Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic Awareness
Courtney L. Lewis Lastiyano
Fort Lewis College Teacher Education Department

Author Note
First paragraph: Abstract
Second paragraph: Article Reviews & Analysis
Third paragraph: Conclusion & Growth Statement
Fourth paragraph: References

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Abstract
As a student studying the practices of early childhood education, it has been a large
interest of mine to understand how the acquisition of language through phonemic awareness and
how it is used. Is it innate, that our sense of language develops through maturation? Or is it
taught to us explicitly through our teachers? In this analysis, we will examine both theories
through the viewpoints of professional educators who can provide the evidence, and how it
connects to my original professional development question, What can I do to teach phonemic
awareness to my students.
Keywords: phonemic awareness, innate, taught.

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Alphabetic Principle and Phonemic Awareness
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the
more places you'll go."
Dr. Seuss (I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!)

To begin my research, I wanted to develop and understanding deeper than just

understanding how to teach phonemic awareness, I wanted to really delve into what makes it
important to schools-especially in early childhood education. So I decided to question how it's
learned in the first place? In the article, Does Phonemic Awareness Training in Kindergarten
Make A Difference in Early Childhood Word Recognition and Developmental Spelling? Eileen
W. Ball and Benita A.Blachman introduce that phonological awareness and emergent reading is
directly connected, they state that the identification of deficits in phonological processing has
been helpful in explaining the discrepancy between the ease with which most children acquire
spoken language and difficulty many of those same children have in learning to read. (Catts,
1988; Liberman, 1971, 1973; Liberman & Shankweiler, 1985; Wagner & Torgesen)
Which, is something I got to see. If a child has a speech impediment-like most young children
do, they say a word incorrectly and then spell it as such. Most times missing the first or last
phoneme in the word. This translates into their reading, making it harder for them to identify
letters and sounds. The importance of this relationship, they explain comes clear when the factors
of critical reading are taken into account. They need to understand what Ball & Benita refer to as
the alphabetic system. (Ball & Benita, 1991) They say that each beginning reader has to make
use of the alphabetic code, and that each student must come to understand that words are broken

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down into syllables and phonemes; and that phonemes are merely a unit in the speech system
comprised of symbols in an alphabetic script (Ball & Benita, 1991)
In the beginning I had a hard time understanding how to convey this message-You forget because
you often start in the middle of the year in placements that these kids all begin somewhere. It
was a tough thing to encounter, and it still is with some kids who need work with their letter
recognition. Some children however came into to kindergarten with some knowledge of the
mechanics of the topic at focus. In the article Developing Phonemic Awareness in Young
Children, Hallie Kay Yopp explains that Most children enter kindergarten with a substantial
vocabulary and adequate syntax. In addition, they have a sufficient command of most of the
phonemes that constitute their language; that is, they can pronounce most sounds clearly. (Singer,
1979) This means that most children entering school have some sense of how language is used
and represented symbolically through the alphabet. However, as she further explains, what they
lack going into school is phonemic awareness. An understanding that speech is composed of a
series of individual sounds. [...] Young children are unaware that the spoken utterance cat is a
word that is made up of a series of sounds, or phonemes (Yopp. p 696, 1992)
I am getting to see this up close, Ive been going into the schools in the middle of the year
and I start my observations when the students have already made progress. Never have I been
allotted the opportunity to see it from its humbling foundation. Being in this kindergarten class
has allowed me to see how repetitive this is, how thorough I have to be as a teacher to help these
kids grasp the idea that words are comprised of broken down segments of sound. Sometimes it
can be even more difficult to connect the segments of sound to their alphabetic symbols.
Currently, I am following a student who can look at a letter, and provide me its phonemic sound-

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however, the student cannot provide the name of the letter selected. Which brings me
preparedness. The teacher should allow for and be prepared for individual difference. Research
on phonemic awareness reveals a tremendous variation among children. (Yopp, 702) She says in
order to fully allow these individuals flourish, we must avoid making rigid judgement-this I fully
agree with.
The next article I referenced was Phonemic Awareness instruction helps children learn to
read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels Meta-Analysis, Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R.,
Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001).. This article both
challenged and concurred with Yopps article, this reading-Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D.
M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. argued that beginning readers have
acquired at least some awareness of phonemes without Phonemic Awareness, however-they
agree that phonemic awareness is beneficial but only to preschoolers and kindergarteners. They
feel that phonemic awareness is less academically valuable in upper grade levels. (p. 255) Yopps
views were they they completely lacked phonemic awareness-so seeing that this article believes
that they have some idea of phonemes is interesting. They support this idea by saying that
phonemic awareness is taught to help children write words in various ways. They may invent
letter sound spellings or retrieve correct spellings from memory but both processes require
phonemic segmentation skill. (Griffith, 1991)
My fourth article, is Preventing Reading Failure in Young Children with Phonological
Processing Disabilities: Group and Individual Responses to Instruction. Joseph K. Torgesen,
Richard K. Wagner, Carol A. Rashotte, Patricia Lindawood. Elaine Rose, Tim Conway & Cyndi
Garvan. Journal of Education Psychology 1999. Vol, 91. No 4. 579-593 p. This particular article

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was focused solely on researching instructional methods that accelerate reading development in
young children who are either experiencing or are at risk for reading failure. (Foorman Francis,
Fletcher, Schatsneider & Mehta, 1998; Shanahan & Barr, 1995; Vellutino Etal, 1996; Wasik &
Slavin 1993.) I thought this would be great to tie in because we as teachers see more of the
difficulties of acquiring phonological awareness, and because I want to learn how to better
harness alternative practices-or get a better grasp on the ones Ive seen, I thought this would be a
great article to incorporate. Now that we are a halfway into the school, Ive seen many of my
kids making great progress in their reading skills, using strategies to help them sound out
fragments of words and splice them together. However, not all of them are making great leapsand with dibels right around the corner, it is important for us to be as explicit in our instruction as
possible. In the article, their study determined that the most important instructional contrast
involved the degree of explicitness of instruction in phonological awareness and phonemic
reading skills as well as the extent of decontextualized focused practice on these skills.
(Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte; Lindawood, Rose, Conway & Garavan, 1996.) I feel like this is
extremely accurate, a majority of the time, our struggling students tend to be pulled aside on
certain assignments to get more explicit instruction. They need things to be broken down, and
heavily focused on specific areas for them to understand. This typically happens during
intervention-and thereafter during our scheduled journaling time. Sometimes, even with these
focused practices, they still have trouble staying on task.
Which leads me to my last article, The Validity and Reliability of Phonemic Awareness
Tests, Hallie Kay Yopp. Research Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring, 1998.) p.159-179.

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As mentioned, Dibels is right around the corner. We all know that success and
progression come in many forms, and for the state, and statistics, progression shows in the form
of assessment. For some of these children, it's a difficult thing to sit through a lesson or
instruction. Many students in my current and past placements have shown me that when things
are difficult, they differ to something else. Going back to acquiring phonological awareness and
our first article briefly, it states that the teacher should allow for and be prepared for individual
difference. (Yopp, 1992) These tests do not show the amount of progress that one sees first hand.
Instead they are either red, yellow or green. Red meaning having difficulty, yellow meaning
improving and green being the overall goal, which is mastery. We go through several activities a
day to really provide the children with several strategies or tools they can use as they learn to use
these fragments of language. In this last article, it states that while performance on any of of
these tasks might well be considered to say something about a child's phonological awareness, it
is also certainly plausible that such tasks might demand different levels of segmentation in the
child. (Yopp, 1998) I thought this paragraph to be interesting, because a child's performance on
phonemic exercises does completely depend on the level of awareness in the child, this
strengthens Yopps other statement referred to in her earlier article, they (children) have a
sufficient command of most of the phonemes that constitute their language; that is, they can
pronounce most sounds clearly. (Singer, 1979) But how do we make sure that we reach all
children? All levels of phonemic awareness in these tests require different levels of linguistic
awareness (Yopp, 1998 p 476-477) Though not all articles agreed, with phonological awareness
being innate, it's agreed, upon researchers, and myself that children come into schools with a
slight idea of language, and its components; the alphabetic principle-symbolic representation and

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its correlation the sounds each letter makes. But it is indeed taught and nurtured through
teachers. I agree that these practices and strategies have provided ways to better help those who
are struggling, in the testing article, they brought up a strong point. It stated that, we should not
assume that even skillfully administered one-to-one instruction will have a significant impact on
word level skills in children who have serious phonological processing weaknesses if it does not
contain sufficient depth of instruction in alphabetic reading skills (Yopp, 1998) Why I thought
that was strong, was because it was saying that if we dont push the limits (so to speak) with our
children, we will not see progress. We need to start early with our little ones at the beginning of
the year, and stay true through the months to follow. I had a few kids in mind as I read that
sentence, specifically because at the beginning of the year during our assessments-I was
expecting little because truthfully, I had no idea what to expect. Now that I have seen what a
child in kindergarten is capable of producing, I can honestly say that I am setting my goals for
these kids higher and they are rising to the occasion.

Conclusion & Growth Statement

To conclude my inquiry, based on personal experiences, I believe that children are taught
phonological awareness. It isnt without backing, however. These articles really helped me see
that there are several angles to this one topic, and though my answer may differ from a few, I got
a chance to read and study up on how I can be a better teacher in these aspects. Being able to
read in kindergarten is a real big deal for all the children, not one isnt excited about being able
to pick up a colorful book and read what is on each page, or go through a page of nonsense
words without stopping to remember what an /a/ sounds like. In studying this topic, I focused on

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a handful of children and provided at every given opportunity the chance to hear what they knew
about phonemes, and how to arrange these sounds to make a complete word. During full
assumption, this was every morning as we went through our time on the rug. Learning how to
use the Envisions curriculum, and its alphabetic principle strategies really helped me see just
how important things like this are in order to read and eventually write. Professionally, I feel like
I learned how to interact with my cooperating teacher, and really be able to use her information
and advice to better deliver instruction to the kids. We use phonological awareness strategies in
each part of every lesson every single day, so being able to really see someone who is as skilled
as Suzanne Cash really helped me develop this skill. Though I still feel like I could definitely
sharpen this as I develop further in my academic journey. In saying this, Id like to end by
quoting Phil Collins, In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn. Ive now
learned to teach, and now I will continue teaching so I can learn. We never really stop learning
and that's the beauty of our field. Elahkwa, Thank you.
Personal Growth Statement
In the beginning, I had been complacent on the first pieces of work the students gave me-oops. I
learned not to expect more-which was extremely hard at first, their eyes and little furrowed
brows had me sweating bullets, but since I learned (on several occasions) to raise the bar-so did
the kids. Their work is getting really good, they are incorporating details, colors, grammar and
punctuation and its really an enriching experience to say that I was part of that process.
As far as connecting to the Teacher quality standards, I feel that I met the following
standards:
QUALITY STANDARD I: Teachers demonstrate mastery of and pedagogical
expertise in the content they teach.

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ELEMENT B: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of student literacy
development in reading, wri ng, speaking and listening.
ELEMENT F: Teachers make instruction and content relevant to
students and take ac ons to connect students background and contextual
knowledge with new informa on being taught.
QUALITY STANDARD II: Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful
learning environment for a diverse population of students.
ELEMENT A: Teachers foster a predictable learning environment
in the classroom in which each student has a positive, nurturing relationship with
caring adults and peers.
ELEMENT C: Teachers engage students as individuals with unique
interests and strengths.
ELEMENT E: Teachers provide proactive, clear and constructive
feedback to families about student progress and work collaboratively with the
families and significant adults in the lives of their students.
This was demonstrated when I worked with Suzanne during parent teacher conferences. I
also think it was throughout the student teaching process because we worked closely with
the kids moms and dads in the classroom on separate days.
ELEMENT F: Teachers create a learning environment
characterized by acceptable student behavior, efficient use of time and appropriate
intervention strategies.
QUALITY STANDARD III: Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction
and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students.

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ELEMENT B: Teachers plan and consistently deliver instruction
that draws on results of student assessments, is aligned to academic standards and
advances students level of content knowledge and skills.
We are always referencing back to our earlier assessments and make sure that students are
appropriately placed where they will most benefit from instruction. We like to make sure that
each student is grouped where they will be successful in the lesson.
ELEMENT C: Teachers demonstrate a rich knowledge of current
research on effective instructional practices to meet the developmental and
academic needs of their students.
I have been working on phonological awareness for most of the semester, so I feel that I was able
to practice a lot of what I learned with the children on a one-on-one basis.
ELEMENT E: Teachers establish and communicate high
expectations for all students and plan instruction that helps students develop
critical-thinking and problem solving skills.
I learned to raise my expectations with my kids this year, so I was able to really communicate my
expectations with them and really get some quality pieces with time.
ELEMENT F: Teachers provide students with opportunities to
work in teams and develop leadership qualities.
ELEMENT G: Teachers communicate effectively, making learning
objectives clear and providing appropriate models of language.
ELEMENT H: Teachers use appropriate methods to assess what
each student has learned, including formal and informal assessments, and use
results to plan further instruction.

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QUALITY STANDARD IV: Teachers reflect on their practice.
ELEMENT A: Teachers demonstrate that they analyze student
learning, development and growth and apply what they learn to improve their
practice.
ELEMENT B: Teachers link professional growth to their
professional goals.
The classroom setting and the college classroom setting I was constantly comparing through my
student teaching. Mainly because all I could think of was, This worked with I tried it with the
girls. It's funny, because a lot of the time the things we did in the classroom had a way different
outcome when I gave things a try in a real classroom. Which, was to be expected. However, what
I thought about a lot was how we the situations or topics we went through in class and how they
actually appeared within the first few weeks. I was grateful that we ran through how to react or
carry out conversations in a manner that was professional and kid friendly, I had something
happen in families that came to the classroom through the child, things that tested some anti-bias
in community and truthfully-this program prepared us well to handle those situations.
Suzanne is not only a great teacher, but she's a great mentor as well. Through her and her advice
I learned how to manage a room of twenty little kindergarteners, classroom management was
something I always had in the back of my mind as something I needed to work on-and though
that still may be true, Ive acquired some really good tips and strategies on how to do that. Ive
also learned how to handle conversations with parents that are were at times kind of scary (for
me) She taught me how to communicate outside of the classroom and how to handle children
who needed to be talked to. I found a voice with her, and I cant thank her enough for that.
Personally this experienced has helped me to really connect with what I want to do with
my life in the future. I have never really been one to really be decisive but I am really trying to
change that. Student teaching has really reminded me why I want to be a teacher, even though at
times I didnt know if I was good enough. I learned that I can do it and I am so excited to have
my own classroom in the future. Academically, I am proud to say that everything I learned in the
program Ive been able to see and teach. They say that experience is the best teacher, and I cant
say I completely agree with that because I had six amazing professors that taught me everything I
needed to succeed. Professionally, I got the opportunity to see proverbially, what was behind the
curtain; meetings, professional development seminars and small grade level meetings with the
other kindergarten teachers. What really made me happiest however, was when I got the sense
that I was also a teacher. Being treated like I had something to contribute was one of the best
feelings because it translated to me that I was one of them. I learned how to talk to the staff, build
relationships and feel comfortable asking questions and sharing ideas.
Currently, back to my topic-I am always on the hunt for new ways to teach or better reach my
students in their phonological awareness. But I think continuing to independently focus on it and
read up on the topic will really help me develop in this area.

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For now, It's changed how I look at student work, how I hear them talk and how to hear themreally hear them when they ask for help in their journaling, or in their writing in general.
This whole experience, and each experience Ive had in the program has really shaped me into
who I aim to become as a teacher, who I want to be for my students and it was inspired by each
teacher. This particular experience has prepared me for opening a school year-which I wouldnt
have ever really seen had I never started in the fall. Seeing it start from its humble beginnings
and seeing the progress is something I think it is important for every new teacher to see and
experience, you see the routines, the repetition, literally everything.
Student teaching has given me a whole new outlook on everything Ive learned, and I cannot say
enough how lucky I am to be a product of the Fort Lewis Teacher Education Program.

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References
Yopp, H. K. (1992, May). The Reading Teacher. Developing Phonemic Awareness In
Young Children, 45(9). Retrieved from www.jstor.com.
Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., &
Shanahan, T. (2001, August/September). Phonemic Awareness Instruction Helps Children
Learn to Read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels Meta-Analysis. Reading
Research Quarterly, 46(3), 250-287. Retrieved from www.Jstor.org/stable/74111.
Yopp, H. K. (1998). The Validity and Reliability of Phonemic Awareness Tests. Reading
Research Quarterly, 23(2), 159-177. doi:10.2307/747800
Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Rose, E., Lindamood, P., Conway, T., &
Garvan, C. (1999). Preventing reading failure in young children with phonological
processing disabilities: Group and individual responses to instruction. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 91(4), 579-593. doi:10.1037//0022-0663.91.4.579
Ball, E. W., & Blachman, B. A. (1991). Does Phoneme Awareness Training in
Kindergarten Make a Difference in Early Word Recognition and Developmental
Spelling? Reading Research Quarterly, 26(1), 49-66. doi:10.1598/rrq.26.1.3