“Phonological Awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.” - "Phonological and Phonemic Awareness." Reading Rockets. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 June 2014.
Course Objectives:
Students will:
- Demonstrate a practical understanding of phonological awareness and its usefulness to beginning readers.
- Evaluate various phonological awareness strategies/activaties and determine their effectiveness.
- Design phonological awareness instruction.
- Examine phonological awareness assessment/progress-monitoring tools for effectiveness.
Course Activities:
Students
will:
- Read scholarly articles regarding phonological awareness and respond in the form of discussion board posts. Elaborate and respond to posts by colleagues. (Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Create educational materials to share with parents/families. (Objective 1)
- Research phonological awareness activities and evaluate their usefulness. (Objective 2)
- Develop an instructional mini-unit (3-lessons), aligned to Common Core State Standards that focuses on a phonological awareness skill. (Objective 3)
- Design a Multimedia Project that can be used during a classroom lesson centered on phonological awareness instruction. (Objective 3)
- Administer a phonological awareness assessment and illustrate its effectiveness. (Objective 4)
- Create a culminating presentation that will demonstrate gained knowledge to co-workers. This should include a technology component, informational handouts, etc.
Assessment:
All activities will be assessed using
scoring rubrics. As a long-time student, I have always appreciated a good,
thorough rubric because it eliminates unneeded worry (by the student) about
teacher expectations. All assignments (included discussion board posts) will be
accompanied by a scoring rubric.
Module 1: What is Phonological Awareness? (Objective
1)
- Read Article “Phonological Awareness is Child’s Play.” Take a stance on the following statement in a discussion board post: Is phonological awareness important to developing good readers? Why? Is it possible to be a good reader without these experiences?
- Respond and elaborate on at least two posts by fellow teachers.
- Create a flyer or newsletter for parents that:
- Describes phonological awareness and its importance to students.
- Demonstrates the parents’ role in development of phonological awareness.
- Possible activities for use by parents/care givers.
- Resources for parents to use to help nurture their child’s phonological awareness.
- Multiple Choice Quiz regarding Phonological Awareness
Module 2: How Can I Teach Phonological Awareness? (Objective
2)
- Research various activities that can be used to teach phonological awareness. Choose one activity for each of the skills below. Practice the activity with a child (age 4-6). Report your findings in a compiled document. For each activity, describe: the process, the student response, the Teacher response and the outcome of the activity. Do you think it was effective? Would you use it in your classroom?Skills:
- Rhyming
- Syllable Counting, Blending or Segmentation
- Phoneme Blending or Segmentation
- Word Discrimination
- Onset & Rhyme
- Discussion Board Post: Choose the activity you found to be the most effective. Share it with fellow teachers. Briefly explain the process, your experience when practicing it with a child and why you chose to share it.
Module 3: Designing
Phonological Awareness Instruction
- Discussion Board Post: Should explicit phonological awareness instruction be required in all Pre-school/Kindergarten classrooms? Defend your position with evidence and real-life examples.
- Design a KTIP lesson plan that focuses on one or two phonological awareness skills. The lesson should last between 30 to 45 minutes and include at-least one form of technology.
- Teach the designed lesson plan and write a 3-page reflection about the experience.
Module 4: Phonological
Awareness Assessment
- Read “Assessment and Instruction in Phonological Awareness.” Respond to the following prompt: Is assessment of phonological awareness important? Why or why not?
- Conduct phonological awareness assessments on four students. The first two students should be assessed using the ESGI software. The other two should be assessed using the PAST test. Report results and write a two-page reflection that compares/contrasts the two assessment measures.
- Final Project: Create a presentation that includes information that can be shared with co-workers to improve Phonological Awareness instruction within your school. This presentation must include: a technology component, informational handouts, accessible resources, etc.
