Introduction. Objectives By the end of this session, you will be able to:

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1 Introduction Good phonics instruction should not teach rules, need not use worksheets, should not dominate instruction, and does not have to be boring Stahl and Duffy-Hester Overview Session 2 demonstrated methods for teaching and assessing phonemic and phonological awareness. In this session we ask how important to reading readiness is letter identification and letter-sound correspondence? How can phonics instruction be modified for students with specific needs? You will explore these questions by reading research-based articles on phonics instruction, as well as by viewing videos and interactive activities that demonstrate specific phonics-based strategies. By engaging in the discussion and journal reflections, you will identify appropriate strategies for teaching letter identification and modify existing phonics lessons for English Language Learners and students with special needs. Objectives By the end of this session, you will be able to: Use course readings about research on systematic approaches to phonics instruction to discuss the difference between synthetic and analytic phonics instruction and describe conditions under which one approach may be more appropriate than the other. Given examples of instructional strategies designed to teach letter-sound correspondence, evaluate their effectiveness in teaching students and reflect on the characteristics of students who would be best served by the activities. Using readings about phonics assessment, analyze and discuss students writing samples to determine the students knowledge of letter-sound correspondence. Given descriptions of special needs students and English Language Learners, research and discuss how you can adapt an existing phonics lesson plan to better address their learning needs. If you haven't done so already, download and print the Assignment Checklist to keep track of your assignments for this course.

2 Research-Based Phonics Instruction Exploring the Research on Letter Identification and Letter-Sound Correspondence Read "Everything You Wanted to Know about Phonics (But Were Afraid to Ask)." In this article, Stahl and his colleagues clear up many misconceptions about teaching letter-sound correspondence. As you read, focus on the research-based instructional practices provided by the authors. Discuss the factors that influence choice about how much and what kind of phonics instruction a student needs. Provide one scenario of when synthetic phonics would be the best approach. Next, provide a scenario for analytic phonics. Justify your statements by referring to the readings and examples from your professional practice. As you complete the rest of the readings and assignments for this session, you should go to the discussion forum at least two or three times to continue the discussion. Refer to the discussion rubric to review the expectations for participating in online discussions in this course. Differentiated Instruction Songs and poems that are easily memorized may be used to teach phonemic awareness and print concepts to ELL students. For example, take advantage of a jump rope rhyme that students may chant on the playground. Often these chants require students to blend and segment words. In the classroom activities, present the rhymes such as Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, dressed in black, black, black on charts and computers. Encourage students to apply their blending and segmenting skills to the task of beginning reading.

3 Teaching and Assessing Phonics Teaching Letter Identification and Letter-Sound Correspondence The authors of the next article have been providing teachers with practical and well-researched advice about how to teach phonics for years. "What We Know About How to Teach Phonics" presents the best of the best from their perspective. As you read, think about how you might incorporate these instructional ideas into your teaching. View the video titled Teaching Phonological Awareness of first-grade students learning lettersound correspondence. This video has two parts that highlight phonics instruction. In the first part, you will see a Morning-Message Activity. The second part documents a Word-Family Identification Activity. As you watch, take notes on a graphic organizer similar to the one below. Your notes should include: The students' main task in the activity Your opinion as to the effectiveness of the activity. Use the concepts presented in the reading to help you evaluate the activities. Activity Main Task(s) Effectiveness of Activity Message Word Family The lesson you observed in this video comes from the lesson plan. In your online journal, choose one of the activities from the video and discuss why you think it would be more effective than the others for your students. If you do not currently teach, choose a grade level with which you have experience or a grade level that you would like to teach. (You might consider students at higher grade levels who are having difficulty.) Include the following in your reflection: The characteristic needs of the students. The specific attributes of the activity that address those needs. The kind of support you would provide for students who need more help in order to be successful with the activity. Assessing Letter-Sound Correspondence

4 Based on your experiences, think about the things you can learn about a student when you study his/her invented spellings in a writing sample. Read the following two scenarios. Then engage in an online discussion on how phonics instruction might differ for these students. Think about what type of adaptations you might need to make when teaching phonics to ELL students (students whose primary language is not English) or to students with limited cognitive ability. You may want to conduct a Web search for ideas about how to adapt instruction to meet the learning needs of students like Angelina and Henry. If you include ideas from the Web, be sure to list the Web sources in your posting. Use this Web Search Checklist if you are unfamiliar with making Web searches. SCENARIO 1 Angelina is five years old and a new member of your Kindergarten class. Her first language is Spanish, and she and her family have recently arrived in the United States. Angelina is reticent to join in classroom activities but watches intently as her classmates participate in tasks. She appears very shy and seldom interacts with other students. She appears to understand, or partially understand, concrete directions, especially if accompanied by gestures or modeled by classmates. Angelina nods, shakes her head, and gestures but rarely says anything. SCENARIO 2 Henry is nearly seven and spends part of his day in your Kindergarten class. The rest of his day is spent receiving special services in the resource room. Henry is energetic and eagerly joins in classroom activities. He particularly enjoys finger painting and other art projects that do not require fine motor skills. Henry is difficult to understand when he speaks but appears to understand you and his classmates when they speak. He has difficulty forming shapes and letters but enjoys tasks that incorporate a lot of repetition and physical movement. One of Henry's challenges is remembering. He appears to learn a name or letter but does not remember it the next day. As you complete the activities for this session, you should go to the discussion forum at least two or three times to continue the discussion. Refer to the discussion rubric to review the expectations for participating in online discussions in this course. You may wish to use your ideas and source materials from this discussion question in your final project. Return to your online journal. Review your responses and revise them as necessary by adding ideas and questions that have occurred to you up to this point in the course. Be sure that all of your responses are complete and free of grammatical and structural errors. Your facilitator will be assessing your journal reflections at the end of this session.

5 Self-Assessment (not required) Complete the following self-assessment to determine whether you understand the concepts in Session The most important activity students can engage in during literacy classes is 1. a. phonics practice. 2. b. learning the rules for good grammar. 3. c. reading and writing. 4. d. listening to the teacher read aloud. 2. What is the purpose of phonics instruction? 1. a. to make certain students know the phonics rules to help their spelling 2. b. to increase students' word recognition and reading fluency 3. c. to help students be able to pronounce every word they encounter 4. d. to provide seat-work activities so the teacher can work with other students 3. Which is the best activity of those listed to allow a student to concentrate on beginning sounds? 1. a. using magnetic letters to change the beginning letter on a common root such as _ad. 2. b. memorizing nursery rhymes 3. c. using Elkonin boxes 4. d. encouraging the use of invented spelling 4. Why does the use of invented spelling help students understand phonics? 1. a. Invented spelling encourages students to pay attention to letter-sound relationships. 2. b. It teaches them that there are many ways to spell a word.

6 3. c. When a teacher or parent corrects their spelling, they'll learn the correct form in a way that is more memorable. 4. d. Spelling will help them develop accurate visual images of the word. 5. Which of the following statements is incorrect? 1. a. Phonics instruction should not be multifaceted. 2. b. To become fluent readers, students must learn the common sounds for vowel patterns. 3. c. Decoding by pattern and analogy uses the same units onset and rime. 4. d. Making words lessons promote engagement because all students can be successful. References Stahl, S.A., Duffy-Hester, A.M., & Stahl, K.A.D. (1998). Everything you wanted to know about phonics (but were afraid to ask). Reading Research Quarterly, 35, Used with permission of the International Reading Association. Cunningham, P.M. & Cunningham, J.W. (2002). What we know about how to teach phonics. In A.E. Farstrup & S.J. Samuels (Eds.), What Research Has To Say About Reading Instruction (3rd ed., pp ). Used with permission of the International Reading Association. For video: Teaching Phonological Awareness, Morning Message-Letter/Sound Identification. Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Used by permission. All IRA articles are used with permission from the International Reading Association.

7 Look Ahead You can use the information you learn in each session to help you plan your final project. Session 3 explored the connection of letter identification and letter-sound correspondence to reading readiness and provided phonics-based strategies. You may wish to use these strategies in your final project. In Session 4, you will explore the benefits of including phonograms in a phonics program and preview research-based activities for teaching phonograms and tools for assessment. 2004, PBS. All rights reserved.