Reading is Succeeding!

What is Phonological Awareness? - Phonological Awareness is the conscious awareness to the sound structure of our language. Basic levels of phonological awareness skills include listening to, recognizing and completing rhymes; segmenting spoken words in sentences and syllables in words; and recognizing onset and rimes.

What is Phonemic Awareness? - Phonemic awareness describes the awareness skills used to detect, blend, segment and manipulate individual sounds in words.

Are Phonological and Phonemic Awareness the same thing? - The terms phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are not interchangeable. Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness occurs exclusively at the sound level. It does not include awareness skills at the word or syllable level. The term phoneme means sound hence the term 'phonemic awareness' or in easier to understand language ‘sound awareness’.

Why is Phonemic Awareness important? - Before children learn to read and write they must first understand how the sounds in words work. They must understand that our words are made up of speech sounds.

How can I tell if a child has strong Phonological Awareness? - Children demonstrate phonological awareness skills by:
Playing with Words – Counting or clapping out the words in a phrase or sentence.

Adult: "Clap 1 time for each word you hear in this sentence "My house is big."Child: (while clapping 4x's) "My–house–is-big."

Blending Syllables – Stating the word formed when two or more syllables are presented with a pause between syllables.

Adult: "What word do you hear when I say "bas–ket–ball?"Child: "Basketball!"

Segmenting Syllables – Clapping or otherwise identifying each syllable in a word.

Adult: "Benjamin, tell me all the beats (syllables) in your name." Child: "Ben-ja-min!"

Deleting Syllables – Identifying what remains when asked to remove one or more syllables from a word.

Adult: "Say Monday. Now say Monday without the Mon." Child: "Day!"

Manipulating Syllables – Interchanging syllables in words to form new words.

Adult: "Say birdhouse. Now, take out bird and add dog, what is your new word?" Child: "Doghouse!"

How can I tell if a child has strong Phonemic Awareness? - Children demonstrate phonemic awareness skills by:

Blending Phonemes – Stating the word formed when two or more segmented sounds are presented.

Adult: "What word do you hear when I say /t/, /a/, /p/?"Child: "tap!"

Segmenting Phonemes – Identifying the individual sounds in words.

Adult: "Tell me each sound in the word cat."Child: "/k/, /a/, /t/"

Deleting Phonemes – Identifying what remains when asked to remove one or more sounds from a given word.

Adult: "Say pan. Say it again, but don't say /p/."Child: "an!"

Manipulating Phonemes – Changing sounds in words to form new words.

Adult:"Say map. Now, take out the /a/ and put in an /o/, what is your new word?" Child: "Mop!"

 

Phonics:
The study of the relationships between letters and the sounds they represent; also used to describe reading instruction that teaches sound-symbol correspondences. 

Fluency:
Ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression. Fluency provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. 

 

Refers to all of the words of our language. One must know words to communicate effectively. Vocabulary is important to reading comprehension because readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. Vocabulary development refers to stored information about the meanings and pronunciation of words necessary for communication. Four types of vocabulary include listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Oral Language:

Spoken language. There are five components of oral language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.   

Orthographic Units:

The representation of the sounds of a language

 

 

 

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Children make personal connections with the text by using their schema. There are three main types of connections we can make during reading:

 

• Text-to-Self: Refers to connections made between the text and the reader's personal experience.
• Text-to-Text: Refers to connections made between a text being read to a text that was previously read.
• Text-to-World: Refers to connections made between a text being read and something that occurs in the world.
  

   

  CREATING MENTAL IMAGES (VISUALIZING)
  This strategy involves the ability of readers to make mental images of a text as a way to understand processes or events they encounter during reading. This ability can be an indication that a reader understands the text. Some research suggests that readers who visualize as they read are better able to recall what they have read than those who do not visualize.

  QUESTIONING
  This strategy involves readers asking themselves questions throughout the reading of text. The ability of readers to ask themselves relevant questions as they read is especially valuable in helping them to integrate information, identify main ideas, and summarize information. Asking the right questions allows good readers to focus on the most important information in a text.

  INFERRING
  Authors do not always provide complete descriptions of, or explicit information about a topic, setting, character, or event. However, they often provide clues that readers can use to “read between the lines”—by making inferences that combine information in the text with their schema.

  EVALUATING (DETERMINING IMPORTANCE)
  Determining importance has to do with knowing why you’re reading and then making decisions about what information or ideas are most critical to understanding the overall meaning of the piece.

  SYNTHESIZING
  Synthesizing is the process of ordering, recalling, retelling, and recreating into a coherent whole the information with which our minds are bombarded everyday. Synthesizing is closely linked to evaluating. Basically, as we identify what’s important, we interweave our thoughts to form a comprehensive perspective to make the whole greater than just the sum of the parts.
  
   Metacognition:

  Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.

  
  Strategies to develop Metacognition:
  
  Connecting: Realizing that part of the text has personal meaning for the reader
  
  Picturing: Creating a mental image
  
  Wondering: Asking questions before, during, and after reading
  
  Guessing/Predicting: Making predictions about the text
  
  Noticing: Picking up details in the text and illustrations
  
  Figuring Out: Confirming predictions, determining the meaning of the text