Learn About This Section

Section overview

Dual language teachers should begin the preschool year by focusing on developing general phonological awareness skills from the first part the Phonological Awareness Continuum (i.e., listening closely to sentences, words, syllables, and sounds).

We want to make sure that children listen well and that they can focus on the beginning and ending sounds of words. Those are the basics. Once children can recognize and hear different sounds (or phonological information), they can begin to manipulate, play, and experiment with what they have learned.

This section focuses on:

 

Developmentally appropriate strategies to use in helping children grasp the more complex tasks along the continuum.

Strategies for reviewing rhyming and alliteration to reinforce that knowledge base.

Ways to use center time to reinforce instruction.

 

We believe teachers need to know the steps involved in the Phonological Awareness Continuum in order to teach them effectively. To support you in memorizing the higher steps of the continuum, we provide a series of fun and simple interactive games

 

 How to Complete This Section

In this section, you will:
 

Watch a classroom video in View a Teaching Example.

Listen to commentary from the teacher and the course advisor in View Comments.

Do two activities to review the material in this section, in Check Yourself.

Try a syllable segmenting activity in your classroom and design a phonological birthday party celebration, in Connect with the Classroom.

Reflect and discuss the content in this section of the course, including your thoughts and reactions to the videos and the activities, in Share Ideas.

Estimated Time Allotment

 

It will take approximately four hours to complete this section of the course. Unless otherwise specified, the entire section should be completed within one to two weeks, before beginning work on the next section of the course.

Professional Development Goals

 

The professional development goals for the course were listed in What You Will Learn in the Introduction section. In this section, you will focus on the following goals:

 

1. Explain phonological awareness, including:

 

    c. memorizing and explaining the steps in the Phonological                   Awareness Continuum.

 

2. Implement teaching strategies that help children develop              phonological awareness, including:

 

    a. focusing children's attention on listening, words in a sentence,            syllables in words, onset-rimes, rhyming, alliteration, and

        individual phonemes;

    b. implementing strategies throughout the day, during transitions,  

        read alouds, center times, beginning of the day sessions, and

        end of the day sessions; and

    c. using specific tools to develop elements of phonological          

        awareness (such as books, pipes, bathtubs, paper bags, and

        mirrors).

 

4. Support children's development of phonological awareness in

    ways that:

 

    a. stimulate and challenge but do not overwhelm the child;

    b. balance the need for direct instruction and child-centered

        activities (indirect instruction); and

    c. progress from modeling, to guiding, and then to encouraging

        students to do tasks independently.