The document provides directions for a final project on developing plans to teach phonemic awareness in the classroom. It includes templates to fill out over six sessions that cover topics like phonemic awareness assessments, activities, standards, and strategies. The templates require details on assessments, activities, skills, and using technology. A reflection is also included to discuss how this process has changed instruction. The final submission requires assembling all templates and materials into a formal lesson plan with assessment.

1. Supporting Phonemic
Awareness in the Classroom
Marla Langford

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.

3. Part I: General Information
(Session One)
GRADE: Lower Elementary Grades 1-3!
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LESSON BLOCK LENGTH: 15-20 minutes!
"
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 has roots in my classroom. During reading groups the student will practice segmenting and sliding or blending words
together. However, most students in my class that are struggling readers or not a grade level receive one-on-one instruction with a reading
specialist. They do cover many aspects of phonemic awareness in their lessons.

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? !
Before I became an elementary teacher and taught music I never gave much thought to beginning reading. I would have assumed that you
learn your ABC’s and then what…spelling tests? The whole business of reading seemed to be a mystery to me. Then as I started my
elementary training in Montessori I started learning their process of how to read. In the primary level they teach letter sounds, then integrate
phonemic awareness as students learn to write before reading. They don’t begin with a pencil, but rather a moveable alphabet. Children are
creating stories at 4 years old from segmenting words and using letters to represent those sounds. "
This whole process doesn’t seem so foreign now, because as a musician we learn the notes and the where they are placed on the staff. We
do one note at a time. Pretty soon, the young musician is asked to played a couple of notes (usually 3) in connection with one anther. This
starts their first phrase. It is not pretty, but soon with practice and games to move with ease the music begins to happen. "
It seems to me that phonemic awareness is a cornerstone to reading. Learning to manipulate sounds to and understand sequences seems
as relevant as learning the commutative property of multiplication. I guess you could be fine in math just memorizing 4 x 6 =24 and 6 x 4 =
24, but learning and recognizing the patterns sets up the student for transfer of knowledge. Isn’t that the object of knowledge to be applied?

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? How
could the activity address the standards?!
Some activities that can be easily incorporating in my class include: Going on a bear hunt with slapping toes and slapping knees. My
students enjoy many rhythmic games and when I read this I thought they would enjoy it. We do a count down to group in my class with
different clapping/tapping/slapping rhythms and this time would be a good place to implement it for fun! Also, I think the deletion
exercises would be fun and would incorporate well into some word study lessons that I currently present. The other activity I liked
came from the second article and had the teacher making a matching game with pictures of objects. Students have to match rhyming
words. Since Montessori has pre made material available for the children to repeat I think this game would not only be fun, but they
could add pictures of their own to it and take ownership. "

6. Part IV: Audio Recording Practice
(Session Two)
If you used an audio recording tool that provides an URL please share it here. If not upload it as an audio file here and in the
discussion forum. "
"
"
Reflect on this practice. How do you imagine audio recordings will help you teach and your students learn about phonemic
awareness? !
I think as adults it is a struggle to listen to our own voice. But, we can’t truly hear what the students are hearing unless we listen to an
unbiased recording. Listening to my own voice makes me notice my inflection or lack of inflection as well as the speed at which I
speak…way, way too fast! I believe that when students listen to recordings they can slow down and listen for correct formation and
articulation of speech. "
What struggles did you or your students face or could face?!
For me, I believe patience. It is very frustrating to get half way through a recording and have to start again.

7. Part V: Student Assessment
(Session Three)
Which assessment will you be using on your student? !
Younger Student Pre-Assessment "
Insert the URL of your audio-recorded assessment with a student here or upload audio file here and in the discussion forum.

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.
Please upload the worksheets in the discussion forums if possible. !
● What stands out to you most? How challenging it was for one of my children to segment the last sound of words that end in /s/. As
well as when I sounded out words with a suffix they automatically wanted to omit it. "
● Reflect on the areas of student strength. I believe that they were both quite strong in each component, but I was impressed with
their ability to segment with the /h/ sound. "
● Reflect on the areas of student weakness. As mentioned above, I believe that hearing the ending of words is a challenge. Being
that the end of the word is the last thing you hear I might think that it would be easy to segment that section.

9. Part VII: Strategies
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.!
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● Products and Performances: Products - Wipe Off Board, Markers, Felt Strips, Colored Cubes, yes and no cards, mirrors"
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● Questions relevant to your lesson: What is Phonemic Segmenting, What is Phonemic Manipulation/Deletion, What is On-Set
Rhyme, How many Syllables does a word contain?"
"
● Instructional Strategies: Use the manipulatives to have the students feel the different segmenting and manipulation games. For
example use the cubes to segment then slide them together to blend the word. Or use the cubes to have them segment the sounds.
Using a wipe off board have the students write lines for the number of sounds they hear. Use yes are no cards to have students work
in groups to answer if words have similar or different starting and ending sounds. "
"
● Specific Skills to be developed: Listening closely to phonemes and their relationships through various activities of segmenting,
manipulation and on-set rhyme.

10. Part VII: Strategies, cont.
(Session Four)
Include strategies you will use in your classroom here.!
"
● Activities and procedures: Use the manipulatives to have the students feel the different segmenting and manipulation games. For
example use the cubes to segment then slide them together to blend the word. Or use the cubes to have them segment the sounds.
Using a wipe off board have the students write lines for the number of sounds they hear. Use yes are no cards to have students work
in groups to answer if words have similar or different starting and ending sounds. Use the mirrors to have students watch the number
of times their mouths drop in a word to count syllables. "
"
● Extensions and modifications: Students could extend to larger words and work in partnerships to see if they agree on the number of
sounds. You could create a Sound Bee like a spelling bee for sounds. An older student could teach a younger student this lesson after
receiving it with easier words. "
"
● Materials and resources needed: Wipe Off Board, Markers, Felt Strips, Colored Cubes, yes and no cards, mirrors"
"
● Websites used: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/syllable_games, http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/blending_games "
"
● References (copyright needed?) No

11. Part VIII: Common Core Standards
(Session Four)
Please list all relevant State Standards here. (Please specify your state and provide state standards website URL) !
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.A
Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.B
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.C
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.D
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
Phonics and Word Recognition:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.B
Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.C
Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.D
Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.E
Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.

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.!
I have a couple of students that need remedial work on some phonemic awareness skills. I think that using a personal computer with
headphones would support these students nicely in a fun and accessible way. Also, I think that recommending some of the websites
for home would allow the parents to take some ownership in the process."
I would really like to set up a recording station in my room for students to read into the microphone. I think it would be fun for them to read
books and save their own voice reading stories. Perhaps they could use this for repetition to practice fluency or merely record them as
a record of books read It would be a nice “souvenir” at the end of the year or 3-year cycle in my case. "
Recently, I was just introduced to digital storybook making. I have many if not all students that love writing stories. They like to copy other
people’s work, but the ability to have pre made pictures will help spark their own imagination and creativity. "
In my classroom we have two class desktop computers, two laptop computers, a smart board and projector.

13. Part X: Reflection
(Session Six)
Please use this section to reflect on your phonemic awareness plans and the process you have undergone in this course. Include
the key points of your learning and how it will change your classroom instruction!
I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to take this course. I must admit my knowledge of Phonemic Awareness before this course was
quite limited. I think this course and Jean provided the foundation knowledge and resources needed to begin this important component
of my classroom."
This is my first year teaching grades one through three and I can now see the necessity for this type of instruction. Furthermore, I have
learned the importance and role that technology should play in the classroom. I feel that a great deal of fear and hesitation has been
eased due to the knowledge gained in this course. I have already begun using some of the activities in my presentations and the
children love them!"
As with any class, the more you learn, the more you realize you need to learn. I plan on using the information gained in this course as a
spring board into my next studies. "

14. Part XI
The final part of the coursework is to create a file of all the components of your lesson and upload it in the assignment section or in the
discussion forum in Session 6 on the main course page."
This file should include, but not limited to:"
" " " 1. Formal Lesson Write-up"
" " " " a. Including student grade and level"
" " " " b. Standards addressed in lesson"
" " " " c. Goals and Objectives"
" " " " d. Skills addressed"
" " " " e. Clear presentation of the direct instruction"
" " " " f. Materials and Resources"
" " " " g. Follow-up and Assessment"
" " " 2. All printed materials used in lesson"
" " " 3. Provide a short explanation of the purpose of the lesson based on prior needs and "
" " assessments.