Assignment 3-Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic Awareness:

My confidence continued to dwindle after taking the phonemic awareness test. Having only answered six of the questions correctly, I realize that I need to learn a lot in this area. The first question answered incorrectly was: “The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the onsets and rimes in words is called______: phonological awareness”. I answered phonemic awareness. The second question answered incorrectly was: “The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate discrete, individual sounds in words is called: phonemic awareness”. I answered phonological awareness. The third question answered incorrectly was: “Phonemic awareness differs from phonics in that phonemic awareness is: understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds”. I chose all of the above. The fourth question answered incorrectly was: “To teach phonemic awareness, teachers should focus on developing their students’ ___________ skills: oral”. I answered all of the above. Thankfully on the post exam I scored 10/10.

What I learned from this assessment that it is important to differentiate between phonological and phonemic awareness. In order to provide students with the optimum instruction, teachers need to pinpoint to the most specific level where the student is struggling. I wonder if there are students who struggle only in small areas or if there are students who either thrive or struggle in all areas of reading. What I enjoyed about this section are all of the fun ideas that teachers can use to teach phonemic awareness.