A look into phonemic awareness, assessments, activities, and reflections of teaching in the Second Grade classroom.

1. Supporting Phonemic
Awareness in the Classroom
Final Project Template

2. Final Project Directions
As a final project, you will develop plans for teaching phonemic awareness in your
classroom, including plans for assessment procedures, analysis, and activities. This
final project template will also include one example of a phonemic awareness
assessment and analysis on a student.
Your plans should incorporate at least one of the technology tools explored in this
course and include details for other types of phonemic awareness strengthening
activities.
Complete this template as the course progresses. This template is due to your
facilitator at the end of Session Six. At that time, your facilitator will review your final
project and provide feedback for you in the Notes section.

3. Part I: General Information
(Session One)
GRADE: 2
LESSON BLOCK LENGTH: 15 minutes 5 time a week, for the first few months of school, extended for struggling readers as needed
Is Phonemic Awareness currently being addressed in your classroom? If so, how? If you are not currently teaching in a classroom, please
fill out this template as if you are teaching in the classroom of your choice.
Phonemic Awareness is currently taught at the very beginning of second grade. We go over a set of skills that can be used to spell words.
I Spend time at the beginning of the year teaching students how they can represent sounds with tiles or fingers to help them sound out
words. This helps them to identify the individual phonemes in words. As the year goes on we learn some more strategies to enforce
phonemic awareness as the spelling words are introduced each week from the given curriculum. We go over some phonemic awareness
each day but its tends to fade as the year goes on and become more spelling practice versus phonemic awareness.
Some students who are struggling will spend more time on phonemic awareness activities. Making sure they can blend letters together, clap
out syllables, sort words by the number of syllables, match pictures to words, sort words by phoneme types and other such phonemic
awareness activities.

4. Part II: Phonemic Awareness
(Session One)
Reflect on one of the readings from this session. Some guiding questions could be: Why is phonemic awareness an important step in
learning to read? Do you currently assess student’s phonemic awareness? If not, what are the early indicators that allow you to identify if a
student is at risk of reading difficulty?
Phonemic awareness is important step in learning to read, because it is the foundation of learning to read. Without a deep rooted
understanding of phonemic awareness students will struggle with any new words they encounter throughout school, home, and life. While
we can always use background knowledge to make a good guess, being able to apply phonemic awareness allows us to confirm or reject
our guesses. The phonemic awareness allows us to take and apply the sounds to letter, it builds a solid understanding of language and the
sounds that essentially make up the words they will encounter daily.
Currently in my classroom we use the DIBELS test to assess phonemic awareness, although we only give a certain battery of the tests at
certain time throughout the year. In second grade we give the Nonsense Words Fluency and the Oral Reading Fluency, the other tests are
available to use at the teachers discretion for more information on certain students. I have also personally used the phonemic awareness
tests that come with Project READ curriculum.
In second grade some of the early indicators for reading difficulty come from ability to learn letter sound correspondence, being able to
identify each sound in a word, repeat them or clap them out, identify beginning sounds, ending sounds, middle sounds in words, difficulty
clapping out syllables, rhyming , trouble following word patterns; all are indictors of some possible reading difficulty.

5. Part III: Linguistic Components
(Session Two)
From the Yopp article, which activities look promising and intriguing? Which ones might be easiest to incorporate into your current
curriculum? Which activities, before assessing your students, do you think would benefit your classroom most?
I found the most promising activity was the activity in which the student works on blending. I find this skill particularly difficult to teach. I find
that it is often tedious and I often feel as if I am getting no where saying each individual phoneme over and over again to have the
student try to blend the phonemes into a word. I was very intrigued by the activity that had the teacher say the phonemes and the
student match the phoneme sounds to the picture card that represented the word the teacher was saying the phonemes for. I really
liked this activity and could see many benefits for it and ways of adapting it as the student progressed. I used it in the classroom and
liked how it worked. I found that it would be more useful earlier on in the school year as my students have made a lot of progress past
that stage in learning to read, however I could easily so how useful it could be in the earlier stages of reading development.

6. Part IV: Audio Recording Practice
(Session Two)
Share your URL to your practice audio recording here:
http://cdn5.blogtalkradio.com/cinch/rec/Recording_457600.mp3
Reflect on this practice. How do you imagine audio recordings will help you teach and your students learn about phonemic awareness?
The audio recording allowed me to hear and correct things I was saying. It allowed me to self correct when what I said didn’t make sense. It
allowed me to read in a way that had more expression and made creating that expression more meaningful for me since I knew there
would be an audience. I can see how it would have the same effects on a student. They would be eager to read in a way that
impressed an audience, they would be able to hear when things didn’t make sense and go back and fix it. They would strive to
improve each time they read because they could hear and note the improvements.

7. Part V: Student Assessment
(Session Three)
Which assessment will you be using on your student? DIBELS
Insert the URL of your audio-recorded assessment with a student here
.
http://cdn5.blogtalkradio.com/cinch/rec/Recording_484288.mp3

8. Part VI: Analysis
(Session Three)
After completing an assessment on a student or small child, you will reflect on their scores using the appropriate worksheet.
 What stands out to you most?
What seems the most significant about the student I am working with is the pace in which she works. She was rather accurate in most of the
DIBELS testing, however she did not meet the benchmarks for her grade and age based on the number she completed in a given
time. Her oral reading fluency was significantly below where it was suppose to be at this point in second grade. As texts become
more difficult and longer this will begin to impact her comprehension more and her overall reading ability. The slower pace with which
she reads will begin make reading more of a struggle for her.
 Reflect on the areas of student strength.
This student strengths seems to be in her ability to decode and use phonics. She is able to segment sounds, she did this very well, she did
occasionally leave blends blended, She had trouble identifying them as individual sounds. She also was very accurate in the
nonsense word fluency. She was able to get all of the sounds correct but did so very slowly. She was not able to meet the
benchmark for her grade because she did not move quickly enough through the words. This clearly impacts her reading, as she can
loose the meaning of a text as she takes the time to sound out each word.
 Reflect on the areas of student weakness.
She needs to build more automaticity with the sounds and words. She does not yet have enough speed to keep the meaning as she is
reading or have the automatic recall for given words. Her pacing and fluency need a lot of practice so that she will be able to complete
grade level assignments in a timely fashion.

9. Part VII: Strategies
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.
 Products and Performances
 In my classroom I am currently using DIBELS testing to see where students are and what they need for phonics instruction. I have
also use the TRC, a reading and reading comprehension test that has students read leveled books and answer comprehension
questions regarding them. As the student reads I keep a running record of their reading tracking what words they get correct and any
mistakes they make. I can then look back and analyze the running records to see what phonemic skills the students are employing
and what I may need to work with them on further to improve their reading accuracy.
 Questions relevant to your lesson
 One of the biggest questions I have when teaching phonemic awareness is how to bring students from individual sounds to
recognizing that the sounds make words? What skills do the students need to be able to do this? What is the best way to teach this
skill? And how do you make the transition? Hear the word created with individual phonemes?
 Instructional Strategies
 I employ a variety of strategies to each this; The most useful one I have found is making sounding out words kinesthetic. We put a
finger up for every sound we hear, when we hear blends we mix with the finger, the short vowel sounds all have movements that go
with them to symbol the sound. I also have modeled sweeping the sounds together with you hand sweeping under the word. We have
also played games identifying phonemes or syllables, sorting words, and other games.
 Specific Skills to be developed
I would like to develop the specific blending skill for some students. As well as a better understanding of the types of syllables
and and dipthong patterns.

10. Part VII: Strategies, cont.
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.
 Activities and procedures
 I used the activity where you say the individual phonemes that make up a word and the student matched them to the picture card in
front of them. I thought this was a particularly useful lesson for students who struggle with blending. I liked that it gave a visual option
with no letters so that the focus was the sounds.
 Extensions and modifications
 As an extension of this activity I would move to more difficult words, multi-syllable. I would then move to matching words spelled out,
or words to pictures. I think as you teach more sounds this lesson or activity would progress with you adding new pictures or words as
you learn new phonics rules or generalizations.
 Materials and resources needed
 You need a list of words that contain spelling patterns and sounds learned as well as pictures to go with them. I created the pictures
myself and made sure the students new what the pictures were of before starting.
 Websites used
 References (copyright needed?)

11. Part VIII: Common Core Standards
(Session Four)
Please list all relevant Common Core Standards here, as well as any relevant Massachusetts Proposed Additional Standards.
Phonics and Word Recognition
RF.2.3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.
Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.
Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.
Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound
correspondences.
Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words
Fluency
RF.2.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression.
Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

12. Part IX: Technology
(Session Five)
Include technology strategies you will use in your classroom here, noting also your access to computers and other required hardware. You
may also consider using your newfound podcasting skills in a creative way to help students with phonemic awareness.
In the classroom I currently have access to a laptop computer and I have two desk top computers. The desk top computers do not support
many of the newer websites since they are outdated. I also have access to a pojector that I can hook the lap top to in order to share
things with the whole class. I also utilize a few computer programs in my classroom. I have an older version of the Lexia program that
I use with a few of my struggling students to reinforce the phonics pieces we have gone over earlier in the year that they might not
have mastered. I also use the website raz-kids.com in my classroom. I have a class subscription and the students use it both at
home and in school. I can set the reading level for each individual students and they can read a book, listen to a book read by a
fluent reader and/or take a quiz on the book they have read. I also have the ability depending on the students home access to have
the students read aloud and record their reading. I can then listen to their reading, much like a running record and analyze the
mistakes they make and see next steps for their reading progress. I have also used the internet access to find many engaging online
games that reinforce phonemic skills we have learned in school or to find activities that I can generate to allow for engaging practice in
school.

13. Part X: Reflection
(Session Six)
Include technology strategies you will use in your classroom here, noting also your access to computers and other required hardware. You
may also consider using your newfound podcasting skills in a creative way to help students with phonemic awareness.
One of the advantages to the podcasting is the ability to hear what you did with a child over again. You can better reflect on your teaching,
when you can hear it again. You can hear student pauses that you might have missed, struggles that the student might have had,
sounds that you might have missed the ability to hear the student again is a real way to reflect on the students learning and your
teaching and get better at it.
I could also see some real advantages to the students oral reading fluency, being able to hear back your reading and then hear the
improvements in your reading. I think that would make reading more meaningful knowing you were being recorded and then being
able to play it back for either yourself or an audience would make the importance of reading fluency more personal.

14. Graduate Credit Work