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Phonological awareness is described as recognizing and manipulating sounds in reading and writing. For example, if students need to know the word 'mine,' they need to know how to determine if the word rhymes (i.e., 'mine' rhymes with 'time'). Plus, students need to know how to sound out the word 'mine' into syllables. In addition, students need to know how to manipulate a sound. For instance, the students would understand that mine starts with the letter m.

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Students in this grade understand phonological awareness through identifying syllables, clapping syllables, and understanding sounds in words. In addition, print awareness is demonstrated through knowing how to hold a book and being able to track each word of a text or book from left to right. Plus, in phonemic awareness, students need to be able to blend simple sounds, such as "mat," into sounds like m/a/t. In letter-naming knowledge, students need to name all of the upper- and lowercase words while connecting these letters to sounds.

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According to Reading Rockets (2025), they state, "Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words" (Para. 1). This explains how students need to understand these sounds and write or read these sounds as words. For example, allowing students to separate these sounds , such as c/a/t to make the word cat. In addition, students can either add or subtract a sound to make a word. For example, the student needs to recognize that there is the letter d in dog.

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In first grade, students need to demonstrate milestones with phonological awareness by blending and segmenting words through rhythm. For phonemic awareness, they need to demonstrate this milestone by adding or creating substitute sounds that can be used to make new words. In addition to demonstrating milestones in print awareness, students need to understand these print concepts and use them in reading. In letter-naming knowlege, students with show this milestone by recognizing the names of all the letters and using letters to sounds as a connection for decoding the words.

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For second graders, students will demonstrate mastery in milestones for phonological awareness by using sound patterns to help with spelling and decoding words. In print awareness, students with show a mastery in this milestone through reading fluently and using these print conventions automatically. For phonemic awareness, students will demonstrate mastery in this milestone by using phonemic skills to decode multisyllable words. When it comes to letter naming knowledge, students will master this milestone by having this skill fully mastered and doing this skill automatically in areas like reading and writing.

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For the third grade, students will demonstrate milestone skills like phonological awareness by doing this skill automatically and shifting it towards fluency and comprehension. For print awareness, students will master this milestone skill by fully developing and internalizing it. In phonemic awareness, students will show this milestone skill by using this skill naturally when decoding unfamiliar words. When it comes to letter-naming knowledge, students will master this milestone skill through automatically knowing their letters and sounds, based on the support of spelling and vocabulary.

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In the fourth grade, students will demonstrate the milestone skill of phonological awareness through emphasizing vocabulary and comprehension. However, those who are struggling will be able to reinforce this concept. For print awareness, this milestone skill will be fully developed, as students will use this skill independently. In phonemic awareness, this milestone skill will become automatic for most of the students in the classroom. When it comes to letter-naming knowledge, students will show this milestone skill by using it automatically in areas like reading and writing tasks.

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In fifth grade, students demonstrate milestone skills in phonological awareness through using it for studying information or spelling for students struggling in the classroom. For print awareness, students show this milestone skill in all areas of their subjects, such as reading texts and interpreting charts. In phonemic awareness, students have mastered this milestone and will only be used in interventions. Similarly, letter-naming knowledge is also mastered and only used in understanding unfamiliar vocabulary words.

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For sixth grade, students have typically mastered this milestone, and it will only be used when students are being targeted for reading interventions. For print awareness, students will demonstrate this milestone by using it to interpret complex text structures such as subheadings and sidebars. In phonemic awareness, this concept is already mastered, whereas in letter-naming knowledge, this concept is automatic for students, and they are shifting their focus to prefixes and roots.

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For seventh graders, students have the phonological awareness milestone mastered, as the instruction starts to shift to comprehension and analysis. In print awareness, students have already mastered this skill and are using this across all subjects in academics. For phonemic awareness, students have this milestone mastered during reading. Plus, in letter-naming knowledge, this milestone is already mastered, and they are placing more emphasis on vocabulary and unfamiliar words.

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For 8th graders, students have mastered phonological awareness, except for students who have reading difficulties. In print awareness, this is already applied to reading and understanding texts. Similarly, in phonemic awareness and letter-naming knowledge, they are both fully mastered and already automatic.

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Print in elementary education is understanding and knowing how to read, by reading from top to bottom or left to right, the written language. The milestones that show mastery for print include knowing how to open a book and being able to point from the front or back of the page, understanding the spaces between words, and being able to distinguish letters and words.

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Letter naming knowledge is defined as accurately knowing the letters and being able to identify the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet, as well as connecting these letters based on their sound. The milestones that demonstrate mastery for the letter-naming knowledge are being able to recognize the 26 letters both in uppercase and lowercase, being able to distinguish similar letters (such as b / d), and matching these letters to words that they use daily.

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For print awareness, an evidence-based strategy would be having an informal checklist that teachers can use a checklist when reading a storybook to students. This can be used for the teachers to ask about the front and back pages or the differences between a word and a number. For phonological awareness, using a phonological awareness screening test can help students with their rhyming and blending skills. According to the National Center on Intensive Intervention (2025), they state, "The major purpose of PALS is to identify students who may be at risk for reading difficulties and who need intensive literacy intervention beyond what is provided to typically developing readers" (para. 1). This states that while this can help students with their blending skills, it can also be used to help people who have reading difficulties, which can be especially helpful when using this evidence-based strategy and applying this in the classroom.

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evidence-based tools or strategies cont.

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evidence-based tools or strategies cont.

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For phonemic awareness, using the Yopp-Singer test of phoneme segmentation can be a beneficial strategy for students, as this strategy is quick and helps students break down words into individual sounds. In letter-naming knowledge, using a strategy like teacher-created alphabet assessments can help students identify letters in a random order. According to Carson (2020), he stated, "Research-based early literacy interventions increase student knowledge in letter identification and letter sounds, similar to teacher-created interventions" (p. 5). This explains that using teacher-created interventions can be helpful by making sure that teachers are tailoring their instruction to meet the specific needs of their students while making sure that students are reinforced with the research-based practices.

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These strategies, like making an informal checklist are great for mastering the literacy skills, as it helps with basic print consepts such as knowing when to start reading and following the text from left to right. The screening test for phonological awareness, can also be great for mastering literacy skills, as it helps to measure growth in the students ability to recognise sounds and syllables. The Yopp-singer test for phonemics can help teachers to understand whether students can break down sounds over time in the classroom. The teacher created alphabet assignment for letter-naming knowlege , can be benificial for mastering the literacy skills through understanding if these students can connect these sounds in random order.

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A research-based instructional strategy for print awareness would be letter recognition. This strategy helps students recognize each letter based on its name and understand that these letters can represent sounds. For example, the teacher can use letter names, where students must know the letters of the alphabet (like the letter B) and understand that letter in both uppercase and lowercase forms. This can also help students understand these letters when they are learning how to read and write by knowing their letters and understanding the sounds that the letters make.

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One of the differentiation strategies would be multisensory instruction because it helps the students to become engaged, whether it is visual or auditory learning. It can also help in phonomic awareness, especially for letter naming as students can say the sounds aloud, or trace a letter on sand for kinesthetic learners. This strategy works because it helps students who have dylexiaby helping them understand letters through sound, and it helps english learners, as they can learn through reinforcing vocabularty and repitition of pronouncing letters.

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Incorporating visual supports and language scaffolds

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Incorporating visual supports and language scaffolds

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Another differentiating strategy would be incorporating visual supports and language scaffolds. This strategy helps to teach about print awareness through visuals, anchor charts, and word picture cards to help understand the meaning of a word. Plus, it uses paired visuals based on explicit language modeling. For example, the letter "m" stands for money. This can help English learners by making connections between learning new English words as well as using familiar concepts based on their own language, which can help decrease confusion in the classroom. In addition, it can help students with dyslexia by using visual anchors, and it makes complex sounds more memorable in the classroom.