Effective Reading Instruction in the Elementary School Setting : Week 2~ Phonological Awareness vs. Phonemic Awareness

   (Click on the picture above to read the first post in this series.)

Welcome to this week's discussion on Phonological Awareness vs. Phonemic Awareness. This week I will continue to share ideas to assist students in the mastery of  phonological awareness subsets word awareness and syllable awareness. 

Word Awareness

Word awareness is one area in phonological awareness. This skill requires students to be able to distinguish individual words from a sentence or phrase. Students that have word awareness will be able to explain the different words that are within a sentence. For example:

I am playing.  
Children with word awareness will be able to explain that this sentence has three words.

/I/  /am/ /playing/.

What Strategy will help with word awareness?

One strategy that you can use to introduce this concept is a "Word Count" graphic organizer.  To begin, model how to use the "Word Count" graphic organizer by saying a simple sentence with only two to three words. Then repeat the sentence using pauses in between words to ensure students can distinguish individual words. Also, place a counter on the  "Word Count" graphic organizer for each word.  (Be sure to cover the graphic organizer from left to right to model how students would read the sentence.)  Complete this process with several more sentences and give students opportunities to work with partners and individual practice.  Be sure to have students explain how they completed the graphic organizer to assess their understanding of the skill.
I have create a graphic organizer you can download and use to implement this method.

Syllable Awareness

Syllables awareness develops after students understand word awareness. Teachers can begin to teach syllable awareness using students names,compound words and eventually moving to words with two or more syllables. Listed below are wonderful resources that can be used to teach syllable awareness.

Websites with Great Syllable Awareness Activities 

Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom 

Florida Center for Reading Research
http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/pdf/GK-1/PA_Final_Part2.pdf 

Your Turn~

I hope you found this post full of information and strategies you can use in your classroom. Also, I would love to hear from you!  So let's have a share session. :) 
Please respond to the following questions.

1. What did you find the most useful in this week's post? 

2. What activities and strategies do you use in your classroom to teach these skills?

I am so looking forward to hearing from you!

Next Week ~Phonemic Awareness

References 
http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/pdf/GK-1/PA_Final_Part2.pdf
http://www.readingfirst.virginia.edu/prof_dev/phonemic_awareness/words_syllables.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom