Phonics Screeners and Strategies for Struggling Students

South Todd Elementary February 6, 2013Betsy Madison

Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page

Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonological Awareness Phonological Awareness = • the ability to recognize the sounds of spoken language and how they can

be segmented, blended, and manipulated. • includes awareness at the phoneme level, syllable level, word level, and

sentence level

Phonemic Awareness = • awareness at the level of a single unit of sound, regardless of the number

of letters in the sound (/m/ in made, /th/ in thing, /dge/ in bridge)

Phonological Awareness vs. Phonics

Phonological Awareness = • sound only, listening to sounds and producing

sounds without printPhonics = • Phonological Awareness + letters

• “Vowels were something else. He didn't like them, and they didn't like him. There were only five of them, but they seemed to be everywhere. Why, you could go through twenty words without bumping into some of the shyer consonants, but it seemed as if you couldn't tiptoe past a syllable without waking up a vowel. Consonants, you knew pretty much where they stood, but you could never trust a vowel.” ― Jerry Spinelli

Phonics Continuum• Consonant letter/sound correspondence (K)• Letter names (K)• Vowel letter/sound correspondence (K)• CVC words/short vowel (1)• Onset & Rime/short vowel (1)

– Onset = initial consonant – Rime = vowel and rest of the word

• Long vowel/silent e (1)• Endings (suffixes: ed, ing, etc…) (1)

• Consonant digraphs (beginning & ending) (1)– 2 consonants together that represent a single

sound (th, ch, sh, etc…)• Consonant blends (beginning & ending) (1)

– 2 consonants together that each retain their individual sounds (bl, tr, tw, etc…)

• Letter/Sound variations & generalizations (1)– (kn, gn, ght, etc…)

Hey Betsy!What’s a digraph?

In middle school language, a digraph is a pair of married

letters. They’re stuck together—can’t be separated—make a

whole new sound.Ex…th

Hey Betsy!What’s a blend?

Back to middle school language…A blend is two or three letters who are just “going out.” They

can separate and be by themselves or even get together

with a different letter. They hang out, but

keep their own sound.Ex…dr

• Long vowel digraphs (1)– 2 vowels that make 1 sound, “when 2 vowels go walking…” (ee, ea, ao, ie, ai, etc…)

• Other vowel digraphs (2)– (bread, friend, audience)

• Vowel diphthongs (2)– vowel sound produced when the tongue

moves or glides from one vowel sound toward another vowel sound in the same syllable (house, voice)

• R or L controlled vowels (2)– An 'r' or ‘l’ sound following a vowel sound almost always distorts the vowel, making such words harder to spell (car, bird, corn, walk, tall, etc…)

• Multi-syllabic words (2)

You should suspect Phonics problems…

• if a student, after second grade, belabors decoding.

• if a student, after first grade, does not correctly read short vowel syllables.

• if a student, after second grade, does not correctly read long vowel syllables.

• if a student, after second grade, reads very slowly.

• if a student, after second grade, is having difficulty with comprehension after reading independently.

• if a student, after second grade, cannot break a multi-syllabic word into syllables.

• AFTER you have screened for …PHONEMIC AWARENESS

Phonics Screeners• Phonics Screen• Phonics Mastery Survey• Words Their Way Spelling Inventory

Let’s Practice• Number your paper from 1-25, skipping a line.• I will say the word, say a sentence, then say

the word again.• Spell the word the best you can. If you don’t

know how to spell the whole word, write the letters you hear.

• (please make some errors you would expect your students to make)

Let’s Score• Find Katie’s PSI and Feature Guide• Exchange papers with a table-mate• Score your neighbor’s paper• What do I do now?• On-line tool kit

StrategiesFor all students:• KDE Phonics Instructional Menu• Florida Center for Reading Research• Words Their Way Word Study

Strategies for Older Students• Month-by-Month Phonics for Upper

Grades (Cunningham & Hall)– High frequency words– Patterns, Patterns, Patterns– Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes

• Syllabication Study (See Appendix A)

Syllable Continuum• Closed

–Syllable with a short vowel spelled with a single vowel, ending in a consonant (cat, talk-ed, mis-take)

• V-C-e–Syllable with a long vowel spelled with

1 vowel + 1 consonant + silent e (safe, price, a-live)

• Open–Syllable that ends with a long vowel

sound spelled with a single vowel letter (hi, pro-ceed, ta-ble)

• Vowel Team–Syllables that use two to four letters to

spell the vowel (beau-ti-ful, train-er, spoil-age)

• Vowel –r–Syllables with er, ir, or, ar, or ur; vowel

pronunciation usually changes before the /r/ (char-ter, car-toon, per-fume)

• Consonant –le–Unaccented final syllable with a

consonant before /l/ followed by a silent e (little, loveable, triangle)

Phonics Intervention• Screen to find “holes”• Choose developmentally appropriate

materials• Explicit modeling• Give many opportunities for practice

(reading and writing) including nonsense words

• Teach small, discrete steps• Assess in isolation AND in combination

with mastered skills on the Phonics Continuum– If student isn’t responding…. – Slow down– Repeat

• When first practicing a Phonics rule, do not use similar words. Students don’t know which rule to focus on. It must be explicit.

• Ex…CVC words:– vase cat house rain

• Ex… Short a words:– dog cat run pine

• Later, use similar words.• Ex…Long I words

– live rain line pick

Considerations for Older Students• Be respectful of student’s fears• Don’t use “baby-work”• Consider doing this intensive intervention

out of the general classroom

• Move to real text, for practice, as quickly as possible (high interest-low readability books)

Need help?betsy.madison@grrec.ky.govbetsymadison.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o