2. Final Project Directions
As a final project, you will develop plans for teaching phonemic awareness in your
classroom, including plans for assessment procedures, analysis, and activities. This
final project template will also include one example of a phonemic awareness
assessment and analysis on a student.
Your plans should incorporate at least one of the technology tools explored in this
course and include details for other types of phonemic awareness strengthening
activities. See the Course Details on the home page top section to review the course
layout, syllabus, and expectations.
Complete this template as the course progresses. This template is due to your
facilitator at the end of Session Six. At that time, your facilitator will review your final
project and provide feedback for you.
3. Part I: General Information
(Session One)
GRADE: Kindergarten
LESSON BLOCK LENGTH: 45 Minutes
Is Phonemic Awareness currently being addressed in your classroom? I do not have my own classroom but I’m imagining what I would do if I
was in a Kindergarten classroom.
4. Part II: Phonemic Awareness
(Session One)
Reflect on one of the readings from this session. Some guiding questions could be: Why is phonemic awareness an important step in
learning to read? Do you currently assess student’s phonemic awareness? If not, what are the early indicators that allow you to identify if a
student is at risk of reading difficulty?
I found the article, The Importance of Phonemic Awareness in Learning to Readby Wesley A. Hoover (Published in SEDL Letter Volume XIV,
Number 3, December 2002, Putting Reading First) particularly thought-provoking. The section that discusses the reasons of how and why
phonemic awareness can be difficult to acquire answered a lot of my questions. I have been trying to figure out how to coach a teacher with
her letter/sound instruction. When using an alphabet chart, she often pronounces the sounds incorrectly. She includes the /schwa/ at the end
of many letters. The article suggests that this happens when we say the word BUG. It states,
“Second, the sound units that are transmitted in speech that are derived from the underlying abstract phonemes do not arrive at the ear in a
strict serial order. Rather the information that allows the hearer to detect the first sound in a word generally comes overlapped with
information about the subsequent segment in the word Ñ linguistic information is transmitted in parallel.”
This skill is so important in learning to read because it helps students to understand the relationship between the letters and phonemes.
Ultimately, they will have a stronger foundation for reading success.
When the article discussed the fact that if a student is not making progress by third grade, that they will always be behind their peers, it
makes me think of how we are assessing those older students who are behind grade-level. It is appropriate to go back to some of these
early screening tools with older students? Would be be able to find a correlation between their struggle with reading and a lack of phonemic
awareness?
In closing, this article has answered as well as evoked some questions in me. I may consider and assess phonemic awareness skills in
some of my older students in the future. Perhaps, this gap was never closed for them.
5. Part III: Linguistic Components
(Session Two)
From the Yopp article, which activities look promising and intriguing? Which ones might be easiest to incorporate into your
current curriculum? Which activities, before assessing your students, do you think would benefit your classroom most? How could the
activity address the standards?
All of the activities look promising and intriguing. Some of the sound manipulation activities may be easier to incorporate into
the current curriculum than others depending upon which cueing systems we would be asking the students to use and for which
tasks. We have 2, 45 minute blocks of time for literacy each day. One of the 45 minute blocks is reading workshop. We generally use
a centers approach. Any auditory activities such as, rhyming or clapping syllables would be easiest to incorporate into a whole group
activity and then should be followed up in a small group to check for understanding. If we are asking the students to use visual cues to
represent sounds, they should be doing these activities in a small group so the teacher can quickly assess the understanding. If
students are going to be accessing their kinesthetic cueing systems they could do some of the activities as a whole class or as a
center as part of shared reading or independent practice. Although, I would not necessarily ask Kindergartners to do such a thing until
many routines have been set up and they are able to work independently.
On the whole, many activities would be useful to all students even before we actually assess them. Any activity related to
shared reading or songs would foster their growth. I love the suggestion to use the book “We’re going on a Bear Hunt” as a segway for
students to “Go on a Word Hunt.” Such an activity could be great at the beginning of the year when students are getting used to their
classroom environment. They could be looking at labeled areas of the classroom. Even though they may not be able to “read’ the word
they are becoming aware of it and it’s usefulness in the classroom. At the same time it could be used for reading one another’s names
on a name chart, thus building classroom community. Many standards will be addressed.
6. Part IV: Audio Recording Practice
(Session Two)
If you used an audio recording tool that provides an URL please share it here. If not upload it as an audio file here and in the discussion
forum. You upload the audio file by: Clicking on Insert in the tool bar above, then pick Audio, then Audio from file or record audio.
Consonant and Vowel Sound Recording
Reflect on this practice. How do you imagine audio recordings will help you teach and your students learn about phonemic awareness?
I think that audio recordings are an excellent way for students and teachers to be able to hear how sounds and words should be pronounced.
It would allow for students to compare and contrast sounds as well as to hear them multiple times. They could use this in order to
assess their own skill level as well. It can be difficult to hear what one says at the same time as saying it. Being able to record it, then
play it back might bring more clarity.
What struggles did you or your students face or could face?
I think that one limitation of only using audio is that you are not able to see the mouth and articulation of the sounds. If it were a movie,
perhaps it would be clearer.
7. Part V: Student Assessment
(Session Three)
Which assessment will you be using on your student?
I used the Recognizing Rhyme and the Beginning Sound Phoneme Isolation tasks
Insert the URL of your audio-recorded assessment with a student here or upload audio file here and in the discussion forum.
8. Part VI: Analysis
(Session Three)
After completing an assessment on a student or small child, you will reflect on their scores using the appropriate worksheet. Please upload
the worksheets in the discussion forums if possible.
What stands out to you most?
I think it’s really important to think about the student who is being assessed. My student, being 4 years old, would not have done so
well on all of the Kindergarten DIBELS tasks so I chose the two that I thought she would do well with, without confusing her. That
being said, it makes me wonder how students, who are chronologically in the right place, but not developmentally in the right place
perform on these tasks. Is it fair to give all students, at that grade-level the same exact test if we already know that they won’t be
successful? For example, can we give a first grader a Kindergarten assessment until they do well on all of those tasks, then move
them up to the next level?
Reflect on the areas of student strength.
Katelyn’s strength is definitely in rhyming as she got 8/8 correct. In informal conversations and play she can also do real words as well
as nonsense words. She is also fairly skilled at isolating the beginning sounds of many words. She was able to isolate 15/16 beginning
phonemes.
Reflect on the areas of student weakness.
When it comes to isolating a vowel sound at the beginning of the word, she has a little more of a challenge.
9. Part VII: Strategies
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.
Products and Performances
Questions relevant to your lesson
Instructional Strategies
Specific Skills to be developed
Products and Performances – I will look more closely at our Fountas and Pinnell Phonics Program that includes a comprehensive phonemic
awareness assessment. That, along with our AimsWeb data and classroom observations will give me enough assessment information
in order to make appropriate instructional decisions for each of my students.
I would also utilize the corresponding lessons and extensions that the Fountas and Pinnell Phonics Program offers. Additionally, I will
be incorporating lessons from ReadWriteThink and Reading Rockets.
Questions – I wonder what cross-curricular connections I can make so that they learning is truly woven throughout the students’ day. I will
use our curriculum mapping tools to make some connections and plan accordingly.
Instructional Strategies - Overall, I’d like to incorporate more song and kinesthetic learning into my hypothetical Kindergarten classroom. I
feel that it’s often difficult for teachers to fit this “play” into their day because of the curriculum demands that we all face. Many of the
activities are beneficial because they can be woven in throughout the day within a balanced literacy model. I would also make sure
that the instruction is differentiated in order to meet the diverse needs of my students.
Specific Skills to be developed – Rhyming
10. Part VII: Strategies, cont.
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.
Activities and procedures
Extensions and modifications
Materials and resources needed
Websites used
References (copyright needed?)
Activities and Procedures for Rhyming – The class would create a book that was their own version of “Down By the Bay”(
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/generating-rhymes-developing-phonemic-121.html?tab=4#tabs)
This would be done throughout various times in the school day. We would sing the song during transitions, make silly rhymes with animals
during our science unit (perhaps chicks or butterflies), we would write during writers workshop and read books with rhymes during
readers workshop.
Extensions would be geared toward students who are more skills with this activity. I may incorporate some word family work with them
during reading workshop. I may also start them on their poetry folders and ask them to find/highlight words that rhyme if they are
rhyming poems. Likewise, I will need to modify these activities for some students. Perhaps giving them some of the words to fill in the
blanks. For example, “give them a sheet of paper that says “did you ever see a _________ wearing a _________________. I’d pair
that with pictures cards of rhyming pairs that they could choose from and feel successful with. I would also scaffold their learning in
small groups. Perhaps reteaching some of the Fountas and Pinnell rhyming lessons or getting them onto a computer so they can hear
the sounds in another way..
Materials and Resources Needed: http://www.heinemann.com/products/E01377.aspx
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/generating-rhymes-developing-phonemic-121.html?tab=4#tabs
11. Part VIII: Common Core Standards
(Session Four)
Please list all relevant State Standards here. (Please specify your state and provide state standards website URL
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills Pre-K-5
RF.K.2.Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
RF.K.2.a.Recognize and produce rhyming words.
RF.K.2.c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
RF.K.2.e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
Speaking and Listening Standards Pre-K-5
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
SL.K.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail
12. Part IX: Technology
(Session Five)
Include technology strategies you will use in your classroom here, noting also your access to computers and other required hardware. You
may also consider using your newfound podcasting skills in a creative way to help students with phonemic awareness.
We are very fortunate to have access to a lot of technology for ourselves and for our students. We each have our own laptop at well as 4
student laptops in the classroom. In addition to those, we have 6 ipads for student use. We often use the ipads during literacy centers
with Kindergartners. It takes some getting used to but they are quite self-sufficient once they understand how to use them properly.
They have the choice of using headphones as well so that they do not disturb other students.
The first website that I would get my students on would be Arty’s Smarty Doors - http://pbskids.org/lions/games/smartydoors.html. I like this
for Kindergartners because once you click on the link, you have the option of two games. One game would work on rhyming skills
while the other would work on beginning sounds. I liked this because you could direct students to open a certain door but, it looks like
they are all playing the same game.
The second website that I would like some of my students to explore is Frog’s Rhyming Machine -
http://pbskids.org/wordworld/characters/game_frm.html. This site would be great for students who are beginning readers. They are still
able to listen to the sounds but they can also see the words and it gives them a little bit of a challenge.
13. Part X: Reflection
(Session Six)
Please use this section to reflect on your phonemic awareness plans and the process you have undergone in this course. Include the key
points of your learning and how it will change your classroom instruction.
I have become much more confident in my knowledge of phonemic awareness skills and how to instruct studentsto be
successful with those skills. One of the assessments that we give Kindergarten and Grade 1 students is the AimsWeb Phoneme
Segmentation test. Some of our Kindergarten students really struggle with this skill. I’ve realized that this screening tool gives us an
snapshot at how a student performs on a challenging skill. If a student does not perform well on this assessment, then we need to
check other skills along the Phonemic Awareness Development Continuum. (
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_sequence.php) They may need to work on rhyming, word comparison, sentence
segmentation, or syllables before moving onto the phoneme segmentation tasks or skills. It’s important to look at all of these pieces
and work with students where they are at.
At a literacy coach, I would like to ask my Principal for some time, perhaps during a staff meeting, to work with the
Kindergarten and First Grade Teachers and to look at our assessment data in a way that’s more purposeful. I want to explain the
Phonemic Awareness Development Continuum, as mentioned above, and help them to see that they may need to go backwards to
assess some of these skills before going forward and just working with segmentation skills. I would then like to share some of the
resources that I have found helpful and engaging from this course.
If I were a classroom teacher, I would dive deeper into what our Phonics Lessons from Fountas and Pinnell have to offer in
regards to some of the additional phonemic awareness assessments and corresponding activities for practice. I would also incorporate
more technology into my classroom in order to keep students engaged and learning what they need.
14. Part XI
The final part of the course work is to create a file of all the components of your lesson and upload it in the assignment section in Session 6
on the main course page.
This file should include but not limited to:
1. Formal Lesson Write-up
a. Including student grade and level
b. CCSS addressed in lesson
c. Goals and Objectives
d. Skills addressed
e. Clear presentation of the direct instruction
f. Materials and Resources
g. Follow-up and Assessment
2. All printed materials used in lesson
3. Provide a short explanation of the purpose of the lesson based on prior needs and
assessments.
