6 on phonemic awareness and phonics and you would not believe how many of them had trouble. That was a little frightening to me, to be honest. So that assessment would be good to have.
ReplyDeleteThe jump rope jingles were so cute! I will probably use some in my tutoring sessions after school. I also would like to make sound boxes for my Title 1 students. I like the way it is set up with a picture at the top and then at the bottom beginning, middle, and end to visually represent placement of the sounds. One of my favorite activities from this chapter would be the Children Are Sounds. I think it is helpful to have them stand in the place of the sound to give them a different approach to teaching this concept. This chapter has so many neat activities, how exciting!
I also liked the chart on page 83. I thought it was a great way to organize and keep track of who knows what. I imagine it can be overwhelming and difficult to keep everything in order.
DeleteChapter 4 is all about phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is made up of 7 dimensions, which are the ability to do the following:
ReplyDelete1. Hear syllables within a word.
2. Hear initial sounds.
3. Distinguish rime and rhyme.
4. Distinguish oddity.
5. Blend sounds together orally to make a word.
6. Segment words orally.
7. Manipulate sounds orally to create new words.
I found the section phonemic awareness and English Learners to be very helpful. The English language contains many phonemes that are not found in other languages. The author provided a list of phonemes that are not found in the Spanish language so that we are able to see what sounds English learners are not familiar with. The author also listed phonemes that are common in both English and Spanish. It is recommended to start with teaching English learners phonemes that are common in both their native language and English language.
This chapter also discusses whether or not phonemic awareness is necessary for students to become proficient readers and if students benefit from it. Some experts believe that intense, explicit instruction can actually be harmful when teaching students to read. I had a hard time believing that teaching phonemic awareness as hazardous to a student’s ability to learn to read. I feel that phonemic awareness is absolutely necessary in order to teach students how to read.
Chapter 4 is full of great activities to use to help teach students phonemic awareness. I am definitely going to refer back to this chapter throughout the semester to help me in planning activities to use with my students to help them get a better understanding of phonemic awareness.
1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter 4 was about Phonemic Awareness. It discussed the different dimensions, there are seven. The chapter talked about what teachers should know about Phonemic Awareness and then how the students can benefit from the different types of instruction. I really liked the different examples that the book gave on teaching the children about the different sounds. This chapter had so many suggestions and tips that you could use when teaching on phonemic awareness. Overall, I really thought this chapter was more about helping the teacher to understand that you don’t have to just sit and lecture students but that you can be creative and make it fun.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
Is it better to do activities with the whole group when teaching on phonemic awareness? For example, in Kindergarten if you are teaching this topic does it get overwhelming for the kids? Would it be beneficial to teach in small groups? If that was a possibility of course.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? This chapter really made me realize how creative and flexible you can be in your classroom. Learning can be fun and sometimes you can take cues from what your students like to do.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.I have always really loved using music in my lesson plans. I think it is a really fun way to help the students learn and gets them motivated and excited.
I worked with phonemic awareness quite a bit last semester in my internship. When I was in the classroom, the teacher usually worked in small groups. I usually had three or four students at my work station. I wish I would have asked her her reasoning for doing it this way. I feel like it worked well in her classroom doing it that way, but that is the only way I have practiced it.
DeleteAnalysis of reading- I thought this reading was full of valuable information. Phonemic awareness is important for young children becoming good readers. I really liked the section discussing all of the dimensions of phonemic awareness. It became aware to me how long it takes for students to master the seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. I also thought the section “what teachers should know about phonemic awareness” was very valuable. I find it interesting how the book said we will be forming our own opinions on how children are to become aware of phonemes. The last thing I want to talk about in this section is assessing a child’s level of phonemic awareness. The book mentioned several ways to assess phonemic awareness with your child. It is important to assess and monitor information because like the book mentioned, most states require schools to show growth in phonemic awareness.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a lot of questions over the reading. One thing that caught my attention and got me thinking was how we can introduce our language to children through “wonderful sounds.” Our book listed how nursery rhymes as one of the parts of these “wonderful sounds.” A lot of rhymes are types of books. I was wondering, how can we get parents to read to their children at an early age (before they start school)? A lot of parents don’t realize the importance of reading to their children at a young age. Personally, I was unaware of how important it was until I took reading and language arts methods.
One thing I look at differently after reading this chapter is phonemic awareness and English learners. I was unaware of how phonemes can differ from one language to another. It is important to have an understanding of how they can differ because of the increase in English learners in our schools today.
I can relate to the reading a little. In my reading and language arts internship last semester, I helped students with phonemic awareness. In fact, it was my main focus in my formal observation lesson plan. In that lesson, I talked about the letter Q. The students combined the sounds of /k/ and /w/ (they had already practiced these letters) to make the sound /q/. I really enjoyed that reading internship in kindergarten because we worked a lot with phonemic awareness, which we discussed quite a bit in language arts.
Jarett,
Deletereading to children is very important. As a parent and a future teacher I read about this all the time. There are organizations all over the state of Kansas and across the nation that work to promoting reading.
A few I love are Reach out and Read Kansas City and Reading is Fundamental. I'm sure that there are similar groups in your area!
Chapter 4 Blog
ReplyDeleteThe seven dimensions of phonemic awareness were interesting. I had not thought about breaking it down to these dimensions. It was interesting to see that some of the English phonemes are not found in six major languages. The text also indicates that studies have indicated that when a phoneme is not in a person's native language, it is difficult for the individual to hear AND produce that phoneme. This chapter contains many different ways that teachers can use to make learning phonemic awareness fun for students.
I am familiar with the German language, although not fluent. I can attest to the fact that some phonemes are difficult to hear and pronounce. German contains a "hard R". For me, it is easy to hear the sound, but more difficult to produce it. At many different times during the past 20 years as a mom, preschool teacher and cub scout leader, I have often used music as a way to help children learn a variety of things.
I really like the idea of using music to help students learn. I was observing my sons classroom a few weeks ago (he goes to a preschool that focuses on language acquisition and 1/3 of the students, my son included, have speech and language disabilities.) but they were all singing the apples and bananas/opples and ba-no-nos song and the kids loved it. I had never given too much thought to using music as part of a lesson but learned just by this simple observation how much kids can enjoy it. I'm curious what good music ideas you will bring to the table in our 5th grade discussion board!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere were many things that I liked about this chapter: the activities and the directions that accompanied them, the fact that so many grade levels were identified/present, and the fact that they stress making it fun. I found this refreshing because there are so many things to memorize but having the directions fun activities that accompanied the learning made it easier to both remember and want to participate in
ReplyDeleteI have not had much experience working with phonics with students but feel that it will be something I enjoy. There are so many ways to integrate both within and outside of reading lessons. One of the reasons why I have not had a chance to work with phonics much is because I have been consistently in classrooms with older students. As a result,I had never really thought of phonics as something for older students. I was surprised when I noticed that there was an activity for older students as well (rhyming words in poetry) and this made me realize yet again that I have a lot to learn. The good news is that i look forward to finding more ways make teaching fun and be better prepared to help my students.
Jessica, it's so refreshing knowing that you are open minded and realize how much you have to learn in order to help students learn as well. I find it great as well that they stress in this chapter making things fun. My dad has always told me that if I'm not having fun doing things I need to rethink doing them. This is in the sense of roping and showing horses. I think it's important for us as educators to show children that lessons don't necissarily have to be hard they can be fun as well and maybe they'll get more out of it.
DeleteI thought the activities were fantastic as well! I loved that they were detailed and listed what grades they would work in. I don't always think of text books as a great useable resource, but this text is fantastic for that! I also appreciated that it is all about having fun. Students are encouraged to play with words and sounds, and use props and movement. I was kind of shocked too that they talked about doing these things with older kids as well. I didn't have a chance to look at the technology resources yet, but I bet they will be extremely helpful too.
DeleteI loved this chapter! I thought that it gave me a ton of great information and a more solid understanding of phonemic awareness and why students need to have phonemic awareness instruction. Until reading this chapter, I was unaware of the controversy over how to teach phonemic awareness. I think it is important that students understand all the little parts of our language and find it hard to believe that they would be able to be really successful without that knowledge. However, I don’t feel knowledgeable or experienced enough to take a stand one way or another but I hope the tutoring sessions and working with students in the future will clear this topic up for me. I took some French in high school, but I haven’t had any foreign language since. I remember it being hard and how we had to make new and different sounds, but I didn’t quite realize that there were so many different phonemes and sounds between all languages. It is no wonder learning foreign languages is so difficult.
ReplyDeleteI truly loved the reminders on why nursery rhymes, poems, and songs are so important to our children and language. Sometimes I get bored with my daughter’s nursery rhyme and lullaby books because we are reading them constantly, but this served as a great reminder on why I bought them in the first place. I actually bought a few of them after Dr. Walizer spoke about how important they were in RLA methods! This chapter was also a great reminder on how to have fun with words, sounds, and our language and it had some great activities listed that I would love to try out this semester. I was excited that they talked about tongue twisters and Dr. Seuss. I am actually reading Oh Say Can You Say! By Dr. Seuss on Tuesday to my students and can’t wait to practice all the tongue twisters and have them create their own. In that aspect, this chapter gave me some reassurance that I was on the right track for my tutoring sessions.
Phonemic awareness is "a child's understanding and conscious awareness that speech is composed of identifiable units, such as spoken words, syllables, and sounds." I think this chapter did a great job explaining all the dimensions of phonemic awareness and how it differs from phonics. I love teaching and being around the younger students as well as english language learners and this chapter gave me insight on several tools that will allow me to incorporate activities into the classroom for each level. I also enjoyed the section of the chapter where it identified what teachers should know about phonemic awareness. Another strong section of the chapter the I LOVED was how to assess phonemic awareness and then all the songs and nursery rhymes and poems. It's important to familiarize children to things they may have heard previous to entering school and they nursery rhymes are a wonderful example of that.
ReplyDeletePhonemic awareness is a hot topic in our district. Much of the instruction that is taking place in our RtI sessions for the lower grades is going back to phonemic awareness. I found it interesting that there are seven dimensions of phonemic awareness. The chapter began by differentiating between phonics and phonemic awareness. It is important to note that they are two different categories. I am in SW Kansas where many of our students are ELL. The chapter pointed out that phonemes differ from one language to another. This makes it very difficult for our students to be able to read and write what we are instructing. The discussion on pg. 81 is what our district is dealing with. Our students who are good readers in first and second grade are struggling by the time they get to fourth and fifth grade because phonemic awareness was not taught hard in the lower grades. Through my experience while substitute teaching and reinforcing the facts with this text, I see the importance of phonemic awareness in the lower grades.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your posts and replies! Some great discussions and information sharing is going on :)
ReplyDeleteChrista