Word Study

Yopp & Yopp's article on promoting phonemic awareness in the classroom was intimidating at first because I am preparing to become a teacher and can't distinguish between phonetics, phonics, and phonemes. Although I am still confused between their definitions, I feel more confident in discussing phonemic awareness. The article argues that phonemic awareness instruction for young children should be playful and engaging, interactive and social, should stimulate curiosity, AND be deliberate and purposeful. I feel like being a new teacher it would be difficult to integrate all of those expectations and still teach what needs to be taught. Although I had some worries after reading the article, there were some great insights to help teachers find interesting ways to teach phonetic awareness. The article was especially helpful by elaborating on what phonemic awareness instruction looks like in the classroom.The stories and rhymes seem like they would be really fun to teach. I plan on using at least one of the activities focused on rhyming. I also didn't realize the importance of unit of sound and use of cues. The article talks about how the combination of phonemic awareness activities and letter-sound instruction has been found to be particularly supportive of children's emerging understanding of the alphabetic principle. Great article! Definitions, explanations, and activities were very helpful!

 Clark's article was fantastic in describing the benefits of coaching as a highly effective instructional technique. In many of the education courses, we are being taught that modeling is an effective teaching method. Social cognitive theorists believe students learn from watching others, so Clark's article relates back to modeling as a useful method for teaching. The section that lists factors to consider discuss coaching techniques for teachers and will be a great resource to use as a new teacher. Clark's article as well as Cunningham and Allington's chapter discuss the reading process and give examples of lessons to use with students.The chapter explains that in order to move students along in their decoding and spelling abilities in the upper grades, instruction needs to focus on morphemes and how they help us decode, spell, and gain meaning. I really like the chapter help explains different methods and tells you what is most important for students to know at different grade levels.

After reading these articles and the chapter I feel like I'll be spending a LOT more time preparing curriculum and activities than I previously expected. But with all the newer approaches to teaching phonics, I'm sure the new generation of teachers will find effective methods that work best for them.