• Literacy is essential for full participation in today's world.

• Many Young citizens struggle with reading affecting their ability to function and expand their knowledge.

• 63% of 4th graders and 64% of 8th graders scored at or below the base reading level (NAEP)

The State of Reading Today

• Reading scored have not improved significantly.

• Issue: Ineffective teaching methods and strategies lacking research evidence hinder students progress.

• Effective reading instruction must be systematic and explicit.

The Brain

• Broca's Area: Language production and organization.

• Parieto-Temporal Area: Decoding words through conscious effort.

• Occipito-Temporal Area: Rapid word recognition and storage.

The Scientific Approach to Reading Instruction

• Definition: Scientifically based reading instruction involves rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures.

Essential Components of Reading Instruction

• Phonological Awareness: Awareness of the larger and smaller parts of spoken language, including phonemes.

• Phonics: Phonics teaches the relationship between letters and sounds, and how to sue these relationships to read and spell.

• Fluency: The ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression.

• Vocabulary: Knowledge of words and their meanings.

• Comprehension: The process of extracting and constructing meaning from written texts.

• Definition: Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. For example, the different between the word "bat" and "cat" is the initial phoneme /b/ versus /k/.

• Phoneme Count: English has approximately 42-44 phonemes, even though it only has 26 letters in the alphabet. This is because some letters can prepresent more than one sound (e.g., "cat" vs. "city") and some sounds are represented by combinations of letters (e.g., "th" in "thin").

• Categories of Phonemes

  • Vowel Phonemes (about 18): Sounds produced without any significant construction or blockage of airflow in the vocal tract. Example include /a/ as in "cat", /3/ as in "bed", and /i/ as in "sit".

  • Consonant Phonemes (abotu 25): Sounds produced with some degree of constriction or closure in the vocal tract. Examples include /p/ as in "pat", /s/ as in "sat", and /m/ as in "mat".

Consonant Phonemes

• Voicing

  • Definition: Voicing refers to whether or not the vocal cords vibrate duing the production of a consonant sound.

  • Voiced sounds: Occur when the vocal cords vibrate (e.g., /b/, /d/, /g/).

  • Voiceless Sounds: Occur when the vocal cords do not vibrate (e.g, /p/, /t/, /k/).

• Place of Articulation

  • Definition: Refers to the location in the vocal tract where the airflow is constricted to produce a consonant sound. This involved different parts of the mouth and throat coming into contact or near-contact.

    • Examples:

      • Bibabial: Both lips tough (e.g., /p/, /b/).

      • Alveolar: The tounge touches the alveolar ridge just behind the upper front teeth (e.g., /t/, /d/).

      • Velar: The back of the tongie touches the soft part of the roof of the mouth (velum) (e.g., /k/, /g/).

  • Manner of Articulation

    • Definition: Refers to how the airflow is modified as it passes through the vocal tract to produce a consonant sound. This can involve different degrees and types of constriction.

      • Examples:

        • Plosive (Stop): Complee closure of airflow followed by a release (e.g., /p/, /t/).

        • Fricative: Partial blockage of airflow, creating friction (e.g., /f/, /s/).

        • Nasal: Airflow is directed through the nose (e.g., /m/, /n/).

Sound/Spelling

• Grapheme: Letter(s) combinations used to represent spoken sounds.

  • There are hundreds of graphemes which represent the phonemes in English

• Phonics instruction involved teaching the relationship between sounds and spellings used to represent them.

Syllables

• Syllable: A word or part of a word pronounced as a unit.

  • Every syllable contains only one vowel sounds.

  • There are six common types of syllables.

Onset-Rime

• Onset: The part of the syllable that comes before the vowel.

• Rime: The vowel and everything after it.

• Phonograms: A nonlinguistic term sometimes used in place of 'rime'.

  • 500 primary-grade words can be derived from about 37 phonograms.

Morphemes

• Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning in a language.

  • Every word consists of one or more morphemes.

• Types of Morphemes:

  • Free Morphemes: Can stand as words (e.g., book, run).

    • Examples: dog, jump, happy

  • Bound Morphemes: Cannot stand alone and must be attached to other morphemes (e.g., -s in books, un- in undo).

    • Prefixes: Added to the beginning of a word (e.g., un- in undo).

    • Suffixes: Added to the end of a word (e.g., -ed in jumped).

    • Inflectional Morphemes: Change the form of a word but not its core meaning (e.g., -s for plural, -ing for present participle).

    • Derivational Morphemes: Change the meaning or part of speech of a word (e.g., -ness in happiness, re- in rewrite).

• Compound Words: Combining two free morphemes (e.g., sunflower = sun + flower).

• Importance of Reading:

  • Understanding morphemes helps indecoding, spelling, and understanding the meaning of complex words.

• Definition: Refers to a child's understanding that print carries meaning and that it is used in everyday context like books, signs, and labels.

• It is often considered the first step towards reading.

• Print awareness is foundational for reading and writing development.

• It helps children recognize that print represents spoken language and that there is a connection between written and spoken words.

Components of Print Awareness

• Recognizing Print in the Environment

  • Understnading that print is everywhere (books, signs, labels, menus).

• Understanding the Functions of Print:

  • Knowing that print has a purpose, such as telling a story, providing information, or giving directions.

• Print Directionality:

  • Recognizing the left-to-right, top-to-bottom sequence of reading English text.

• Understanding Letters and Words:

  • Differentiating between letters, words, and sentences.

  • Understanding that spaces separate words.

Development of Print Awareness

• Stages of Development:

  1. Infant/Toddler: Exposer to print through shared reading experiences.

  2. Preschoolers: Beginning to notice and ask about letters and words in their environment.

  3. Kindergarteners: Developing a more refinded understanding of print functions and directionality.

• Influencing Factors:

  • Home Environment: Availability of books, exposure to reading.

  • Teacher Interaction: Classroom print-rich environments, read alouds.

Strategies for Teaching Print Awareness

• Interactive Read-Alouds:

  • Point out print elements during read-aloud sessions (e.g., tracking text with a finger, dicussing punctuation).

• Labeling the Classroom:

  • Label objects in the classroom (e.g., "door", "window", "bookshelf") to help children connect written words with objects.

• Print-Rich Environment:

  • Create a classroom environment full of print (poster, charts, word walls) to encourage print recognition.

• Shared Writing:

  • Engaging in shared writing activities where the teacher models writing and involced students in composing text together.

• Definition: Refers to a student's overall knowledge of letter names, shapes, sounds, and formation.

• 26 uppercase; 26 lowercase letters

• Handwriting can and does reinforce this skillset.

Letter-Name Iconicity

• What is it? When the name of a letter contains the sound that the letter represents.

• *There are only two totally noniconic letter names: w and h.

• Definition: An overall awareness of the sounds in spoken language (auditory).

• Ability to think about and rocognize larger chunks in words.

• Ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of words.

• Includes phonemic awarenss ( the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds).

  • Phoneme: The smallest unit of speech in the language.

  • Skills begin in preschool.

• Knowledge of letter names, letter sounds, and letter shapes is essential and supports the development of phonological awareness.

• Tailor instruction according to what students know and can do.

• Small group instruction provides the most effective instructional enviornment.

• No single best way or program for teaching phonological awareness.

Early Phonological Awareness Skills

• Early phonological awareness (PreK or K).

• Counting words in sentences.

• Rhyming

  • Recognition (lace/race, best/nest, plan/bike)

  • Odd word out (cake, corn, shake)

  • Production (a word that rhymes with man)

• Syllables

  • Counting (crick-et [2], e-ra-ser [3])

  • Blending (ta+ble=table)

  • Segmenting (football=foot and ball)

  • Adding (pill, add /o/= pillow)

  • Deletion (cupcake without cup= cake)

Phonological Awareness Information

• Early phonological awareness (PreK or K)

• Alliteration: Words that begin with the same sound (Lazy Lindsey likes liccorice).

• Initial (first) sounds: Isolating first sounds (clap /c/, jump /j/, zipper /z/).

• Onset-Rime: c*ake, w*ave, d*esk, ch*air, fl*at

  • Onset = letter(s) before the vowel

  • Rime = the vowel and everything that follows

    • Blending (l+leaf=leaf, ch+at=chat)

    • Segmenting (cape=/c/ and /ape/, brick=/br/ and /ick/)

    • Adding (ake, add /f/=fake, ash add /fl/=flash)

    • Deletion (mice without /m/=ice, joke without /j/=oke)

    • Substitution (d-en --> /d/ to /p/=p-en)

From the National Reading Panel Report

• Clearly affects students' achievement in phonemic awarenss, reading, and spelling.

• PreK, K, and first, as well as older, disabled readers benefit from phonological instruction.

• 5 to 10 minutes DAILY (more is not better).

• Instruction should be explicit.

Definition: The smallest segment of speech.

• phon = sound

• eme = unit of language structure

'Phon' Words

• Phoneme

• Phonics

• Phonetics

• Phonogram

• Phonology

• Phonological

Phonemic Awareness

• The conscious awarenss of individual speech sounds, or phonemes, (consonants and vowels) in spoken syllables (auditory).

• A phoneme is the smallest segment of speech in a language system that can determine word meaning, or that can be combined with other speech sounds to make a new word.

  • stop, pots, post

  • rich /r/ /i/ /ch/ and ridge /r/ /i/ /j/

• Ability to consciously manipulate those sounds.

• Individual sounds are represented between / / symbols.

  • /k/, /sh/, /dge/

• Long vowels /ā/ /ē/ /ī/ /ō/ /ū/ and Short Vowels /ă/ /ĕ/ /ĭ/ /ŏ/ /ŭ/

Examples of Phonemic Awareness Skills

• Isolate (what is the first/finial/medial sound in fish)

• Categorize (which word had a different first/final/medial sound)

• Blending phonemes (/c/ /ă/ /t/ = cat; /m/ /ĕ/ /t/ = met)

• Segmenting phonemes (chat = /ch/ /a/ /t/)

  • Counting (each [2] = /ē/ /ch/; chop [3] /ch/ /ŏ/ /p/)

• Adding phonemes (jump, add /s/ --> jumps; oats, add /c/ to beginning --> coats)

• Deleting phonemes (sleep without /s/; couch without /ch/)

• Substituting phonemes (chose --> change /ch/ to /th/)

  • Phoneme Chains (lap -->map --> tap -->tack)

• Reversing phonemes (cat --> flip flop the first and last sound - tack)

What does this mean for students?

• Someone who is phonemically aware knows that:

  • Sentences can be broken into words.

  • Spoken words can be broken into parts.

  • Sounds in an alphabetic language can be rearranged for use in a wide variety of words.

  • The order of the sounds in words matters (stop means something quite different than spot or pots or tops).

Why spend time on this?

• English has 44 phonemes but only 26 letters.

• Whole class instruction including phonemic awareness training is one of the best antidotes for future reading failure; however, instruction must be linked to explicit phonics instruction (letter-sound correspondences_ to benefit younger readers.

• Having phonemic awareness helps students engage with out written language so they can more easily:

  • Learn to read (sound-symbol; decoding)

  • Spell (phonetic or invented spelling; encoding)

Developing This Skill

• Research studies have found that phonemic awareness can be taught and developed in young children.

• How is this best achieved?

  • Using activities that are child-appropriate, deliberate, and purposeful.

  • Phonemic awareness should only be PART of a fuller literacy program- should not be the only thing done.

  • National Reading Panel (NRP) suggested 20 hours time during the school year (a few minutes per day, several days per week).

• The term is used several different ways and refer to:

  • The system of phoneme-grapheme (sound,symbol) correspondence that are the basic structure of an alphabetic orthography;

  • A strategy necessary for decoding new words and for storying those words in othergraphic memory; or

  • An essential component of effective reading instruction--one of the five big ideas or pillars that should be addressed by effective reading programs.

  • Report of National Reading Panel (2000):

    • Congressional mandate to identify key skills central to reading achievement

    • Reviewed 100,000 studies using strict criteria of evidence (scientifically based research)

    • Identified the "Big Five" blocks of reading:

      • Phonemic Awareness

      • Phonics

      • Fluency

      • Vocabulary

      • Comprehension

Decoding

• Definition: The ability to translate a word from print to speech using sound-symbol (phoneme-grapheme) correspondences.

• Can be in or out of context

• Phoneme: Smallest unit of speech sound

• Grapheme: Represents a phoneme

• Othography: A writing system for representing language

  • English orthography has many patterns and constraints that help to speed the decoding process up

    • /k/: kiss or click

    • The letter x is never doubled

    • English words do not end in the letter v

Graphemes (consonants)

• Definition: The letter(s) that represent a single phoneme (sound)

  • The grapheme (or letter) k represents the phoneme (or sound) /k/

    • Grapheme m = phomene /m/

    • Grapheme t = phoneme /t/

    • Grapheme l = phoneme /l/

• Consonant Blends: Two or three graphemes, each one representing a phoneme and maintaining their own sounds (before OR after the vowel sound in a syllable)

  • The graphemes (or letters) c-l represent the could /c/ /l/ or /cl/ (clean)

    • Graphemes s-t-r = phonemes /s/ /t/ /r/ or /str/ (stream)

    • Graphemes l-k = phonemes /l/ /k/ or /lk/ (milk)

• Consonant Digraphs: One grapheme comprised if two letters that together represent one phoneme (before OR after the vowel sound in a syllable).

  • Note: Digraphs can be a unquie sound such as /sh/ or be another spelling for a single-consonant letter such as ph for f.

• Consonant Trigraphs: One grapheme comprisedof three letters that together represent one phoneme (after a short vowel sound at the end of a syllable).

Orthographic Mapping

• Proficient word reading requires rapid recognition of all relevant laters of word structure in a mental process called orthographic mapping (Kilpatrick, 2015).

• The more students learn about the structure of words, the better they will be able to read them independently, the more readily they will process their meanings, and the more they understand and remember about spelling (Moats, 2019).

• To accurately and automatically read the word unkind, the brain will need to recognize:

  • Syllables: un-kind [2]

  • Morphemes: un-kind [2]

  • Graphemes: u-n-k-i-n-d [6]

  • Phonemes: /u/ /n/ /k/ /i/ /n/ /d/ [6]

  • Part of Speech: Adjective [describes a noun]

Two Approaches to Phonics Instruction

• Sythetic Approach (aka, code-based, direct, systematic, or explicit phonics)

  • Suggested approach based on numerous studies (Science of Reading).

  • Follows a botton-up model.

  • Typical Sequence:

    • Letter names taught

    • Sound letters stand for taught & reviewed (some rules are generalizations might be discussed)

    • Principle of blending sounds to form words is taught

    • Opporunities to blend unknown words in contect are provided (decodable text)

• Analytic Approach (aka meaning-based, indirect or implicit phonics)

  • Referred to as the "discovery method" (does NOT follow Science of Reading)

  • Meaning-emphasis programs

  • Students begin with words & are asked to deduce the sound-spelling relationship that is the focus of the lesson

  • Typical Sequence:

    • List of words with common phonic element (ex: sat, send, & sun)

    • Asked to examine the words & discover what they have in common (focus on similar sound)

    • When common sound is discovered, the spelling for that might be discussed

    • Verbalize a generalization about the sound and spelling (e.g. letter s stands for /s/ sound)

NRP Findings on Phonics Instruction

• Systematic, explicit phonics instruction = more significant in cildren's growth in reading than programs with unsystematic or no phonics instruction

• No one best program was found

• Phonics instruction was found to be the most effective when started in K or 1st

• Approximately 2 years of phonics instruction is usually sufficient for most students

• Programs which focus too much on teaching letter-sound relationshipds in isolation and little/no time or opportunity to apply them are unlikely to be effective

• Phonics instruction is just one part of comprehensive reading instruction programs

While phonological awareness involves working with larger chunks of sound, phonemic awarenes hones in on the finer details, such as blending and segmenting phonemes within words. Both are essential for literacy development, but phonemic awareness is particularly curcial for learning to decode and spell.

I never learned phonics, but when I was a TA I experiences first grade phonics with symbols they put around the words to identify the sounds, which I still don't completely understand.

• Which is any vowel that followed by an /r/

  • /ir/ and /or/

There is no word in the English dictionary that ends in "V".

• Simple Defintion: There is at least one feature in the word that is unidentifiable (The feautures don't match the sound of the letters used).

• Example: Of, was, you

High Frequency Words

• Simple Definition: Words that occur a lot in text and is 100% detectable.

• Example: That

  • Can somtimes be irregular

Sight Words

• Simple Defintion: Can be quite literally any word.

• Example: Any words you use frequently, everyone's sight words will be different.

• Our language is be decomposed into:

  • Smaller sound units (phonemes)

  • Larger sound units (syllables)

• There are 6/7 syllable types in our language. This code/generalization can be largely applied to English text to aid in decoding with a higher degree of automaticity.

  • This is a part of structured literacy instruction.

Closed Syllables

• Make up approx. 53% of all English syllables.

• Contain one vowel letter that represents a short vowel sound.

• End in one or more consonants (consonants = closed sounds).

• Many academic words are just a series of closed syllables (and nonsense words).

Open Syllables

• Contains one vowel letter that represents a long vowel.

• Ends with the vowel letter (vowels = open sounds).

VCE Syllables

• Generally represents long vowel sounds.

  • Example exception: give, have, love

  • English orthography- words in the English language do not end in the letter v so the letter e is added.

• Ends with a silent e (the Bossy E).

Vowel Team Syllables

• Contains two (or more) letters that represent long (or short) vowels, variant vowels, or diphthongs (vowel digraphs).

• Ends with the vowel sound (e.g. high, clay, snow) or a consonant (e.g. boat, moon).

R-Controlled Syllables

• When a vowel is followed by r, the letter affects the sound of the vowel (the Bossy R).

  • Trickier for students to remember: -er -ir -ur

Consonant + LE Syllables

• When -le appears at the end of a word and is precended by a consonant, the consonant +le form the final syllable.

  • Exceptions: pick/le

• Limited number of consonant +le syllables

  • -ble -cle -dle

  • -fle -gle -tle

  • -ple -zle -kle

• Always make the schwa sound.

• Keep the consonant +le together when dividing syllables (exposes the first syllable as closed, open, or r-controlled.

Syllables and Accent Patterns

• In multisyllabic words, at least one syllable receives more emphasis, or greater stress, than the other syllables.

  • In multisyllabic words, more than one syllable can be stressed.

• The vowel phoneme is the most prominent part of the syllables. Vowels behave in accented and unaccented syllables.

  • Your con' duct is exemplary.

  • She will con' duct the orchestra tonight.

• Note: we identify the accented syllable by placing an accent mark (') after the syllable.

• Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) typically form seperate syllables. The accent usually falls on or within the root.

  • un like' ly

  • cold' est

  • un bend' able

  • move' ment

• In compound words, the primary accent usually falls on or within the first word.

  • snow' man

  • some' thing

  • cow' boy

• The placement of the accent will differ in homographs (spelled the same) that are a noun or a verb. Thr accent usually falls on the first syllable of a noun.

  • What is this object? (noun) ob' ject

  • Do you object? (verb) ob ject'

• If a word contains a double consonant (VCCV), the accent usually falls on the syllable that closes with the first letter of the double consonant.

  • bet' ter

  • thun' der

  • trum' pet

• Most multisyllabic words ending with the suffix -tion -sion or -ic the primary accent will fall on the syllable preceding the suffix.

  • ex ten' sion

  • mag net' ic

  • men' tion

• If the last syllable contains a vowel team followed by a consonant, the syllable is often accented.

  • main tain'

  • con ceal'

  • com plain'

• When there is no other clue, the accent will usually fall on the first syllable of a two syllable word.

  • fin' ish