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Directed Questions for Teaching Phonological Awareness
Multiple Choice
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1.
Discuss the instructional considerations required for choosing appropriate words and examples to be used in phonological awareness activities.
example:
Teachers must be systematic in developing an appropriate sequence of activities and in choosing examples of words and sound units for strengthening students´ phonological awareness. Four dimensions of words that contribute to phonological difficulty are the size of the sound unit, the number of sound units, the position of the sound units/cluster within the word, and the phonological properties.
Although the goal is to work with the smallest sound units--phonemes--to help students begin to understand how to start thinking about the sounds in words, it may be necessary to start with larger wound units. Prior to blending and segmenting words at the phoneme level, students may need to work with larger sound units, such as compound words, two-and three-syllable words, and onset-rime units in one syllable words.
The number of sound units is also a consideration. It is easier to work with words with two or three sound units than to work with words that have four or more sound units. The number of letters in a word does not necessarily relate to the number of sound units in a word.
Another consideration when asking students to detect or identify sound units is the position of the sound unit. Sound units at the beginning of words are the easiest to detect. The next easiest to detect are sound units at the end of words. Sound units in the middle of words are the most difficult to detect or identify. This applies to both the syllable and phoneme levels.
The phonological properties or the characteristics of the phonemes also contribute to the difficulty of a word. For instance, words with continuous sounds, single consonants, and voiced phonemes are easier for students to compare, blend, and segment than are words with stop sounds, consonant blends or clusters, and unvoiced phonemes.
In summary, to increase the opportunities for students to be successful, it is important that each of these dimensions be considered in relation to the students’ prior knowledge when choosing examples of words to use to strengthen students’ phonological awareness.
2.
Discuss the similarities and differences between comparing, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds in words.
example:
All three of these tasks--comparing, synthesizing, and analyzing sounds--are phonological awareness tasks. Each embodies a continuum of difficulty that must be considered when choosing words to use as examples for activities.
Comparing sounds is the easiest task of the three and involves both judgments, which are easier, and production, which is harder. Comparing initial sounds and rhyme patterns is easier than comparing final and medial sound units.
Synthesizing sounds is the process of hearing separate sounds and blending them back together to form words. Analyzing sounds includes segmenting sounds, deleting sounds, and manipulating sounds. Segmenting sounds, which is listening to a word and breaking it into smaller sound units, is a complementary process to blending sounds. To develop students’ ability to segment sounds, it is helpful to use concrete objects to represent the different sound units. Once students segment the sounds, they also should blend them back together to form the original word. Sound analysis and sound synthesis are helpful for both reading and spelling.
Students should learn to blend, and segment one type of sound unit before being introduced to a more difficult type of sound unit. Students may need to begin working with compound words, followed by words with two or three syllables, then onset-rime units, and finally, phonemes. The goal is for students to be successful with synthesizing and analyzing words at the phoneme level.
3.
Explain the concepts of phonological and phonemic awareness and describe the roles they play in learning to read and spell.
example:
Phonological awareness is a broad term that refers to one’s sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the sound structures of words. It is being able to segment, compare, and rearrange different sizes of sound units in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is a more refined level of phonological awareness. It is the understanding that words are made up of specific sequences of phonemes, as well as awareness of the unique characteristics of the individual phonemes.
Phonological awareness is important for beginning readers and spellers for three reasons. First, it helps students understand that sounds in words can be represented by letters or graphemes. Second, phonological awareness enables students to notice the regular ways that letters or graphemes represent the sounds in words. Students with stronger phonological awareness can more easily make accurate matches between phonemes in words and the different spelling patterns that can represent them. Third, with a basic understanding of the letter-sound associations, students have a way to approach sounding out unknown words.
Beginning Word Reading
