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Syntax and Semantics in Structured Literacy Part 1

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Syntax and Semantics in Structured Literacy Part 1

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Introduction to Science of Reading Slides

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Introduction to Science of Reading Slides

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Morphology Syllabication and Vocabulary Part 1

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Morphology Syllabication and Vocabulary Part 1

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Oregon Virtual Reading Instruction Symposium Reacordings

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Oregon Virtual Reading Instruction Symposium Reacordings

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2022 Virtual Reading Symposium Recordings

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Discovering the Science of Reading: A Reporter's Story

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I've chosen 10 things to recommend. I've read hundreds of books and articles since I started getting interested in this topic five years ago, so it was hard to narrow it down. This is by no means a comprehensive list. But it's a start. Here goes:

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Want to know more about the science of reading?

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Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford, host and lead producer of our podcast Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.

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Literacy How Professional Learning Series: Syntax by Dr. Margie Gillis

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Literacy How Professional Learning Series: Syntax by Dr. Margie Gillis

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Why Bring the Science of Reading & Structured Literacy into the Classroom: A Talk w/ Margie Gillis

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What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and be able to DO Article by Louisa Moats

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What teachers Should Know about the Science of Reading

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What teachers Should Know about the Science of Reading

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Ed Week Interview with Emily Hanford

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What Teachers Should Know About the Science of Reading

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Orthographic Mapping: What it is and Why It's so Important

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Orthographic Mapping: What it is and Why It's so Important

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Orthographic Mapping: What it Is and Why It's So Important

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Into to Phonological Awareness, READ Intervention Video

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Into to Phonological Awareness, READ Intervention Video

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READ Intervention & Sound Start Literacy

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Module 1 Video 1 Introduction to Phonological Awareness Video

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Phoneme Articulation, from Literacy HOW (3min)

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Phoneme Articulation, from Literacy HOW (3min)

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Stages of Phonological Awareness by READ Intervention (17 min)

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Stages of Phonological Awareness by READ Intervention (17 min)

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Phonemes, Graphemes, and Morphemes. By Jennifer Hassler (10min)

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Phonemes, Graphemes, and Morphemes. By Jennifer Hassler (10min)

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Helpful Hints: THE RED WORD SCREEN - Orton Gillingham Multisensory Tools - Teaching Red Words

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Teaching Multisylabic Words by Holly Lane at UFLI (22 min)

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Teaching Multisylabic Words by Holly Lane at UFLI (22 min)

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Rooting in English: Morphology as a Tool for Developing Literacy- Ben Powers- Haskins Global Literacy Hub (51 min)

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Rooting in English: Morphology as a Tool for Developing Literacy- Ben Powers- Haskins Global Literacy Hub (51 min)

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Assessment with Struggling Readers by Stephanie Sollar (12 min)

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Assessment with Struggling Readers by Stephanie Sollar (12 min)

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Support Struggling Readers with Assessment

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National Center for Intensive Intervention, Reading Course: Diagnostic Assessment (13 min)

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National Center for Intensive Intervention, Reading Course: Diagnostic Assessment (13 min)

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National Center on Intensive Intervention

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A Syntax Focused Kindergarten Lesson by Literacy How (6 min)

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A Syntax Focused Kindergarten Lesson by Literacy How (6 min)

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Structured Literacy and Typical Literacy Practices

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Structured Literacy and Typical Literacy Practices

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Understanding Differences to Create Instructional Opportunities by Louise Spear-Swerling

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention: Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers- Understood.org (37 min)

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention: Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers- Understood.org (37 min)

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention | Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention: Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers- Understood.org (37 min)

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention: Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers- Understood.org (37 min)

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Inside a Dyslexia Intervention | Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Please Make a copy for your Use

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CORE Phonological Segmentation Test FORM

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CORE Phonological Segmentation Test FORM

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Please make a copy for your use.

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Please make a copy for your use.

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CORE Graded High-Frequency Word Survey.pdf

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Literacy Instruction for Multilanual Learners

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Literacy Instruction for Multilanual Learners

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Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan - Literacy Instruction for Multilingual Learners

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What is the “Simple View of Reading?” What it Means for Meaning-Making

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How the Brain Learns to Read - Prof. Stanislas Dehaene

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Seeing the Good in Balanced Literacy... and Moving On

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Seeing the Good in Balanced Literacy... and Moving On

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Though Balanced Literacy was wrong about some important things, it has practices worth saving. And understanding the good in that approach to teaching literacy can help us transition to more effective instruction.

Seeing the Good

Balanced Literacy taught us the...

Importance of a print-rich classroom

Love of reading aloud to children

Value of students seeing us write

Pride in having an extensive classroom library

Power of a mini-lesson

Utility of great anchor charts

Procedures to teach students how to behave as readers and writers

Events that bring joy and accountability (author's chair, publishing parties, partner shares, etc.)

Ways to set up centers so that we can teach in small groups

Methods for introducing and organizing reading and writing materials

Routines to reinforce skills (Morning Message, Shared Reading, Interactive Writing, etc.)

Impact of school leadership when it focuses on literacy

Benefits of participating in a warm and responsive professional learning community

And so many other lessons worth remembering

And as we strategically abandon problematic practice (such as the MSV analysis of reading records), we'll want to thoughtfully retain some components (like listening to children read aloud).

Moving towards evidence-based instruction does not mean leaving behind the things that work; it means learning more about which practices work for whom, and why. It means intentionally excising the parts that stymie student growth ( like leveled books) even if we've used them for years. And it means learning new methods to shrink the achievement gap so we ensure that all students become skilled readers and writers.

Hesitating

I once worried that transitioning away from Balanced Literacy would fundamentally change me as a teacher. I couldn't envision how I'd deliver direct instruction while maintaining a warm tone and inviting classroom environment.

A shift in pedagogy was scary. I'd spent a decade of my career refining a constructivist approach to teaching; would my classroom lose its vibrancy?

Would it begin to look like this:

Moving On

I worried that changing my role would impact the relationships I formed with students. I was afraid that by teaching more content explicitly, I'd stifle their love of learning. That didn't happen. In fact, a student summed things up beautifully during our weekly appreciations:

"I want to congratulate [my teachers] for teaching me all the things to know because it will make me smart and do good in life." -2nd grader

I asked, "Do you think teachers teach you everything there is to know?"

And he replied, "No. But you teach the stuff that's important and how to ask questions so that we could learn the other stuff."

As the class nodded in agreement, I realized I had been wrong to fear dictating the texts they read, deciding how they practiced their skills, or selecting the topics we studied. My students (and their families) wanted me to ensure they were well-prepared for future learning, and they needed me to teach. In Balanced Literacy, I had often allowed children to determine the rigor of their education, and what a missed opportunity that had been!

Since I've shifted away from Balanced Literacy, many of its selling points (like student choice) have lost their allure because I can see how they exacerbate the achievement gap. Despite its promises and prevalence, Balanced Literacy is, according to reading experts:

"... unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America's public schoolchildren, given the research... Children who arrive at school already reading or primed to read, researchers agreed, may integrate seamlessly into the routines of the Units of Study model and maintain a successful reading trajectory. However, children who need additional practice opportunities in a specific area of reading or language development likely would not." Comparing Reading Research to Program Design: An Examination of Teachers College Units of Study

Looking Forward

Balanced Literacy has disseminated images of joyous classrooms and happy, nurturing educators for so long that it can be hard for teachers to visualize an appealing alternative. I might have made the shift away from Balanced Literacy sooner and with less trepidation, if I had been able to visualize how beautiful my classroom would become.

I wish I had known that instruction that's aligned with reading research...

Is NOT
dreadfully boring whole-class phonics lessons
It IS
highly-engaging, differentiated foundational skills instruction

Is NOT
students sitting in rows while reading from a basal
It IS
students cuddled up on beanbags enjoying a good book together because they have been to read

sucking the joy out of reading
Is NOT
Reader's Chair where students encourage each other to sound out words
It IS

teaching topics that students don't care about
Is NOT
using and learning language to discover more about the world around us
It IS

students completing workbook pages
Is NOT
students making anchor charts to share their learning about science and social studies
It IS

hours of boring instruction
Is NOT
kids learning about and making art because their reading instruction is efficient
It IS

teachers losing their love of teaching
Is NOT
teachers seeing evidence of their hard work in their students' growth
It IS

administrators with clipboards reprimanding teachers after stressful observations
Is NOT
leaders working hard to teach the curriculum they've adopted
It IS

unhappy families who say that their children don't want to come to school
Is NOT
schools where families learn that, despite a pandemic and interrupted schooling, their children are now on track for success in school
It IS

Shifting to explicit and systematic instruction increases achievement, and it frees up time. When students master skills during a more effective literacy block, we can shed supplemental materials like packets of phonics worksheets. Our students can truly make use of time for free reading because we've taught them how to read. And we can watch their love of literacy grow in parallel with their skills, rather than spending our time attempting to sell students on a love of reading.

Letting Go of the label "Balanced Literacy"

Instead of seeing Balanced Literacy as our primary method of teaching reading, we can view it as a collection of tools (some were effective, others weren't), which we've acquired over the years. We can intentionally retain some practices and acquire better replacements for others so that we reach the students who struggled with Balanced Literacy. But as we refine our craft, we don't need to worry that we'll lose our love of teaching or that our students won't enjoy learning.

Balanced Literacy does not have a monopoly on joy.

Balanced Literacy instructional change professional development

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Seeing the Good in Balanced Literacy... and Moving On

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Though Balanced Literacy was wrong about some important things, it has practices worth saving. And understanding the good in that approach to teaching literacy can help us transition to more effective instruction. Balanced Literacy taught us the...

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Teachers Won't Embrace Research Until it Embraces Them

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Teachers Won't Embrace Research Until it Embraces Them

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Teachers Won’t Embrace Research Until It Embraces Them

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I understand why advocates, researchers, and policymakers who feel the urgency of our literacy crisis are frustrated when teachers don’t embrace reading science. But my entry into the world of read…

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Orthographic Mapping By David Kirkpatrick

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Orthographic Mapping By David Kirkpatrick

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This is a piece of a larger course on Overcoming Reading Difficulties

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Word Level Reading: 4.4 Orthographic Mapping

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After viewing this module session participants will be able to:

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3P vs 3-cueing: Why recommend one and shun the other

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3P vs 3-cueing: Why recommend one and shun the other

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Shanahan on Literacy Blog Post

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Teacher question: Can you explain the difference between 3P (Pause, Prompt, Praise) and 3 cueing? I know you encourage one and discourage the other, but they seem to be the same thing to me. Help.
Shanahan's reply:
At Shanahan on Literacy, we strive for consistency. Let's see if we can get this straightened out.

First, let's make sure we understand what these two trios are about.

Pause, Prompt, Praise (3P or PPP or P3) is used to guide oral reading practice (Glynn, 2002). Research has shown that having students read challenging texts aloud with support and repetition improves reading achievement (NICHD, 2000). 3P tells the reading partner how to help.

When a reader errs, 3P encourages the listener to pause to give readers a chance to fix the problem themselves. Let the reader get to the end of the phrase or sentence before intervening.

Prompting comes next. The student has erred and done nothing about it. Guidance is needed. In 3P, there are a couple of possibilities. One, tell the reader to look more closely at the word, to sound it out, or to break it up into parts and sound it out. In other words, encourage more accurate decoding. This is great for when youngsters read pony for horse, or only sound the beginning letters.

But if the reader makes a good faith effort to sound out a word and failed, then a different feedback is needed. An example of this is when the reader reads ballet as "ball-et" (rhyming with ball-net). The reader has fully analyzed the orthography, taken account of all of the letters, and come up with a reasonable pronunciation (if you doubt that think of bullet). Telling the reader to sound it out or break it into syllables won't help much in this case.

Here a meaning-based prompt is needed: Does that make sense?

The third P refers to praise. If the child does something well, say so. Doing things well includes reading the text fluently, erring and trying to fix it, and using a prompt successfully.

Results from 3P are positive and research shows that teachers who tailor their cues to the students' reading tend to be most effective (Pflaum & Pascarella, 1980).

Now for 3-cueing systems. The idea here is that word identification is a kind of guessing game, with three different clues or cues.

The cues are orthographic-phonemic (the letters and sounds), semantic (the meaning), and syntax (the grammar of the sentences). The idea is to teach students how to use all of these cues in combination to read words - though often there tends to be a greater emphasis on meaning when teachers do this. Thus, if the student replaces horse with pony or automobile with car, proponents of 3-cueing systems may judge that to be close enough since meaning is the goal of reading (though this approach clearly makes a hash of nuanced meaning - horses and ponies aren't really the same thing).

In the 3-cueing scheme, students are often provided a set of steps or strategies to use when reading. For instance, "Look at the pictures" or "skip the word and reread" or "try a word that makes sense" or "look at the first letter and guess." In the ballet example above, one can imagine a teacher encouraging the child to look at the pictures and dance might be accepted.

There are successful instructional schemes that use 3-cueing systems (think Reading Recovery), though the value of that part of their approach has never been tested independently so we can't tell if it contributes anything to learning.

Studies have shown that students who recognize words by looking at the pictures or trying to use context to guess the word tend to be the poorest readers, however (Stanovich, West, & Freeman, 1981).

So your confusion is most likely arising from that meaning-oriented prompt in 3P. It sure sounds like the same guessing game - and, there is no question, that a teacher could implement it that way.

Guidance to sound pedagogy on this is based in the concept of a "mental set for variability or diversity" (Gibson & Levin, 1975). Mental set refers to our tendency to rely on solutions that have worked in the past. When a toddler knows doggy, don't be surprised if the next 4-legged animal he sees is called doggy even if it moos. People try generalizing from past success which can lead to rigidity and overgeneralization - trying to use a particular fixed solution even when it doesn't work.

When it comes to reading, if I know how to sound out words reasonably well, then my pronunciation of ballet may come out somewhat closer to "ball-it" then to "bal-lay."

English is a rich and complex language, in part because it borrows so many words from other languages. In this case, the "et" spelling that sounds like /ay/ is a French contribution that comes up a lot in English - ballet, beret, bouquet, chalet, ricochet, crochet, and the homographic buffet (thanks, William the Conqueror).

Given the complexities of the English language, psychologists have concluded that the best readers must develop a mental set for diversity rather than a mental set for consistency.

Good readers have greater flexibility when it comes to decoding words. The reader who learns to expect consistency will pronounce "ball-it" and have no other choice but to turn to meaning to straighten things out. In that kind of uncertain world, looking at the picture and guessing dance is probably as well as one can do.

Good readers on the other hand try out a pronunciation, and if that doesn't make sense, they try another one that is legal in the English language. They use meaning, or the failure to make meaning, as a signal that another pronunciation alternative should be considered.

In 3-cueing, the lack of meaning is not a signal to work through one's alternative orthographic-phonological choices. It is the guide that is supposed to help you determine what the word is.

In 3P, one could use the meaning guidance in that way, of course. But that's not what I would recommend. The lack of meaning (does that make sense?) should be supported by further guidance - not to context or pictures - but to pronunciation alternatives.

Such oral reading guidance should be supported by high quality, explicit, systematic decoding instruction.

A terrific phonics lesson would be to explore "et" spellings, comparing /et/ and /ay/words ... analyzing them, sorting them, talking about them, spelling them, and so on. That would reveal to young readers these two options for pronouncing words with that spelling pattern.

Another relevant lesson would be stress what to do when the pronunciation that you came up with seems wrong. What are the pronunciation alternatives? Have your tried them?

We want students to depend upon the orthographic-phonological system when reading words. We support that by teaching decoding and through guided oral reading practice. Meaning plays a crucial role in oral reading, but not the role 3-cueing accords it. The point is to develop readers with a mental set for variability ... learning that if one alternative pronunciation fails, you must try another (not that if one type of cue doesn't work, you should try another type of cue).

Good readers flexibly work through alternative pronunciations, relying on what they know about the letters, spelling patterns, and phonemes to guide each of their choices.

Poor readers may use some orthographic-phonemic information when they try a word, but if that fails, they seek ways to solve their problem without reading (like guessing from pictures - that's not reading, of course, but it might provide a right answer in a pinch, and the social situation of schooling too often rewards getting the right answer over learning).

Good readers use meaning to determine if they made the right choice - and if they didn't, there needs to be more analysis of the orthography/phonology. Poor readers use meaning to try to figure out the word, instead of using the orthography/phonology (Stanovich, West, & Freeman, 1981).

We need to teach students about the phonological-orthographic system and its relationship to morphology explicitly so they will have a rich knowledge base available when it comes to alternative pronunciations.

We need to build up statistical sensitivity to these spelling/pronunciation patterns through lots of reading experience (and not just with supposedly "decodable text" - all text is decodable), so students will have some notions about which pronunciation choices are most likely to work (Seidenberg, 2017).

We need to build up a flexibility through how we guide oral reading that encourages students to recognize when a different spelling-pronunciation pattern might be the better choice.

3P can be a good way to contribute to that progression of learning, as long as the meaning cue is used properly. 3-cueing, on the other hand, is just a bad idea that encourages readers to mimic poor reading rather than proficient reading.

References

Gibson, E.J., & Levin, H. (1975). The psychology of reading. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Glynn, T. (2002). Pause Prompt Praise: Reading tutoring procedures for home and school partnership. London: Routledge.

Pflaum, S., & Pascarella, E. (1980). Interactive Effects of Prior Reading Achievement and Training in Context on the Reading of Learning-Disabled Children. Reading Research Quarterly, 16, 138.

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the speed of sight. New York: Basic Books.

Stanovich, K. E., West, R. F., & Freeman, D. J. (1981). A longitudinal study of sentence context effects in second-grade children: Tests of an interactive-compensatory model. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 32, 185-199.

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3P versus 3-cueing: why recommend one and shun the other? | Reading Rockets

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Teacher question: Can you explain the difference between 3P (Pause, Prompt, Praise) and 3 cueing? I know you encourage one and discourage the other, but they seem to be the same thing to me. Help. Shanahan's reply: At Shanahan on Literacy, we strive for consistency. Let's see if we can get this straightened out.

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How Childre Lean to Read Words: Ehri's Phases

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How Childre Lean to Read Words: Ehri's Phases

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Maria Murray: Strategies for Teaching Irregular/Tricky Words

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Maria Murray: Strategies for Teaching Irregular/Tricky Words

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Maria S  Murray: Strategies for Teaching Irregular/Tricky Words

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Click on Parts of the A to access more information, resources, and activities.

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Table of Contents

Overview

Cognitive Elements of Reading

Reading Assessment Techniques

Research Evidence

Using the Framework

References

Acknowledgements

PDF version

Related Resources
Glossary of reading terms

Instructional Resources - Literary References

Instructional Resources - Instructional Activities

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Home - The Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read: A Framework

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Table of Contents Overview Cognitive Elements of Reading Reading Assessment Techniques Research Evidence Using the Framework References Acknowledgements PDF version Related Resources Glossary of reading terms Instructional Resources - Literary References Instructional Resources - Instructional Activities

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What are Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness?

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What are Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness?

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When we talk about foundations of literacy, three "PH" words often come to mind: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. We see these terms when we view grade level reading standards, reading research, and built into reading lessons found in many core reading series. Both phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are oral and auditory, and the focus is on the sounds in words. Phonics, on the other hand, focuses on the letters that the sounds represent. Phonics involves print, phonological, and phonemic awareness do not. While phonological and phonemic awareness are both oral and auditory, there are differences between these two terms.

What is Phonological Awareness?

"Phonological awareness is the understanding of different ways that oral language can be divided into smaller components and manipulated." (Chard and Dickson, 1999) Phonological awareness refers to the bigger "chunks" or "parts" of language. When we ask students to rhyme, blend small words to make a compound word, break words apart into syllables or onset-rime, we are working at the phonological awareness level. Phonological awareness can be thought of as a big umbrella with the bigger "chunks" of language being the top of the umbrella.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words are made of individual sounds called phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound we hear in a word. Phonemic awareness falls underneath the umbrella as a sub-category of phonological awareness. Rather than working with larger units of spoken language, we ask students to listen for the individual sounds or phonemes in a spoken word. When we ask students to blend or segment words into the smallest unit of sound they hear, we are working at the phonemic awareness level. For example, the four sounds /p//l//a//n/ can be blended to make the whole word plan.

How Does Phonemic Awareness Help Reading and Literacy Development?

In their book, "Know Better, Do Better", David and Meredith Liben state "It is not an option to skip or shortchange phonemic awareness! Children without mastery of it will inevitably struggle." While decades of research support this statement, phonemic awareness is still the most common reason students struggle with word reading. When educators consider phonemic awareness and phonics to be interchangeable terms, phonemic awareness is often left out of instruction and the focus shifts to print with phonics.

Failing to provide explicit phonemic awareness instruction leads to many students lacking the understanding that words are made up of individual sounds. Instead, they get the message that words are whole units that need to be visually memorized. While students learn language naturally by listening to speech and words, hearing individual sounds in words is not natural. We don't speak in individual sounds, instead, our speech is co-articulated and we hear whole words in oral language. If we begin our literacy instruction by teaching letters and sounds, without phonemic awareness instruction, phonics does not make sense to students.

Phonemic awareness and phonics do work together when students learn to read and spell. Words are made up of sounds (phonemic awareness) and letters represent these sounds in print (phonics). Without the ability to hear sounds in words, phonemic awareness and phonics cannot engage in this reciprocal relationship. Researcher Wiley Blevins explains, "Phonemic awareness training provides the foundation on which phonics instruction is built. Thus, children need solid phonemic awareness training for phonics instruction to be effective."

It is essential for students to understand that words are made up of individual sounds, and they can blend, segment, and manipulate those sounds. If students can do this work through the air, we can transfer these skills to print, so they can read and spell more words.

How Does Phonological Awareness Develop?

It is important to support and scaffold students through the continuum of phonological awareness to allow them to eventually hear and manipulate those individual sounds in words- the phonemic awareness level. The image of the ladder below shows the continuum of phonological awareness. When providing instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness, we begin at the phonological level. It is much easier to hear the bigger units of language versus the individual sounds in a word. For example, asking children to segment pencil into two-syllables, /pen/ /cil/, is an easier task when compared to segmenting the word pen into three individual sounds, /p/ /e/ /n/.

The largest unit of language is a word. Instruction in phonological awareness begins at the word level when children learn that compound words can be blended, segmented, and manipulated. For example, we can blend the small words class - room together to the compound word classroom. Or the opposite, we can segment compound words into two separate words. We can say the whole word and take it apart into two smaller words: raincoat, rain - coat. We can also substitute one small word in a compound word. Say sunshine, change shine to glasses and the word is sunglasses.

Once students can blend, segment, and manipulate compound words, we narrow the unit of language they hear and do the same work with syllables. For example, we blend the three syllables /cal - en - dar/, to say the whole word calendar. Students can segment a word into syllables: elbow can be segmented into /el/ - /bow/. We can substitute a syllable in a word to make a new word: reading; change /read/ to /talk/ and the word is talking.

We can narrow the unit of language again when we focus on the onset and rime. Onset-rime is breaking apart a syllable. The onset of a word is all the sounds that come before the vowel and the rime is the vowel and all the sounds after. Students blend the onset and rime into a whole word or segment a spoken word into the onset and rime.

For example, students can blend the onset /b/ and the rime /ig/ into the word /b-ig/, big. And if we were to segment the word flip, the onset would be /fl/ and the rime would be /ip/. Onset-rime is the last level of phonological awareness and teaches students to blend and segment two parts into a word. Developing a foundation of understanding in phonological awareness prepares students to hear individual sounds and develop phoneme awareness. The chart below shares examples of tasks and activities at the phonological awareness level

Phonological Awareness Activities

How Does Phonemic Awareness Develop?

When looking at the image of the ladder, the first three rungs on the ladder are phonological awareness and the top rung on the ladder is phonemic awareness. The focus is on hearing individual sounds in spoken words. While instruction begins with phonological awareness, our end goal is phonemic awareness. Students who are phonemically aware are not only able to hear the sounds in words, they are able to isolate the sounds, blend, segment and manipulate sounds in spoken words.

For example, segmenting the word pen into the sounds /p/ /e/ /n/ is an example of a phonemic awareness task. If students can segment the word, they can then spell the word. If they can blend those sounds, they can read the word. Additionally, if students can substitute the /p/ to a /h/, they can make a new word - hen. Phonemic awareness training provides students with the skills necessary to read and spell words when they see these sounds in print.

There are several skills included in phonemic awareness instruction and the chart below shares examples of skills and tasks at the phonemic awareness level.

Phonemic Awareness Activities

Phoneme Isolation

Phoneme isolation is a skill where students hear and isolate a sound at the beginning of a word, middle of a word, and end of a word, often referred to as initial, medial, and final sounds.

The first sound in the word name is /n/.

The final sound in the word bark is /k/.
The medial or vowel sound in the word cup is /u/.

Blending (parts to whole)

Blending is a skill that directly correlates to phonic decoding. Students hear sounds spoken aloud and they blend the sounds to make a word. During instruction, the teacher provides the phonemes and the students blend the phonemes into a whole word.

/s/ /u/ /n/, sun

/b/ /r/ /ā/ /k/, break
/p/ /r/ /i/ /s/, price

Segment (whole to parts)

Segmenting is a skill that directly correlates to encoding or spelling. Students hear a whole word and they segment the word into all the individual sounds they hear. During instruction, a teacher would say a whole word and students segment the word into individual phonemes.

Phoneme Manipulation:

Add

Delete
Substitute
Phoneme manipulation is practiced with adding a phoneme, deleting a phoneme, or substituting a phoneme in spoken words.

Adding an initial sound to make a word: Add /s/ to /-at/ and the word is sat

Deleting an initial sound from a word: Say cup. Without /k/, what's left is, /-up/.

Substituting an initial sound: The word is top. Change /t/ to /m/and the word is, mop.

How Do You Teach Phonological and Phonemic Awareness?

Considering the research and the role phonemic awareness plays in building the foundation of reading, it is clear we owe it to our students to do better. All students benefit from explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness. In most literacy curricula, the amount of time dedicated to phonemic awareness, and the way it is presented, is not effective enough to create phonemically proficient readers. Often just a few minutes are devoted to this instruction, with varying skills taught each day. If we are going to do better for students, our instruction in phonemic awareness needs to be intentional.

For our younger learners, we should begin instruction at the phonological awareness level (compound words, syllables, onset-rime) to allow students the opportunity to blend, segment, and manipulate parts of words first before we have them do that same work with phonemes. With older learners, or struggling readers, our goal is to get to the phoneme level as quickly as possible so they can transfer these skills to reading and spelling.

Phonological and phonemic awareness skills can be divided into 3 levels: early, basic, and advanced. In the past, many educators thought the basic skills of blending and segmenting were enough to create proficient readers as these skills directly corelate to decoding and encoding. However, we now know that providing phonemic awareness instruction to the advanced level is critical.

Phonemic awareness instruction is powerful, but it does not need to take long. Dr. Heggerty created quick, 10-12 minutes lessons to provide students with the practice and repetition they needed to reach phoneme proficiency. Our lessons include all 8 phonological and phonemic awareness skills beginning with compound words and working our way to the phoneme level. Teaching these skills each day will allow our children the repetition and practice they need to hear, blend, segment and manipulate sounds in words.

How Do You Assess Phonological and Phonemic Awareness?

We can assess students' phonemic awareness in many ways. Universal screeners, such as DIBELS or Acadience, assess some skills and can be an indicator that we need to "dig deeper" or learn more about certain students. Other assessments include the PAST or our Heggerty Phonemic Awareness assessments which provide more information by assessing more skills.

Because phonemic awareness is oral and auditory, assessments are completed one-on-one and can be time consuming to administer. A quick and effective way to check in on students' phonemic awareness is listening to their responses during instruction. You can rotate rows when students are sitting on the carpet and have a focus group each week. Once students know most of their letters and sounds, looking at their writing will show you what sounds they are hearing in words as they map those sounds to print. Similarly, listening to students sound out or decode words is a way to assess their ability to blend sounds into words

The Foundation for Literacy Development

In her blog post Of 'Hard Words' and Straw Men: Let's Understand What Reading Science is Really About Louisa Moats notes that, "Perhaps the most critical and least-practiced component of effective early instruction is phoneme awareness. Awareness of the sounds that make up spoken words, facility at manipulating those sounds, and the links between speech and print must be mastered for students to be fluent readers and accurate spellers of an alphabetic writing system like ours."

Both phonological and phonemic awareness focus on the sounds in language. We begin our instruction at the phonological level and narrow the unit of language until we can work at the phoneme level. focuses on teaching students to hear the specific sounds in words and is essential for literacy instruction.

It is important for students to be explicitly taught how to hear sounds in words to help them blend, segment, and manipulate those sounds. When a student has phoneme proficiency, they are able to transfer the oral and auditory skills to print to be able to read and spell words. Phonemic awareness is the necessary foundation for creating proficient readers and writers.

References:

Liben, David & Liben, MeredithKnow Better, Do Better. LIteracy Solutions, 2019.

Blevins, Wiley. Phonics from A to Z. 2017

Moats, Louisa. Of 'Hard Words' and Straw Men: Let's Understand What Reading Science is Really About, Oct 16, 2019

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What are Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness?

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When we talk about foundations of literacy, three "PH" words often come to mind: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. We see these terms when...

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Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills

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Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills

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OVerview of Phonemic Awareness and General Teaching Principles

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OVerview of Phonemic Awareness and General Teaching Principles

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Although the video is focused on prevention of reading difficulties, the principles of learning at the the same for older struggling readers

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Elements of Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer

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Elements of Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer

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Word List for Phonological Awareness Instruction

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Word List for Phonological Awareness Instruction

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The Reading League has compiled a list of options, not recommendations, of frequently requested decodable texts.

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Use the Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines to evaluate how well a curriculum aligns with the findings from the science of reading.

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CKLA sample lesson- Kindergarten Reading Skills Unit 3 Lesson 9

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Letter I sound: CKLA Kindergarten Reading Skills Unit 3 Lesson 9

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First Grade Lesson 1 Ms. Cuomo

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What do I do with all of these Predictable Texts?

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What do I do with all of these Predictable Texts?

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Many teachers have already reorganized our leveled libraries because we learned that, according to Fountas and Pinnell, "levels have no place in classroom libraries." Sorting books into bins labeled by theme or topic is time-consuming, but it's not a difficult task. We immediately see that offering students more choice in their reading materials and teaching them to monitor their own reading for accuracy and comprehension is rewarding. However, books at the lower levels, "predictable books," pose a challenge that is not so easily solved.

Problems with Predictable Books

Predictable books are designed to teach children not to depend on decoding to tackle unfamiliar words-they are purpose-written to teach children to predict, or guess words-so what children do with low-level books is not actually reading. Some students climb up the levels by transitioning away from picture-cues and predictable sentences, but others hold tightly to the guessing strategies that are reinforced by predictable books, and time with these books slows their decoding progress. For beginning readers, decodable books provide a more reliable path to authentic texts, and using them for phonics instruction and fluency practice offers a "helps all, harms none" approach to teaching reading. But what, then, should we do with all our predictable books?!

Rethinking the Instructional Purpose

To repurpose predictable books for activities other than reading, we need to look at them with fresh eyes and new criteria. More important than the level stamped on the back cover is the contents inside.

We can ask ourselves, What are the features of this individual book that make it a useful teaching tool? A single book may have more than one useful feature and it might be repurposed for any number of language development, writing, or art activities.

We've listed out some of the features you might look for in predictable books and have drafted example activities to help with lesson planning. (You'll find descriptions and links to the example activities below this table.)

Predictable Book Types

Types

Activities

Examples

Single sentence per page with a single story word
1. (RE)WRITE THE BOOK
Composing Simple Sentences

Cumulative illustrations
8. TALK AND TURN THE PAGE
Language Development for Beginning English-learners

We've drafted ten lesson examples-one for each of the ten book types-to show how predictable books can be repurposed for instruction designed to build students' oral language, writing skills, and creative abilities. The exemplar texts all come from the Green Kit of Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI), but any predictable texts with the similar features would work well. Repeating these lessons with multiple books can deepen students' learning and, if you pull away the scaffolds, many of these activities can become literacy centers.
Click on the activity title to see the lesson example.
Composing Simple Sentences

This activity gives students a purpose for composing grammatical sentences that apply the phonics and high-frequency words they have been taught. Books that have a single sentence per page and that include a "story word" to go with the picture (typical in books Levels A and B) work best for this activity.

Narrative Writing

In some predictable books, the pictures are the most interesting part. A book like, Oh No! (Level A) tells nearly the whole story through the illustrations. Discussing the pictures and creating a story requires students to draw inferences, share observations, and tell/write a story in sequential order.

Writing Speech or Thought Bubbles

The illustrations in predictable texts often communicate the personalities, feelings, and interactions of characters and, to the extent the text tells a story, mirror the story's narrative structure. The pictures provide a built-in scaffold for students as they think about and discuss what characters might be saying (or thinking).

Grammar Instruction

The repetitive sentence structure in predictable books can be used to teach students the parts of speech and how to use those parts to compose increasingly complex sentences (orally and/or in writing). Strategies from Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) benefit language learners of all levels.

Sentence Combining

For this activity, students use paired sentences from a predictable text to generate more complex sentences. Depending on students' language and writing ability, you might choose to do more or less sophisticated sentence combining. The difficulty of the activity can also be varied by determining how much of the writing is completed by the teacher or the students

Writing Conventions

At Level C and above, predictable books tend to have punctuation, like quotation marks and commas, as well as text features, such as bolded words and dialog tags. A big book can provide multiple opportunities to show students the written conventions you would like to see in their writing.

Spelling High-frequency Words

This activity is best suited to irregularly spelled high-frequency words, such as do and one. Students get repeated practice identifying, saying, writing, and correctly spelling high-frequency words in the context of complete, grammatical sentences. Focus this activity on words recently taught during reading instruction so students receive extra practice and learn to spell the words correctly for their own writing.

Language Development for Beginning English-learners

In this activity, students have multiple opportunities to point to images and say what they are. Using sentence frames provides students with repeated practice producing complete, grammatical sentences with the vocabulary they are learning.

Vocabulary Picture Cards

This activity previews or reviews vocabulary related to a topic. As you select words for vocabulary cards, target words that are grade-level appropriate and that will be high-utility in and outside of the classroom.

Labeled Collage

Because so many predictable books are on the same topics (gardens, farms, playing, etc.) it's easy to make book sets. A few books on the same topic, preferably each with a different type of illustration, make great raw material for a collage.

Separator

Onward and Upward!

Predictable books are not the best tool for teaching students how to read, but they can be put to good use in class discussions, ELD or writing lessons, literacy centers, and art. The activities we've shared are just a starting place and we'd love to hear what other ideas you have for using predictable books.

Balanced Literacy instructional change leveled books

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What Do I Do with All These Predictable Books?

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Many teachers have already reorganized our leveled libraries because we learned that, according to Fountas and Pinnell, "levels have no place in classroom libraries." Sorting books into bins labele...

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Step 4 of an Explicit Phonics Lesson- Decodable Text for practice

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Step 4 of an Explicit Phonics Lesson- Decodable Text for practice

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Step 4 of an Explicit Phonics Lesson | Decodable Text | Science of Reading

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Planning for Instruction

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All students should have access to the instruction, materials, and practice opportunities necessary for them to flourish as readers. For most students, coherent, structured reading foundational skills instruction is critical to unlock the code of written language. Below are planning resources to support the components of reading foundational skills instruction.

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Welcome to the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI, pronounced "you fly"). UFLI is an ongoing effort by UF faculty, students, and staff to improve literacy outcomes for children learning to read.

The work of UFLI focuses on two main areas: teacher development and reader development. The place where those two overlap ... that is where the work of UFLI lives. Our programs and resources are designed to help teachers become more confident and more successful in their capacity to help kids learn to read. We do this through:

Academic programs for both pre-service and practicing educators to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective reading teachers

Professional learning opportunities to help classroom reading teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders expand their knowledge, enhance their teaching practices, and build capacity in their schools

Resources for teachers, parents, and teacher educators to use in their reading instruction

Much, much more!

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UF Literacy Institute | Where teacher development and reader development overlap

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Welcome to the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI, pronounced "you fly"). UFLI is an ongoing effort by UF faculty, students, and staff to improve literacy outcomes for children learning to read. The work of UFLI focuses on two main areas: teacher development and reader development. The place where those two overlap ...

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Decodable Words in Isolation and in Text

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Decodable Words in Isolation and in Text

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Video 29: Decodable Words in Isolation and in Text

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Orton-Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Many reading programs include Orton-Gillingham ideas, including a "multisensory" approach, which is considered highly effective for teaching students with dyslexia.

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Orton-Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Many reading programs include Orton-Gillingham ideas, including a "multisensory" approach, which is considered highly effective for teaching students with dyslexia.

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A really useful activity with beginner readers are word chains. Practice the skills that underpin reading: blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation.

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Orton-Gillingham Kindergarten 5: Blending Drill

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More Challenging Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences by grade level

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More Challenging Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences by grade level

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Writing SOS: Is there value to having my child learn prefixes and suffixes

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Writing SOS: Is there value to having my child learn prefixes and suffixes

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Writing SOS: Is there value to having my child learn prefixes and suffixes?

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Structured WOrd Inquiry Classroom - Grade 2

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Structured WOrd Inquiry Classroom - Grade 2

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A Grade 2 Structured Word Inquiry Classroom

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Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek Words Answers

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Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek Words Answers

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual “Equipped for Reading Success” by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with […]

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CORE Assessing Reading Multiple Measures

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CORE Assessing Reading Multiple Measures

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Download forms and directions here

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Data Entry Forms: Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures, Revised 2nd Edition - Teacher Professional Learning | Literacy, Math | MTSS

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Curriculum Implementation Literacy Coaching & Site Implementation Support Early Literacy Planning & Implementation Collaboration Publisher Approved Professional Learning Online Elementary Reading Academy Adolescent Literacy Solutions Curriculum Implementation Rise in Math Math Coaching Online Math Academy Onsite Math Academy Teaching Reading Sourcebook 3rd Edition Curriculum Implementation Literacy Coaching & Site Implementation Support Early Literacy Planning & Implementation Collaboration Publisher Approved Professional Learning Online Elementary Reading Academy Adolescent Literacy Solutions Curriculum Implementation Rise in Math Math Coaching Online Math Academy Onsite Math Academy Teaching Reading Sourcebook 3rd Edition

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Dr. Hugh Catts: Preventing Reading Difficulties through Early Intervention