Many districts claim to teach phonics and phonemic awareness but still use balanced literacy- a derivative of whole language.
Ask 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 phonics 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 with 𝐊-𝟑 students in your schools.
𝟏. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬?
Sound Knowledge
Phonemic awareness is identifying and manipulating individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
𝐀𝐒𝐊
What materials or programs is the district using to teach phonemic awareness to children in K-2?
Are these materials used in every K-2 classroom?
Is the school district using a program? What is the name of the program?
Is the program researched-based and/or peer-reviewed?
How well is my child doing with the concepts presented in phonemic awareness instruction?
How will you report my child's phonemic awareness progress?
How can I help develop sound awareness at home?
𝟐.𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬
Ability to match the sounds to letters to form words.
Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, Spelling the sound for k has different options- c, k, ck, or ch.
𝐀𝐒𝐊
What materials/programs are you using to teach phonics?
Is this program peer-reviewed, research-based, or based on the science of reading?
How are you assessing phonics skills?
How will I know how my child is progressing with phonics skills?
How will you report my child's progress? What is the frequency of progress reports?
What plan is in place if my child struggles to keep up with the class?
Describe phonics interventions you are using with children who are struggling.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐊-𝟑 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠?
Decodable books contain words with the phonics patterns the student has learned.
Why is this important?
Children build their confidence reading decodable books. The books allow them to 'take away or decipher the code' based on their known phonics.
Offering regular books to beginning or struggling readers to read independently doesn't work until the student learns the alphabetic code.
𝐀𝐒𝐊
Are decodable texts used in EVERY classroom K-3 and upper grades for students with a learning disability or dyslexia?
Can students read words in isolation based on a taught phonics concept or syllable type?
Are students learning to read sentences with the taught phonics concept or syllable type?
May I have a list of decodable readers to use with my child at home or ask for at the library?