Phonological Awareness Skills in Kindergarten

Summary of Instructional Problem

Phonological skills are the smallest units of sound. Every word is made up by various phonological sounds. These sounds are strung together to help make up words (Torgesen & Mathes, 1998). Possessing the phonological skills such as rhyming, blending sounds, substituting sounds, and recognizing onset and rhime allows a student to be able to translate all the symbols we call an alphabet into sounds to create words. Phonological awareness is also a major component of any successful reading program.

In the kindergarten classroom students come to me in the fall and are struggling with phonological awareness skills. Many of these children do not possess the basic phonetic skills such as rhyming. The purpose of the needs assessment is to determine if these skills are lacking in all classrooms in the district that I work in, to determine if all instructors understand the value in educating the students, and the importance of these skills for beginning kindergarteners.

Current Conditions and Desired Conditions

Current Conditions

Kindergarten students spend all year struggling with their phonological awareness skills. A large portion of time should be spent on how to teach children how to rhyme blend sounds, substitute sounds, and recognize onset and rhime. Students should be coming into kindergarten possessing at least the basic phonetic skills of rhyming. These basic skills are lacking when entering the classroom in the fall. Without these essential skills children have a much more difficult time becoming fluent readers. When students lack phonological processing skills children are often times predisposed to reading disabilities (Institute for Education Reform, 1997). These sk...

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...n students will possess foundational skills needed to become better readers.

References

Institute for Education Reform. (1997, November 20). California State University. Retrieved from http://www.csus.edu/ier/reading.html

State of Washington. (2014, March 31). Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Retrieved from Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills: http://www.k12.wa.us/WaKIDS/Assessment/default.aspx

Torgesen, J. K., & Mathes, P. G. (1998). What Every Teacher Should Know about Phonological Awareness. Florida State Department of Educaiton, Divison of Schools and Community Education Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services.

University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning. (2014, March 31). University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from UO Dibels Data System: https://dibels.uoregon.edu/