Approximate time to complete: 60 minutes 

Download the Course Companion document before starting this course. You can use the Course Companion to take notes on your learning, address reflection prompts, and as an easy way to retrieve course resources.  

Objectives: 

Participants will be able to: 
  • Explain the key components of phonemic awareness and why phonemic awareness is vital for future reading.
  • Implement approaches to phonemic awareness instruction into their own practice.

Consider This Scenario

Connection Point

In your Course Companion, consider these questions:  

  • Can you relate to this scenario? In what ways are your challenges in literacy instruction similar or different? 

First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Venkatachari is noticing that her student, Casey, is having difficulty in whole group instruction activities in phonemic awareness. She notes that Casey has difficulty identifying initial sounds and final sounds. She is planning a small group instruction for Casey and a couple of other students with similar needs. Mrs. Venkatachari wants to provide explicit instruction and the use of manipulatives. She is not sure where to start. She did hear that one resource that may help is the administration of a baseline phonemic awareness assessment with her small group. However, she wants to learn more before introducing additional strategies for her students.

What is Phonemic Awareness? 

This interactive presentation provides an overview of phonemic awareness and a few tips on assessing students' phonemic awareness ability. There is a place to take notes in your Course Companion. Press play to begin. (Press the square button in the bottom right-hand corner to make the presentation full screen.) 

 

Phonemic Awareness with Dr. Jan Hasbrouck

In this video, Dr. Hasbrouck provides an overview of phonemic awareness along with how to teach and assess phonemic awareness. There is a place in your Course Companion to take notes. 

 

Knowledge Check

Take this brief quiz to test your knowledge. Click the square button to expand the quiz.

Resources

Read the article Reading Rockets: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness.

As you read, consider:

  • What is the difference between phonological and phonemic awareness?

In your Course Companion, answer the following questions: 

  • What is one thing that you already knew that the article reinforced?
  • What is one new thing that you learned from the article? How can you apply this new learning to your practice?

Course Reflection

In your Course Companion, answer the following questions: 

  • What instructional tools or resources do you currently use for phonemic awareness? After this course, are there additional tools or resources that you need? 
  • The elements of explicit phonemic awareness instruction include:
  1. Breaking tasks into small steps
  2. Providing explicit models
  3. Using clear examples
  4. Providing immediate, corrective feedback
  5. Practicing to automaticity

Are there one or more things on this list that you would like to improve on in your own practice? What steps might you need to take? 

To Learn More

The following resources can help you learn more about phonemic awareness: 

Feedback: 

Please take a moment to fill out this feedback form. We will use your feedback to improve this and other courses. 

Last Modified: 7/5/2023 11:24:55 AM