*READ TO THE END FOR THIS WEEK'S LITERACY TIP OF THE WEEK!* Hey First name / There! Last week we started a new email series all about the best way to prepare our preschoolers for reading success…by PLAYing! The acronym PLAY stands for: |
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P: Phonological & Phonemic Awareness L: (Oral) Language A: Alphabetic Principle & Print Knowledge Y: Yet…the Magic Word! |
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The first three letters (P L A) represent the foundational areas that teachers should focus on according to the 2008 National Early Literacy Panel (NELP): - Phonological Processing
- Oral Language
- Print Knowledge
The last letter (Y) is the magic that holds it all together…teaching our kids about the power of YET will impact them in all areas of learning! *PLAYing for reading success is research-based and aligns with the Science of Reading. Let’s dive into this week’s topic, which just happens to be my favorite: PHONOLOGICAL & PHONEMIC AWARENESS |
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In order to understand this area of literacy development, we first need to know a few definitions: - Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound in a language
- /k/ is one phoneme; /k/ /a/ /t/ = 3 phonemes that make up the word “cat”
- /sh/ is one phoneme; /sh/ /i/ /p/ = 3 phonemes that make up the word “ship”
- Grapheme: the written symbol that represents a phoneme
- The phonemes /k/ /a/ /t/ are represented by the letters “cat”
- The phonemes /sh/ /i/ /p/ are represented by the letters “ship”
- Phonological Awareness: the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound properties of spoken words, including syllables, rhymes, alliteration, compound words, and phonemic awareness
- Syllables
- Rhymes
- Cat & Mat (both end with -at)
- Alliteration
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (Lots of words start with the same sound)
- Compound Words
- Phonemic Awareness: the ability to recognize and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words (this is a subset of phonological awareness)
- Blend Phonemes
- Segment & Count Phonemes
- "chat" = /ch/ /a/ /t/ = 3 phonemes
- Phoneme Isolation
- What's the beginning sound in the word "tag?" = /t/
- Phoneme Addition
- Say "peck." Now say "peck" but add /s/ at the beginning = "speck"
- Phoneme Deletion
- Say "mat" without /m/ = "at"
- Phoneme Substitution
- Say "mash." Now change the /m/ to /r/ = "rash"
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Phonological awareness is known as an “umbrella term” because it encompasses many different skills, including phonemic awareness: |
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Studies show that about 60% of students naturally develop phonological awareness, which is awesome! But that means 40% (almost half!) of our little ones will need explicit instruction in this area in order to become effective readers and writers. Research also shows that phonological awareness is the skill that is most closely related to future reading success. So if you want your students to be strong readers & feel prepared for kindergarten, you want to build strong phonological awareness skills NOW! Another important thing to note about phonological awareness is that it ONLY involves sound, not written letters (graphemes), so you can work on these skills even if your students can't recognize printed letters. |
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According to David Kilpatrick in his book Equipped for Reading Success, there is a continuum of phonological awareness skill development. These skills include: - Word awareness
- Syllables
- Onset-rime
- Phonemes*
- Phoneme Manipulation*
- *These two are part of phonemic awareness.
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The more we play with language, the more we help out little ones develop these oh-so important skills! |
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So after reading that, you might be thinking, “This sounds great. But when am I going to fit this in on top of everything else I have to do?” I know your day is already SO busy and this feels like one more item to add to your lesson plan. BUT phonological awareness games are SO easy to fit into your day and can take 5-10 minutes. That’s it! These types of games don’t have to take a long time…in fact, it’s better if you do short practices frequently & consistently. |
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So far the feedback on these games has been very positive! “I absolutely love the phonological awareness games!!! It only takes a few minutes a day and the best part it's preparing our little ones for reading success.” “Great set of activities and I love the different levels for differentiation!” If you want to help create strong readers later on, you’ll want to focus on phonological awareness NOW! |
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This week's tip is short and sweet: English words do not end in I, U, V, or J. This tip is helpful if you're working with the high-frequency word “have.” You can tell your students that no English words end in “v,” so we add a silent e to the word “have” to get around that rule. This is also why words that end with the /j/ sound are spelled “dge": OR they're spelled with a g and a silent e: But they're not spelled with a “j” at the end of the word. Interesting, right?! |
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See you next week for our next letter in the PLAY for Reading Success method: In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week! |
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P.S. Looking for all of our freebies?! Here's the info you need: Password: Lovetoread123 P.P.S. Do you teach about Presidents' Day in your classroom? If so, check out my Amazing America pack for lots of patriotic fun! |
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