Phonemenal Teaching

(Pause for Groans)

From Theory

To Playful Practice

From Research to Classroom: Small Groups

…(T)his finding is bolstered by the results of a meta-analysis of small-group instruction for students without disabilities, which yielded significantly high effect sizes for small-group instruction (Lou et al., 1996). The findings from this meta-analysis reveal that students in small groups in the classroom learned significantly more than students who were not instructed in small groups.

Therefore…

We use structures like playful inquiry and writing workshop to maximize our opportunities to have in small groups

A Quick Vocabulary Primer

• Phonological awareness: The sounds of spoken language (AUDITORY)
• Think “What rhymes with cat?”
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• Phonemic Awareness: Subcategory of phonological awareness. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound we hear, usually represented by one letter (excluding digraphs) (AUDITORY)
• Think “what’s the first sound in cat?”
• “Can be done with your eyes closed”
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• Phonics: Relationship between letters and sounds (AUDITORY and VISUAL)
• Think, “What LETTER starts the word cat?”

Why do readers NEED phonemic awareness?

Blending:

When I come to an unknown word, I need to be able say each part and blend them together.

/c/-/a/-/t/

MAPPING:

To remember a word, I need to anchor each sound in my memory with segmentation

What is orthographic mapping?

First: proficient readers have many many many words they know on sight

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BUT!

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The words are not stored in our visual memory!

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I know, I know… what?

Here is some more on that...

“The areas of our brains that interpret speech are active even during silent reading.” David Kilpatrick Equipped for Reading Success

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We do NOT store words visually but by SOUND

HOW?!?!? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?

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The general process- as understood by a normal person

Let’s start with oral language (Kilpatrick pg 32)

• We hear a sequence of sounds
• We begin to recognize that specific sequences represent things and we store it in our oral memory
• We also start to recognize parts (for example /s/)
• When we hear the sequence of sounds again it dings out oral language memory

This is your oral filing system at work

THIS IS ALSO WHY ORAL LANGUAGE IS SO IMPORTANT

Your brain uses this existing oral filing system for reading words.

No duh, but also still important

“Letter sequences in words are meaningful because the letter order is designed to match the order of sounds in spoken words”

Kilpatrick 34

Know the progression so you can differentiate

SYLLABLE LEVEL: syllable segmentation, rhyming alliteration

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ONSET-RIME LEVEL: Break apart syllables into 2 parts: onset (sounds before the vowel)/rime (syllable part with vowel and any consonants after)

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PHONEME LEVEL: (see assessment for details)

BASIC

ADVANCED

Developmental Flow aka, not the next thing, this thing better:

5 things to do according to David Kilpatrick with some additional thoughts added in

1. Name concepts clearly when *discovered*
1. “Gosh! Did you hear how those words sounds the same at the end?? That is called rhyming!
2. Practice (in silly, joyful, low-fi ways)
• Word play games, poems, songs, books
3. Notice it “in the wild”
4. Connect it to reading and writing
5. Quick, frequent encounters- not 30 minutes of chanting

SAMPLE

1. Outdoor Play

• Magnetic Letters in the garden
• Chalk
• Paint with water on cement
• Hula hoops and jump through them and make the sounds
• Bring outside in
• Draw letters/words in mud with a stick
• Movement outside- Dinosaurs Go Marching, dinosaur footprints in chalk walk with syllables
• Toss a ball back and forth- one person says the first chunk of a word the other half
• Jump on hopscotch for different word segments
• Make grass or sticks in the shape of words,letters...

2. Materials and Explorations

• Syllable/sound rocks and objects
• Playdoh- build a ball for each phoneme, squish them as you say them
• “Pop it” fidgets- pop one for each sound you hear
• Use sticky notes to record words during invitations so that students can then use them in their writing following that play
• Creating charts with students ****makes charts meaningful
• Build words with duplos with expo marker
• Paint daubers

3. Songs to Sing

• I know a name that rhymes with…
• Lucy Calkins word detectives
• GLAD Strategies - write your own using a tune you know
• Use abc song and sing the students’ names, blends, sight words, etc A a a Angie, C, c, c Carlos, …
• Phonics they Use by Patricia Cunningham - an oldie but goodie
• Sing instructions
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4. Books to Read

• Take Away the A
• Clara Caterpillar, https://youtu.be/smE11VNm3HA
• Sheep in Jeep
• I Can’t Said The Ant, https://youtu.be/YvbzC-DbZt4
• See You Later, Alligator
• Silly Sally
• Giraffes Can’t Dance
• Froodle, Antoinette Portis
• American Library Association book awards related to Sing, Talk, Play, Read, ...

5. Games to Play

• Bingo
• I have who has
• Scavenger Hunt
• Concentration
• White board - what sound is missing
• Break apart Haggerty and do each concept as a game
• Odd one out

Consider the Whole of the Day

How am I building opportunities for lots and lots of authentic talk?

How are we noticing and appreciating language in the moment?

When are we singing and rhyming and playing with words?

How are we weaving moments of PA in the “forgotten” moments?

How am I taking my knowledge of skill progression and being intentional in my playful practice?