Phonemic awareness is the capacity to control and concentrate on phonemes in spoken language. Phonemes, on the other hand, pertain to the smallest units in the spoken language with an estimated 41 phonemes in the English language (Brady & Shankweiler, 2013). Effective teaching strategies, particularly for students with special needs as discussed below, are necessary for instruction and the following mastery by the student population.
On the plus side, rhyme generation is a teaching method that can improve students' general phonemic awareness abilities. Students are encouraged to isolate, mix, or blend noises as part of the approach's instruction, and it is ensured that they can manipulate sounds at different volume levels. The students begin by identifying rhythm in the confines of an authentic process such as song or poem. The primary objective of the rhyme generation activity is to enhance students’ critical phonemic skills awareness including but not limited to onset and rime manipulations. Rhyme generation is ideal during the shared reading time or morning massage (Billingsley, Brownell, Israel & Kamman, 2013).
Multisensory Mapping engages all the individual modalities including kinesthetic-tactile, auditory and visual to enhance the sound retention and processing. The aligning techniques here include sound tracing, illustration and chanting that in one way or the other gives multiple sound processing capacities to the learners. The strategy can either be presented as a literacy station activity or can be availed through tutorials (Manyak, 2008).
Picture Card Snap, further, gives scaffold practice in a sound identification and categorization to both emergent and early readers with precise, repeated practice in matching the first, medium and final sounds to a picture. It is ideal for interventional tutorials or as a small-group activity. It provides cued sound signals especially to children with special needs (Brady & Shankweiler, 2013).
Sound Sorts enhances students’ attention to phonemes. The best way to provide and impart Sound Sorts to students with special needs is to tactile letter cards to improve sound processing. It is also ideal for the interventional tutorial sessions (Manyak, 2008).
The last strategy is the Treasure Chest that prioritizes on sound segmentations and blending. The strategy is best applied after adequate teacher scaffolding. It is implemented as a whole class lesson (Manyak, 2008).
PART 2: ACTIVITY
A phonological awareness review is an enhancement tool for language articulation. As such, the tool aids learners with necessary language projection and articulation skills. From the provided class profile, it seems that Arturo and Fredrick would benefit from phonological awareness review. Arturo, for instance, is an English learner but displays low average levels of oral language development and reading performance levels (Billingsley, Brownell, Israel & Kamman, 2013).
Worksheet
Skill
Examples
Rhyme recognition
Counting/clapping syllables
Which of the two rhyme? Hat, bug, bat
Dog (single syllable), feeble (2 syllables)
Onset and Rhyme blends
Produces a rhyme
/c/ /oach/ (coach), /t/ /ree/ (tree)
Show me a word that rhymes with bug. (rug)
Deletion of syllable
2- and 3- phoneme words blending
2- and 3- segments but no blends
Say “bowl” now repeat but don’t say /b/ (owl)
/b//o/ (bow) /s/ /o/ /w/ (sow)
Say the sounds in the word “bone” while moving bead for each of the sound
Phoneme substitution in generating new words with no blends
Change the /b/ in “boat” to /c/ (coat)
Deletion of phoneme in the final and initial word position
Say “cart”. Repeat it again without the /t/ (car)
Deletion of phoneme (initial position with blends)
Say “drug”. Repeat without the /d/ (rug)
Deletion of phoneme in the medium and final positrons
Say “chart”. Repeat without the /r/ (chat)
The English language has a set of foundational skills, regarding student language development. As such it is necessary for the highlighted group (Arturo and Fredrick), to undertake a series of programs under the foundational skills development paradigm. Phonological awareness, for instance, is a foundational skill that can equip the group of learners with adequate knowledge in identifying spoken words, syllables and phonemes (Brady, 2013).An advanced propagation towards the Arturo and Fredrick language development would be to impart knowledge that every syllable must contain a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
Indeed, the worksheet is a display of rhyming sounds from different words. The worksheet further presents a wide array of words, with different pronunciations. The rhythm method builds on previous lesson that in the short and long run improves the student’s sound retention capacity. Additionally, the positions of syllables and vowels vary from one word to the other. It is thus a viable worksheet to assist the duo, Arturo, and Fredrick, identify with the various articulations for vowels and syllables. Additionally, the worksheet would help them identify rhyming words and the positions with which to identify with rhyme in the particular word (Algeo, 2013).The rhyme recognition, counting and identification of segmentation to create a rhyme will transfer the bulk of class work to the student and thus make them participants in the whole process.
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References
Algeo, J., & Butcher, C. A. (2013). The origins and development of the English language. Cengage Learning.
Billingsley, B. S., Brownell, M. T., Israel, M., & Kamman, M. L. (2013). A survival guide for new special educators.
Brady, S. A., & Shankweiler, D. P. (Eds.). (2013). Phonological processes in literacy: A tribute to Isabelle Y. Liberman. Routledge.
Manyak, P. C. (2008). Phonemes in use: Multiple activities for a critical process. The reading teacher, 61(8), 659-662.
