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Supporting Phonemic
Awareness in the Classroom
Cumulative Course Assessment Product Template
Mary-Ann Dobbins
Fall 2015

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CCAP Directions
As a cumulative assessment, you will develop plans for teaching phonemic awareness in your
classroom, including plans for assessment procedures, analysis, and activities. This CCAP
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. See the Course
Details on the home page top section to review the course layout, syllabus, and expectations.
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 CCAP and provide feedback for
you.

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Part I: General Information
(Session One)
GRADE: K-3
LESSON BLOCK LENGTH: 15-20 min
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.
We use many strategies to develop phonemic awareness in my classroom. Phonemic awareness is not
addressed at one particular point during the day, but at different points throughout the day. We always try to
make it fun for the students so they are learning when they don’t even know they are. Some strategies are:
● In a rhyming book, we emphasize the rhymes as we read and ask for children’s input throughout the
story for their own rhymes. We use turn to your partner, prediction and making up their own parts of
the story to rhyme (real and made up rhyming words).
● For sounds, we use a variety of techniques, including visuals to connect letters to a picture or sound, as
in “sssss…” for S or using my visuals for th, sh, wh or ch, ensuring to “clip” the sounds with scissors
so the sound is just the phoneme sound, with no vowel attached. The children love using their hands to
clip the sound so there is no vowel attached.
● For syllables, we use clapping, including clapping children’s names, objects in the classroom or ideas.
One tool is to use syllable clapping as an exit ticket before lining up or getting their snack (clap the
kind of snack you have for example).
● Blending and isolating sound tasks using Boardmaker pictures, having the children identify either the
picture and isolate the sounds or peers work with partners to say a word, such as ship, and the other
peer blends the sounds together, as in /sh/ /i/ /p/.

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Part II: Phonemic Awareness
(Session One)
Phonemic awareness starts at birth, discriminating between basic sounds as a child develops. As a child
moves on to toddlerhood and preschool, the development continues. Children who come from literacy rich
environments develop pre-reading skills earlier than those that do not.
Some baseline assessments are completed on my students. Assessments are curriculum based, teacher created
and/or part of their special education evaluation. DIBELS and DRA's, the PASS, as well as the baseline
evaluation for our Reading Street curriculum. are administered to our students also.
Phonemic awareness is the foundation of reading development. Without strong phonemic awareness skills,
children can struggle to read in later grades. It seems that many teachers move students on to the next part of
the curriculum when the students do not have these basic skills completely developed. Phonemic awareness
is the foundation of learning to read. A child cannot progress to reading without having phonemic awareness.
Consistently assessing students, both formally and informally is vital to ensuring appropriate curriculum.
Outside of assessments, knowing a child’s developmental history, can also identify reading difficulties early
on, such as not meeting developmental milestones, being a late talker, difficulty rhyming, impulsivity, ADHD
or an emotional disability. Little vocabulary growth or little interactions with peers can be a sign of a student
that may have a reading difficulty.

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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?
These activities support the development of foundational skills in the First Grade standards. The activities
that I would use in my classroom include:
● Rhyming: The Hungry Thing: I like the idea of rhyming activities, because they can be used
throughout the day. I notice many of my students are unable to extend rhymes to include nonsense
words, so this activity can be used as an exit ticket before returning to their seats or lining up for lunch.
The idea of the student making nonsense rhymes when given a picture for a sandwich, for example,
encourages mental manipulation of the word.
● Phoneme Manipulation: These activities really require the student to understand the phoneme and
manipulate it in their head to change it accordingly. The Bag game suggested really encourages the
student to identify an object and mentally count the phonemes to match the corresponding amount of
cubes. I would use this game as it is multistep and challenging. This lesson can be started with two
phoneme words, then increased as the skill is mastered.

6. Part III: Linguistic Components
(cont’d)
These activities address the following standards:
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

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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. You
upload the audio file by: Clicking on Insert in the tool bar above, then pick Audio, then Audio from file or record audio. If you use another
recording program or tool try to save as a .wav file you are able to save and share the audio directly in PowerPoint.
https://drive.google.com/a/clinton.k12.ma.us/file/d/0B1f6tySdRtQXV0xQc2pJU2tOWVg4cVlYc2JHRlVUe
VJpS2hn/view?usp=sharing
Reflect on this practice. How do you imagine audio recordings will help you teach and your
students learn about phonemic awareness?
I definitely think recordings can be beneficial to teachers and students. Both teachers and students may
be unaware of the way they speak and phonetically read words. In recording we can go back as teacher and
student and identify where errors were made, possibly unbeknownst to us, and correct the errors.
Additionally, recordings can be a beneficial tool to model appropriate phonemes to students.
What struggles did you or your students face or could face?
Recording and listening to yourself speak is never easy. Many people, including myself, do not even
realize how they speak and pronounce words. Shy students may struggle with speaking while knowing they
are being recorded. Other students may act up if they know they are being recorded. Overall though I think
most students are very appropriate and enjoy being recorded and hearing themselves speak, as it is something
novel to them.

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Part V: Student Assessment
(Session Three)
Which assessment will you be using on your student?
I chose to complete Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Assessment on BN.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_wtbhKTzxLoUzBHX2k4OXBvbkFqeDBZQXJwbUV1bklwWjBF/view?u
sp=sharing

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Part VI: Analysis
(Session Three)
● What stands out to you most?
I was very impressed with how well BN did (when compared to his other assessment scores). He was able to correctly
identify all the rhyming/non-rhyming pairs (and even self corrected after we had moved on to the next one). For initial
sounds, he scored 3/5. He was able to blend all the words correctly. Segmenting phonemes seemed a little tricky for
him. With all of the words he correctly identified the initial phoneme but then he grouped the last two phonemes
together – pig was /p/ /ig/ and bag was /b/ /ag/. The Phoneme Manipulation really surprised me. He scored 5/5. A few of
the answers came quickly to B, and for two of them I could see B really thinking about it in his head, and he stuck with
it and came up with the correct answer. I was most impressed with the Phoneme Deletion. I figured this would be the
most difficult for B as he would have to listen and mentally remove the first sound. He correctly answered all five of the
words. Again he really took the time to think about it and was able to answer them all correctly, which is amazing.
Overall I felt B did incredible. He was patient and definitely tried his best. It was a great improvement and I was
definitely pleasantly surprised with the results.
● Reflect on the areas of student strength.
My student score 5/5 on the Rhyming assessment. It seemed really easy for him. My student also score 5/5 on Blending
Words, Phoneme Manipulation and Phoneme Deletion. Twice he self corrected, which I was very impressed with.
● Reflect on the areas of student weakness.
My student was very happy to complete this activity with me. He was willing to try all of the activities. I did have to
prompt him to use his words instead of nodding, so we could hear him on the recording. He made two errors on
identifying initial sounds and had difficulty on phoneme segmentation. I did not give him full points for that area as he
answered the first phoneme correctly, but then blending the last two phonemes, instead of saying each individual
phoneme, so this is an area we will continue to work on.

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Part VII: Strategies
(Session Four)
Strategies for the classroom
● Products and Performances: Utilize manipulatives of some sort (buttons, color blocks, etc.) and
Elkonin boxes to represent each phoneme.
● Questions Relevant to Your Lesson: Will my student be able to identify each phoneme? Will my
student attend and participate appropriately? Can my student mentally manipulate phonemes, segment
and blend phonemes?
● Instructional Strategies: Assess all learners so that activities can be appropriate for the student.
Activities should be hands on to utilize muscle memory (using a manipulative of some sort to represent
phonemes). Restate and positively reinforce the student to encourage attempts and participation.
● Specific Skills to be Developed: Rhyming, blending words, manipulating and deleting phonemes and
identifying initial sounds will be reviewed and developed with my student.

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Part VII: Strategies, cont.
(Session Four)
Classroom Strategies:
● Activities: The first activity will be using Elkonin Boxes. The student will use color cubes and Elkonin
boxes for 3 phoneme words. Each color will represent a different phoneme. Green for initial, yellow for
medial, and red for final phoneme.
The second activity involves matching phonemes. The student will have a variety of picture cards.
The student will match two cards with the same initial phoneme. For example, cat and cow would be a
match as they have the same initial phoneme of /c/.
● Extensions and modifications: For the first activity, depending on the student’s success, the amount of
phonemes can be adjusted. For quick skill mastery, additional phonemes can be introduced or decreased
depending on errors.
The second activity can be modified to include the words at first, then remove the words and use only
the pictures. To make the activity more difficult, lost leaders (cards with no matches) can be
introduced.
● Materials and resources needed: Elkonin boxes with matching pictures, color cubes, picture pairs with
same initial phoneme.
● References:
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/PDF/G2-3/2-3PA_1.pdf
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/elkonin_boxes

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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).

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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.
My school is somewhat limited with technology in our classrooms. Technology in classrooms range from
overhead projectors, anywhere from one to three computers per classroom and/or IPADS. Technology is not
evenly distributed, so some classrooms have access to more technology than others. My classroom has three
desktops, one for my use and two for the children to use. Some technology tools we use include:
● Audiobooks
● Websites such as Lexia, RazKids, PBS Kids, Reflex Math Starfall, Brainpop
● Text to speech technology via an IPhone.
● Recording video/audio with IPhone.

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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.
This course has really opened my eyes to the importance of developing phonemic awareness skills in
children. It seems that most teachers, myself included, know it is important, but do not understand how
important. It is the foundation skill that needs to be mastered before any other reading skills can be
developed.
Some key points that influence my future teachings include utilizing a variety of methods to develop
phonemic awareness including phoneme segmentation, onset and rime, identifying initial phonemes and
manipulating phonemes.
The readings as well as the videos will be used in my classroom to develop strong phonemic awareness
foundation for my students. The activities provided will be used, and my students will be assessed
frequently to determine progression or appropriate interventions if needed.

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Part XI
The final part of the course work is to create a file of all the components of your lesson and upload it in the assignment section in Session 6 on the
main course page.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c_r4fvl-7wx0oKS0gn0LgIroqxXbLwPyY_MjrYZ9vVE/edit?usp=sharing