Sometimes we think that the different sounds in words, rhymes, or knowing what the beginning sound of a word is comes naturally and there is no need to teach these simple concepts. However, these concepts don't always come naturally. We may not remember learning that stuff, so we may think it came naturally to us, but it might not have! That is why teachers really need to pay attention to teaching phonetic awareness in their classroom.
Not very much time is required to be spent on phonetic awareness, but some students might need it more than others. Some students that may be having a hard time with reading may need a little work with phonetic awareness. It might be all they need too get back on track! What really surprised me while reading From Phonics to Fluency was that even older students can have issues with phonetic awareness. This can actually cause them to have ongoing reading problems. This makes me feel like phonetic awareness might even be more important than what most people think. Maybe we as teachers should spend a little more time in the classroom with teaching phonetic awareness than 20 hours a year.
Small group instruction when working with phonetic awareness might be a good approach for teachers with only a few students who really need the practice. A teacher could identify students that need work with phonetic awareness and formulate a game or a lesson to work with those particular students on phonetic awareness. This might be the point in a student's life when reading starts to make more sense! Since this may come naturally to a lot of the other students, they will not need the practice.
Teachers really need to make sure they know their students well and know exactly when a student is having issues with phonetic awareness. That way, early intervention will be possible and there will be less students struggling later down the road with phonetic awareness.
Christy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that sometimes we forget that certain basic traits of reading/writing don't just come naturally to everyone! There is a need in some classrooms for teachers to spend time on teaching these basic skills. Mastering phonics and phonemic awareness is key for young students. I also like your idea about small group instruction! When teachers have the opportunity to work with a small group of students, they have more possibilities for games and other fun lessons. Small group instruction is just as important as whole group. Finally, I agree that if teachers know their students well, then early intervention is possible. We want to help our students as soon as possible and not let them struggle!