Phonological Awareness, Reading, and Writing: What Teachers Need to Know

Presented by Carol Tolman, Ed.D.

Although we may not always know what came first, (the chicken or the egg?), we do know what came first in the world of literacy: speech. Both reading and writing are based on speech. We use a “speech-to-print” system, not a “print-to-speech” system when decoding and encoding words. Without an understanding of the way sounds are represented in print, many students continue to function well behind their peers. Evidence exists in support of phonemic awareness and its foundational role, but what does that really mean, and how does that translate to practical applications in the classroom? Join Dr. Carol Tolman as she outlines the role of phonological awareness, what misspellings tell us about students’ misunderstandings of phonemes, and what we can do about these errors to enhance their learning.

Attendees will learn to:

  • Listen to students’ articulation errors as a window into their understanding of phonemes
  • Identify reasons for specific misspellings, leading to targeted instructional responses that improve reading and spelling
  • Articulate why subphonemic features are an important component of instruction

Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing

What Teachers Need to Know About Phonemic Awareness

In all honesty, the life lessons I remember most deeply originate with mistakes.

Try to watch a fun movie? I turn the movie on by 10 p.m. and promptly fall asleep.

Try to eat healthy? I inevitably leave the house forgetting my packed lunch, accidently ending up at The Cheesecake Factory.

Plan to be on time for an important event? Neglect to switch my favorite outfit out of the washer and into the dryer.

Although these may not sound like life-shattering mistakes, here’s one that was:

On a particularly difficult school day, one my favorite students (all my students were my favorites, by the way), ran into the classroom, shouting:

“Mrs. Tolman, I am so fustated!”

To which I calmly replied: “Chris, the word is frustrated.”

“That’s what I SAID: FUSTATED!” Chris shrieked.

Oops! So much for my stellar teaching skills. It was obvious I was adding to his “fustation.”

Teacher knowledge is key: We can’t teach what we don’t know.
To better help Chris, and get him “unfustated,” I needed the invaluable information gleaned from years of scientific research. For example, how do our brains store individual speech sounds (phonemes)? Why do some students mispronounce, misread, and/or misspell words? What could I do instructionally to improve Chris’ skills? Here’s what I’ve come to understand:

Listening to a student’s speech is a window into their understanding of phonemes.
We store speech sounds by place and manner of articulation. This means that “how” we physically make sounds matters. The word “place” refers to whether a sound is made toward the front, middle, or back of our mouth, considering where we put our tongue when we say a sound. The “manner” refers to what happens with your air flow and voicing; some sounds are produced with a lengthy breath of air (/sh/, /m/). (When you see these slash marks, or virgules, I am referring to sounds, not letters.)

In comparison, some phonemes are produced with a quick burst of air (/b/ /k/); linguists refer to these as “stop” sounds. The term “voicing” refers to what’s happening in our throat when we make a sound. As you say /sh/, put your hand flat on your throat. You should feel no vibration.

In comparison, say /m/ while feeling your throat. That’s a very different feeling! It was not that Chris could not “see” the letter ‘r’ in the word frustration as he spoke; rather, he could not accurately hear nor feel the way his mouth was supposed to move to represent that particular sound.

Asking Chris to look at how my mouth puckered when I said the /r/ in isolation, and then in the blends ‘fr’ and ‘tr,’ talking about what my lips look like, asking him to make his mouth look like mine, and using a mirror would have helped bring this sound to his conscious awareness. The current push for classroom sound walls instead of word walls, replete with mouth pictures, is an example of how to reinforce and deepen students’ awareness of creating and manipulating the 44 English phonemes.

If you cannot say a word, you likely will struggle to read and write it.
When writing a word, strong spellers automatically reference numerous connections to what they already know about that word: how it sounds; what letters are used to represent each sound; what morphemes, or smallest meaningful units, are embedded within the word; what that word means; what part of speech it takes in a sentence; and, how that word is used in speech and writing.

Weak spellers may have difficulty in one or more of these layers of language. In Chris’ case, I don’t believe he ever used the word “frustration” in his writing, choosing a simpler word to spell, such as “mad” or “upset.” Weak spellers, especially those with underlying phonological confusions, often write shorter sentences with simpler words, avoiding words they struggle to spell.

I remember Chris trying to write his address for me one day. He struggled writing “avenue,” “avnoo,” “avin’…then crossed it all out and wrote: “street.”

If Chris were to come upon the word “frustration” in his reading, he’d typically look at its beginning letters, identify the first sound, and guess the rest based on pictures or meanings of nearby words. His reading, overall, was slow, labored, and inaccurate, leading to his “fustation.”

That same process of using sounds to anchor spellings is used, in reverse, when we read. Good readers process every letter, space, and punctuation mark, automatically activate the corresponding sounds represented by these letters and letter patterns and use their knowledge of sound-spelling patterns to decode unfamiliar words.

Phonemic awareness is an essential foundational skill for unlocking the alphabetic principle to read words. It follows that weak phonemic awareness negatively impacts a student’s ability to readily blend words, leading to weak comprehension; we cannot understand what we cannot read.

Join me in an EDVIEW 360 webinar in May, when I will examine what teachers need to know about phonemic awareness through the lens of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Keep your eye on the EDVIEW 360 page for the exact date and registration link.

Until then, I’ll likely turn on a chick flick, enjoy a piece of cheesecake, and promptly fall asleep while my clothes gather mildew in the washer. And you know that “fustation” experience with Chris? Perhaps I should have started by asking him why he was so “fustated.” I never did find out.

Carol A. Tolman, Ed.D., has a doctorate in educational psychology and has been a consultant at the state, district, and school levels for more than 15 years. Dr. Tolman also has more than 25 years of experience in public schools and the juvenile justice system, spending 12 years designing and implementing an innovative reading clinic for academically challenged high school students.

2020 Pennsylvania Department of Education Annual Conference, March 9-11, 2020

Join Dr. Tolman for two sessions on Wednesday, March 11th, 2020:

Language Structures and Verbal Reasoning: Missing Links in Close Reading Lessons

Gough and Tunmer’s Simple View of Reading (SVR) identifies two major components to reading comprehension: word recognition and language comprehension. Dr. Tolman's presentation focuses on language comprehension; specifically, on the areas of language structures and verbal reasoning, two often-ignored components of reading comprehension lessons crucial to the success of reading deeply. Increasing teachers’ awareness of how to analyze sentence types, develop sentence sense, and predict complex sentence structures is key to supporting students' understandings of what they read and hear. Additionally, marking text to identify pronouns and their references, along with analyzing the cohesiveness of an author's work, provides a deeper understanding of written discourse. Language structures and verbal reasoning are the focus of this interactive, hands-on session, abolishing the common, ineffective practice of testing, testing, and more testing.

Assessment and Instruction through the Lens of the Hourglass Figure

Join Dr. Tolman's session as she focuses on word recognition, including an outline of the 'what' and 'why' of basic assessment tools and instructional practices. Appropriate for educators and administrators supporting students in K-6, discussion will center on Tier 1 word work and spelling skills as well as how best to identify and address student weaknesses in phonology, basic phonics, and/or advanced word study.

PaTTAN Website

In Case You Missed It: What We Learned at the Voyager Sopris Learning Literacy Symposium

Teacher expertise is the key to unlocking student potential. Programs don’t teach students, teachers do. To that end, educators and administrators are encouraged to “read the research,” something I try to abide by daily. This is no easy task. With the onslaught of information in print and online, how can educators prioritize what’s relevant and valid? Most importantly, how do we find the time to keep up with it all? So, in case you missed it, here’s my favorite summer ‘read:’ the Voyager Sopris Learning® 2018 Literacy Symposium.

 

Read the rest here!

Save the Date!

FYI for all my MD literacy friends, or those who want to make a quick trip to BWI! We’ll explore the gold standard in teacher PD with new LETRS. Hope to see you there!

For more information, email Theresa.McKee@voyagersopris.com

 

Monday Musings: How Words Cast their Spell

Welcome to Monday Musings! 
With so much information released at such a fast pace, it’s difficult to know what’s credible, and what’s not. In this corner of my website, I’ll share recommendations for important readings and resources connected to solid literacy instruction. We can’t teach what we don’t know, but armed with the right information, we can make a difference for every child. Enjoy!
How Words Cast their Spell
This site links to one of my very favorite articles about language, How Words Cast their Spell. Easily accessible and straightforward, the authors make the case that spelling reinforces reading, is important to teach, and is not simply a matter of memorization. I share this article with teachers and administrators, making the case for instruction that includes multiple layers of language (Perfettis’ LQ), not simply memorizing words.

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/joshi.pdf

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