5.4: Explicit Phonological Awareness Instruction

Systematic Instruction

Systematic instruction is carefully thought out, moves from the simple to the complex, builds on prior learning, and is delivered in manageable steps. The goal of systematic instruction is to ensure that whenever children are asked to learn a new skill or concept, they already possess the appropriate knowledge and understanding to efciently learn it (Adams, 2001).

The first place to look for guidance on how to be systematic when teaching phonological awareness is your curriculum, if you have one. Verify that the phonological awareness instructional plan in your curriculum incorporates the features of effective instruction that are taught and practiced during these PLC sessions. If your curriculum does not provide clear guidance on how to teach phonological awareness, the information provided here can guide you in developing a systematic plan for doing so throughout the year.

A key component of systematic instruction is the order in which skills are introduced. Determining this order allows you to plan a scope and sequence of instruction.

Scope and Sequence

Although there is no one right way or order in which to teach phonological awareness, the phonological awareness continuum included in these PLC sessions makes sense developmentally. Children enter preschool with a wide range of phonological awareness abilities, so children are at different points on the phonological awareness continuum. Some children may not be able to blend two words together to create a compound word (the word level); others may already be able to blend and segment syllables in spoken words (the syllable level). So, a developmentally appropriate scope and sequence is recommended for phonological awareness instruction. If your curriculum does not have this, the phonological awareness continuum from this Module can be used as a guide.

It is not necessary to teach the entire continuum to every child or to teach the same content to all children, but effective instruction includes a clear scope and sequence for all children. The goal is to use informal and formal assessment to determine where each child is along the continuum and then form small, homogeneous (same-ability level) groups so that you can focus instruction on the appropriate level of the continuum to meet children’s needs (Lonigan et al., 2009; Rashotte, MacPhee, & Torgesen, 2001).

Small groups are flexible, so children move in and out of different groups as they progress at different rates.

Explicit Instruction

Small-group explicit instruction is an effective instructional practice for teaching phonological awareness. Small-group phonological awareness instruction is a short part of each day for preschoolers. In fact, brief (10- to 15-minute), interactive, small-group or individual daily sessions using evidence-based instructional methods is all that children require (Ehri et al, 2001; U.S. Department of Education, 2006). This instruction can be embedded into a curriculum that simultaneously supports the development of children’s language, math, social skills, motor skills, and their general knowledge and interests (Philips et al., 2008).

Explicit instruction involves the I Do, We Do, You Do instructional routine when introducing a new skill or concept. For phonological awareness, a small-group explicit lesson might involve a game in which children match pictures of words that begin with the same onset, or beginning sound. Cumulative practice is also an important part of small-group explicit instruction because children need to have opportunities to practice the same phonological awareness skills on multiple occasions. For example, when introducing a new phonological awareness skill during small-group instruction, also review a few examples of the phonological awareness skill previously taught.

After phonological skills have been explicitly taught and have been practiced through cumulative review, implicit instruction is used to provide review and practice to enhance those phonological awareness skills. Implicit instruction is the opposite of explicit instruction. It is used to provide practice opportunities for skills previously introduced using explicit instruction. Implicit instruction typically involves less scaffolding than explicit instruction does. For example, you may have a syllable dance party in the classroom, where you point to an object and name it and the children rock their hips as if they are dancing as they say each syllable in the word. For the syllable dance party the word table is said, ta-ble, while rocking hips to the right one time (ta-) and then to the left (-ble).

Activity Selection

The order in which children are introduced to activities at different levels of the phonological awareness continuum is an important part of a systematic instructional plan. It is also important to carefully consider the specific tasks that children will complete within and across phonological awareness levels for one lesson. Descriptions of these tasks are provided in the previous section on levels of phonological awareness. Keep in mind that for many children:

• Matching and blending activities are easier than segmenting and deleting activities.
• Activities with visual supports and cues, such as pictures of the words, are easier for children than tasks that do not include visual supports.

The levels of the phonological awareness continuum are not discrete stages—where mastery of one stage precedes the beginning of the next—but are instead overlapping. Making the task features of an activity more difficult may make the lesson harder for children than a simpler task at the next level of the continuum. For example, children may find it easier to complete a blending onset-rime activity than an activity asking them to delete syllables from words.

The key is to understand how the phonological awareness level, the task, and the visual supports all independently relate to an activity’s difficulty.

The key is to understand how the phonological awareness level, the task, and the visual supports all independently relate to an activity’s difficulty.

Focus on One or Two Teaching Points

A small-group explicit instruction lesson should be brief and focus on no more than two skills at a time. In each small group it is important to minimize the number of tasks and manipulation of different unit (of language) sizes. Too many tasks or phonological awareness levels in one lesson could be confusing to the children. For example, asking children to blend compound words, segment and blend syllables in spoken words, and identify the first sound in words involves too many tasks (blend, segment, and onset identity) at too many levels (word, syllable, and phoneme). High-quality phonological awareness lessons often include just one or two tasks at a single level, where one task is a new one and the other task is a review.

Scaffolded Instruction

While teaching phonological awareness lessons, it is important to scaffold instruction. Scaffolded instruction provides feedback to children’s responses to help them demonstrate a skill or concept when they could not otherwise have done so on their own. In other words, it gives children the support they need toward greater understanding. Scaffolded instruction includes:

• Providing prompts, cues, and gestures.
• Breaking down the problem into smaller steps.
• Using visual aids.
• Providing an example.
• Offering encouragement.

For example, if you ask a child to say each part in the word purple, and the child says, “purple,” then a scaffold might be to model the answer you were looking for, saying “I’m going to say each part of the word purple, pur-ple,” while clearly emphasizing the pause between the parts. Using hand gestures to represent each syllable also can be helpful. A different scaffold for this same error might be to tell the child that there are two parts in the word purple and ask him or her to say each part with a clear pause in between.

A visual is another scaffold to use for this same error. For example, if you ask a child to say each part in the word banana and the child says, “banana,” use a picture of a banana with three dashes under it, and explain that there are three syllables, or parts, in the word (ba–na–na).

Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction involves implementing different activities for each group based on that group’s instructional needs. For example, you may explicitly teach one group skills at the word level of the phonological awareness continuum, and another group might be ready to blend and delete words at the syllable level. Another way to differentiate is to teach two small groups at the same level of the continuum but to include more challenging activities for one group and simpler activities for the other. Lessons that address each group’s needs should be carefully selected.

Part of differentiating instruction includes pacing and the speed with which children move through the continuum. Multiple small groups might engage in the same level of phonological awareness instruction, but the pace of the lesson for each small group may be different. One group may need more opportunities to practice and receive your feedback, so those children would spend more days in small-group instruction working on a particular skill.

Examples of Effective Phonological Awareness Instruction

The instructional examples presented below incorporate the features of effective instruction.

Example of Lesson On Onset-Rime Blending

The instructional examples presented below incorporate the features of effective instruction.

• The lesson is explicit because it was preplanned by the teacher and uses the I Do, We Do, You Do instructional routine.
• The goal of the lesson is for children to blend onsets and rimes in spoken words.
• This is a task at the onset-rime level of the phonological awareness continuum.
• Two visual props are included to support children’s understanding. Each child receives an activity sheet that has a grid. Each box on the grid has a picture that represents a word: dog, book, table, bears, car, apple, boat, pig. Counters are also provided for each child. The grid with pictures assists children by providing a visual representation of the units the children manipulate, or blend, into words. However, the printed word is not presented on the picture because this activity is designed to be spoken, not written.

	Explain and Model The teacher explains the objective of the lesson: “Before we begin our lesson, let’s name each picture.” The teacher points to each picture as the children name it. The teacher provides the name and description of unknown pictures. The teacher continues, “Now, we are going to put sounds together to make a word and then we’ll find our word on our paper. Listen. What word do these sounds make: /d/ /og/? Dog. Now, I’ll find dog and put my counter on it.” The teacher continues, “Listen to another example. What word do these sounds make /b//ook/? Book. Now I’ll find book and put my counter on it.”
	Provide Guided Practice with Scaffolding Teacher: “Now, together, let’s practice blending sounds to make a word: /t/ /able/. What word?”The teacher and children say, “Table.” Teacher: “Good! Put your counter on the picture of the table.” Teacher: “Nice job putting sounds together to make a word! Let’s do another one together: /b/ /ears/, what word?” Everyone: “Bears.” Teacher: “Great job! Put your counter on the picture of the bears.” The teacher continues guiding the children with blending the onsets and rimes of car, apple, boat, and pig. The teacher provides scaffolding when children make an error. For example, if a child says a wrong word, the teacher might say, “Listen. The parts of this word are /p/ /ig/, while sliding forward one counter for the onset and another counter for the rime. The teacher would then ask the child to try again with her. Or, if the child puts his counter on the wrong picture, the teacher might say, “That is /c/ /ar/, car. Can you fnd /p/ /ig/, pig?”
	Independent Practice The teacher provides several segmented words for each child, one child at a time, in the small group. The teacher encourages other children in the group to listen and think about the answer when it is someone else’s turn. Each child has the opportunity to listen to the segmented prompt and provide the blended, whole word. During this time, the teacher provides immediate corrective feedback and scaffolding, such as repeating the onset and rime using hand gestures.

Repetition and Patience

As a review and for next steps for the lesson just described, the teacher will provide ongoing opportunities to practice blending onsets and rimes to make words. For example, when children are sharing their stuffed animals during show-and-tell, the teacher may say, “Oh, I see a /d/ /og/. What do I see?”The children respond, “Dog.” Other examples include /m/ /ouse/, mouse; /k/ /at/, cat; /f/ /oks/, fox. During a later small group lesson for children who mastered the activities with simple onsets, the teacher may implement the same lesson but use words with more complex onsets like /st/ /op/ and /sl/ /ug/. For blending, you will want to, eventually, remove the picture support so you know that children can blend the spoken words without the use of the pictures.

Small-group explicit instructional activities will likely need to be repeated numerous times with the same and different words before children master the task. Be patient. These activities often challenge children, but they show steady progress when provided recurrent practice and consistent scaffolds.

Learn and Then Practice (A Lot)

It is important to provide multiple explicitly taught lessons when introducing a new skill. Once children are ready for independent practice, they benefit from multiple opportunities to practice the skill. These review activities—called implicit and incidental instruction to differentiate them from the more intentional and systematic, explicit instruction described above—work well when embedded in ongoing instruction and during transitions. Implicit and incidental instruction reinforce new skills but on their own are not as likely to support initial learning. Each time a new element is introduced in phonological awareness instruction, such as a new task or a smaller unit of language size (for example, going from words to syllables), begin with explicit instruction.

Implicit instruction is typically designed to feel authentic and contextualized (built in). It is unstructured in that it does not include the I Do, We Do, You Do instructional routine. It assumes that children already have some background knowledge or understanding of the skill. An example of implicit instruction is reading an alphabet book about farm animals and asking, “Which farm animals were on the D page?” (for example, duck, dog, donkey) and then asking, “Can you name another animal that begins with /d/?” In this example, it is assumed that children already can identify the first sound in a word and match on the shared onset of words rather than having to think about what a duck and a dog look like. You could also call children to line up by the first sound of their names: “Please line up if your name begins with /s/.” This example also assumes that children already can identify the first sound in their own name.

Incidental instruction provides unplanned opportunities to seize the moment. For example, when a child draws a cat and a bat, and the teacher says, “I see you drew a cat and a bat…hey! Cat and bat rhyme! What else rhymes with cat and bat?” In this example, the teacher assumes that the child understands rhymes.

Examples of Explicit, Implicit, and Incidental Instruction for One Skill

Below are examples of how explicit, implicit, and incidental instruction can be combined and implemented to teach children to delete syllables from spoken words.

• Explicit instruction. The teacher implements systematic, small-group instruction using the I Do, We Do, You Do instructional routine to teach children how to delete syllables from spoken words. For example, “The word is teacher. Now, I’ll say teacher without saying tea. Cher.” Five words are used to model (tea-cher, chil-dren, mar-ker, re-cess, sing-ing) and time is provided for individual practice with scaffolding. The teacher repeats this explicit activity multiple times with the same and different words.
• Implicit instruction. During whole-group instruction the teacher leads the I Spy game with two-syllable objects around the classroom. Children say the whole word, the teacher identifies one of its syllables to delete, and then the children say the real or nonsense word that remains. For example, “I spy paper. Say paper without saying per.” The children say, “pa.”
• Incidental instruction. During a read-aloud of Secret Seahorse, the teacher asks the children to say secret without cret. The children say, “se.”

Phonological Awareness Instruction in Action

You may wish to watch these videos to see examples of phonological awareness instruction in action.

Title	Link	Duration
Video 1: The Literacy Tree: A Representation of Foundational Literacy Skills	https://youtu.be/dTzdfHqKh00	2:43
Video 2: Phonological Awareness Continuum	https://youtu.be/k0IDVed9dUU	4:56
Video 3: Small Groups in Action	https://youtu.be/YXaF5qjnSLQ	6:15
Video 4: Word Level Phonological Awareness Lesson	https://youtu.be/LSF1AZjTAqc	4:38
Video 5: Syllable Level Phonological Awareness Lesson	https://youtu.be/CmwMYcQmRGo	5:55
Video 6: Onset-Rime Level Phonological Awareness Lesson	https://youtu.be/FHxs4YiB0ZI	4:23
Video 7: Phoneme Level Phonological Awareness Lesson	https://youtu.be/GJQkPrhspbU	6:36
Video 8: Phonological Awareness Throughout the Day	https://youtu.be/5jicN0F12t0	8:06
Video 9: Phonological Awareness and Considerations for Intensive Instruction	https://youtu.be/YiZMBP9ap50	5:40

Example - Phonological Awareness Instruction in Action: Ms. Warner's Classroom

Daily Literacy Routines

Ms. Warner implements small-group explicit instruction as part of literacy instruction in her preschool class. Each day, she works with small groups of three or four children for 10–15 minutes. Each homogenous (similar-ability) group is flexible, so children move in and out of different groups as needed based on assessment and teacher observation.

Ms. Warner sits at the teacher table facing the rest of the class, so she can monitor as needed. While the small group works at the teacher table, the rest of the class engages in other classroom activities with a teacher assistant or at independent literacy learning centers practicing skills and concepts that have already been explicitly taught. They might also engage in group activities led by a teacher assistant, such as shared reading, math and science activities, or art projects.

Careful Planning

Ms. Warner does not have a preschool literacy curriculum that addresses phonological awareness, so she needs to determine the scope and sequence of skills to be taught. She also needs to find or design the lessons to teach the skills explicitly and obtain and prepare the materials to support the lessons. Ms. Warner plans to use the phonological awareness continuum and information that was discussed in her PLC sessions to inform her scope and sequence. She understands that children enter the classroom with varying levels of phonological awareness and do not need to master all levels of the phonological awareness continuum but make consistent growth. Even though most of her children need to begin at the word level, she still forms small groups for explicit instruction so that the children receive more practice opportunities and immediate corrective feedback and scaffolding from her.

At the Teacher Table

Ms. Warner explicitly teaches a syllable-blending lesson to a small group of four children. She knows, based on prior assessment and her observations, that these children are at the syllable level of phonological awareness. The goal for this lesson is for the children to hear a word segmented by syllables and then blend the syllables to say the word. The instructional materials include a list of multi-syllabic words, objects around the room, picture cards, and a puppet.

Explain and Model

First, Ms. Warner introduces Sam the puppet to the children, allowing each child to say hello to Sam. Then, she explains and models, “Sam says words one part at a time. He needs your help to put the parts of the word together to say the whole word. Sam will look at three pictures and say the name of one picture, one part at a time. Then you will put the parts together and say the whole word as you point to the picture of that word. Watch and listen.” (Three picture cards are in front of Sam: lion, table, window). Mrs. Warner says, “Sam, please name one of these pictures.” Sam says, “Ta-ble.” Ms. Warner responds, “table” as she points to the picture of the table. When saying the words broken apart (in Sam’s voice), Ms. Warner is sure to have a clear pause between the syllables; in contrast, she makes sure not to pause when saying the complete word. Mrs. Warner shows Sam three picture cards (tiger, elbow, kitten) and provides another example, “Sam, please name one of these pictures.” Sam, says “Ti-ger.” Ms. Warner responds while pointing to the picture of the tiger, “Tiger.”

Guided Practice with Scaffolding

Next, Ms. Warner provides guided practice and scaffolds instruction as the children practice blending syllables. Ms. Warner says, “Now it’s your turn. Listen as Sam says the name of one of these pictures.”Three pictures sit in front of the children. Sam says, “El-bow.” Mrs. Warner asks, “What word?” The children point to the picture of an elbow and say, “Elbow.” Ms. Warner says, “Nice job putting el-bow together to say the word, elbow!” Ms. Warner continues with guided practice (li-on, tur-tle). She scaffolds instruction as needed. For example, one child responds tur-tle, instead of turtle. Ms. Warner says, “Sam says the word in two parts, and you put the parts together to say the word. Listen to Sam: Tur-tle. (In teacher voice) turtle. Now you try, tur-tle.” All the children say, “Turtle.”

Independent Practice with Cumulative Review

Ms. Warner then provides individual turns for each child. She continues to use two-syllable words to ensure that each child can blend syllables. She provides immediate feedback and scaffolding, repeating directions and modeling again as needed. Once children master blending with the support of pictures, Ms. Warner eventually uses only spoken words and no pictures. She ends the lesson by thanking the children for helping Sam put parts of words together to say the whole word.

Differentiating Instruction to Meet Children’s Needs

In a later, small-group explicit lesson, Ms. Warner teaches the same skill using different two-syllable words. Once some children have mastered blending two-syllable words, Ms. Warner increases the challenge for these children. She regroups all the children so that the ones who have mastered two-syllable words are together and can move on to three-syllable words. She uses the same activity but increases its complexity by using three-syllable words such as computer and exercise. Again, Ms. Warner eventually uses only spoken words and no pictures, so children practice and master the skill without the support of a picture.

Follow-Up with Implicit and Incidental Instruction

Later each day and throughout the next several weeks, Ms. Warner provides opportunities for the children to practice blending syllables. During snack and lunch time, she uses food words to segment and asks the children to say the word (for example, rai-sin, coo-kie, and sand-wich). She also pauses during a read-aloud to segment a word into syllables and asks children to put the parts together to say the word.

Phonological Awareness: Key Terms and Definitions for Teachers.

Key Term	Definition
Phonological Awareness	The understanding that spoken language can be broken down into parts and the ability to manipulate those parts at the word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme levels.
Phonemic Awareness	The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words.
Phoneme	The smallest unit of sound in spoken words. Mat has three phonemes: /m/ /ă/ /t/.
Print Knowledge	Knowing letter names (M), letters sounds (/m/), and concepts of print.
Phonics	Using printed letters and letter-sound relationships to read words
Alphabetic Principle	The understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.

Reproducible Activities

Review these reproducible activities including the lesson plan for Syllable Graph (with the instructions, graph, and picture cards) and Compound Word Search (instructions and picture cards).

Shared from Kosanovich, M., Phillips, B., & Willis, K. (2020). Professional Learning Community: Emergent Literacy: Participant Guide—Module 2: Phonological Awareness (Sessions 4–6) (REL 2021-045). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

References

Adams, M. J. (2001). Alphabetic anxiety and explicit, systematic phonics instruction: A cognitive science perspective. In S. B. Neuman, & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol. 1, pp. 66–80). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub‐Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta‐analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(3), 250–287.

Lonigan, C. J., Anthony, J. L., Phillips, B. M., Purpura, D. J., Wilson, S. B., & McQueen, J. D. (2009). The nature of preschool phonological processing abilities and their relations to vocabulary, general cognitive abilities, and print knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology 101(2), 345–358. https:// eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ835044.

Rashotte, C. A., MacPhee, K., & Torgesen, J. K. (2001). The efectiveness of a group reading instruction program with poor readers in multiple grades. Learning Disability Quarterly, 24(2), 119–134.

Phillips, B. M., Clancy-Menchetti, J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2008). Successful phonological awareness instruction with preschool children: Lessons from the classroom. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 28(1), 3–17. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ791353.

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2006, December 28). Phonological awareness training plus letter knowledge training. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved April 22, 2020, from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_ pat_lk_100716.pdf