CoL teacher Inquiry - Profiling: Phonological awareness

Reflecting on my previous post about my dreams for literacy in 2023 in my new entrant classroom. I've decided to begin with a focus on phonological awareness as I want to create literacy learning for my tamariki that is based on the science of reading and meets their needs as learners. I believe phonological awareness is a great place to begin this inquiry. 

What is phonological awareness?

Phonological awareness is one of the foundational skills of spelling and reading. It is an awareness and understanding that speech consists of words, syllables, rhyme and individual speech sounds/phonemes in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify the first, middle and last sounds in words, segment and blend CV, VC, CVC, and words with digraphs. I discover this great graphic which gives a good overview of the pre-reading skills within phonological awareness.

Why phonological awareness?

When reflecting on my first year teaching literacy using the BSLA, I noticed along with my colleagues that our children struggled with phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is covered in part by the BSLA programme, but it does not include many of the foundational phonological awareness skills that our tamariki are yet to learn. 

BSLA teaches children to isolate the first sound in words, blend and segment sounds, and isolate the last sound in words BUT it does not teach children about explicitly teach children how to segment sentences into words, produce and discriminate rhyme, blend and segment syllables or delete syllables which are all basic phonological awareness skills.  After conversations with my team leader and our resource teacher of literacy, I decided to make phonological awareness my focus or starting point for teaching with my new entrants in 2023. 

Looking at the data...

I have used the "Phonological Awareness Screening Tool" by Liz Kane Literacy (this is available to download for free from her website).  I also used the data gathered by the Better Start Literacy Approach Assessment Tool which was administered at the beginning of the year. The knowledge I have gained from completing these assessments has given me clear areas of strength and areas of concern for my tamariki.  

Firstly, the Phonological Awareness Screening Tool" by Liz Kane Literacy covered a wide range of basic and early phonological awareness skills. I had included a screenshot of the Google Sheet assessment tracker (available for free download from Liz Kane's website). I can clearly see that all of my tamariki need explicit teaching of phonological awareness. The child listed at the top who has mastered some of the phonological awareness skills has been at school for the longest and last year took part in both the Heggerty Phonological Awareness Curriculum and BSLA.  It is recommended to repeat this assessment for all children who have areas of phonological awareness that need attention at the end of each term, so I will be repeating this assessment at the end of term 1. 

My initial BSLA assessment identified that only two of the children in my class could proficiently identify the initial phoneme in a word and one child could blend phonemes together to make a word. The remainder of the children are unable to identify the initial phonemes in words or blend phonemes together to make words. The BSLA assessment is completed again after 10 weeks of teaching or 40 sessions. 

Looking at the bigger picture, the BSLA phonological assessment task that has been used across hundreds of schools and with thousands of children has identified that maori, Pacifica and children from low-socioeconomic areas are more likely to enter school with lower phoneme identity (the ability to hear the first sounds in words).  This graph shared by the University of Canterbury shows the data they have gathered from all their 'baseline' assessments. 

Within the Manaiakalani cluster, I had a look at the shift in the achievement between the SEA data and the Six Year Net data. I noticed that our tamariki are making progress when you compare these two time points BUT on average our tamariki are scoring below the national average. I could also see that in the 2022 school year within our cluster only a small number of children took part in the BSLA programme so I am interested to see how teaching that is more closely aligned with the science of reading - which puts an emphasis on phonological awareness could have on student achievement. A second observation that I made was that when looking at the wider Manaiakalani programme as a whole the number of children participating in structured literacy in growing from the years 2021-2022. 

Looking at the science of reading...

I've had a look research to explore why a focus on phonological awareness is crucial for becoming a successful reader. 

Below is an infographic created by Dr. Hollis Scarborough, called the Reading Rope. It breaks down the five components of reading into their individual skills that need to be mastered to become skilled readers. The strands are woven together, this is really important as you need all of those strands to become a skilled reader. Phonological awareness is one of these strands. 

If you take a look at the lower part of the reading rope, the word-recognition strands, you can see how phonological awareness, alphabetic principle (decoding) work towards word recognition becoming increasingly automatic - which supports reading fluency.  This lower part of the rope covers three of the five components highlighted by the studies of the Science of Reading, Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle and Fluency. 

This website: Dyslexia Evidence Based - provides a wealth of evidence based information about the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.  

I found this particular paragraph from the document "Teaching Phoneme Awareness in 2022: A Guide for Educators". I found interesting that the ability for our children to progress speech sounds in their minds can support or hinder their ability to map word, meaning our children need to have an understanding of the three forms of a word, the sounds, the orthography (the spelling) and the meaning.  If they are unable to process the sounds of words, they will struggle to learn to read. 

"Both struggling readers and beginning readers have poor phoneme awareness due to underdeveloped, inefficient phonological processing. When students do not process speech sounds precisely in their minds, they may not store spoken words with the level of detail for mapping letters to sounds in reading and spelling. Having crisp, sound-by-sound memories of spoken words is not necessary for speaking, but phoneme awareness is necessary for learning to read. Students who struggle with word recognition and phonics share weaknesses in phonological processing.The discovery and confirmation of this phonological core deficit in struggling readers is one of the most powerful discoveries in reading science. It is simple to identify poor phonemic awareness, relatively easy to provide

explicit instruction, and this instruction supports gains in reading."

I've also explored Liz Kane's website and she has a section called further reading that provides more research and explanation of the science of reading and structured literacy. Here is a link: Liz Kane's Website. 

In 'Building a Strong Foundation for Literacy' by Kathy Barclay, it states that: 

"While some children can develop phonological skills through informal exposure during interactive reading experiences, other children require direct instruction. Thus, it is important for preschool and kindergarten programs to have deliberate and purposeful instruction of these concepts" (p. 6).

I believe that explicitly teaching phonological awareness is the most catalytic area of learning for my new entrants class this year as strong phonological awareness will set them up for success in literacy.  This supports the Manaiakalani kaupapa of "empowering learners". It is so empowering for our five year olds, and their whanau, to experience early literacy success. I have observed this positive start to reading and writing in my classroom this year with BSLA and witnessed the pride in whanau as they see their tamariki succeed as readers and writers. 

Moving forward, I am interested to learn more about the link between phonological awareness, vocabulary development and oral narrative. 

I already know, from my BSLA learning, TESOL learning this year, and my observations as a classroom teacher over the years that these are gaps in learning for my tamariki. I am thinking back to our professional development with Dr. Jannie Van Hees over the years that our children enter school having heard less words and with less conversational practice compared to their peers from different socio-economic communities. I am interested to get stuck in and analyse the "oral narrative" data gathered as part of our BSLA baseline assessment. I believe I underutilized this data last year and I am hoping to make better use of it in my teaching practice in 2023! 

Until next time!  

CoL teacher Inquiry - Identifying valued learning outcomes: Welcome to 2023!

What an unexpectedly weather focused start we have had to the year! It has felt a little wobbly at times with heavy rain, flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle. Thankfully our school community has been kept safe and dry. My class has been coming to school everyday (I’ve had 100% attendance everyday - and long may that last). I have a class of seven five year olds, three who have been at school for a term and four who are new this year. Here's a photo of my class on the first day of school (missing one has he only enrolled in week 3). 

Today I sat and reflected on the year that has been (2022). I thought about what I’d like to take with me into 2023 and what I’d like to leave behind in regards to my literacy programme.

I thoroughly enjoyed studying with the University of Canterbury in 2022 and teaching using the Better Start Literacy Approach in my classroom. I learnt so much about the teaching of reading and believe it was the one of the best pieces of professional development I’ve completed. I now feel much more confident in my understanding of teaching reading and how our brains learn to read. It sparked a passion for me in reading further and learning more about the science of reading. Upon reflection, after teaching using purely the Better Start Literacy Approach, following the lessons exactly as they were prescribed for the year I noticed a few places that this approach could be adjusted to best meet the needs of the learners with my school and elements of the approach where my tamariki really thrived.


I noticed that:

• Our e-Asttle writing results were the biggest win with half my class of 2022 gaining a 1B in writing - this was a decent shift on the previous years results.

• My class loved the structured and repetitive nature of the programme, they settled well and knew what was expected of them and how all the “games” worked.

• The shared picture book was an excellent way of growing my tamariki’s vocabulary - especially when used along the posters (these were created by another BSLA teacher and really scaffolded the tamariki well into remembering and explaining the meaning of the new words). Here is an example: 

• The speed of the teaching was a one-size fits all approach- each week the children were presented with 2-3 new sounds (regardless of their progress learning the sounds that were taught in the previous week). This did not work for many of my learners as it was simply too fast. 

• It was challenging in a new entrant classroom for new tamariki beginning school during the school year. They would be faced with a whole class teaching session - many many steps beyond their own abilities, for example: the class might be learning about split digraphs but they are yet to recognise the first sound in their own name.

• The BSLA whole class sessions required lots of mat-time - something my tamariki coped with but I felt there could be other ways to achieve the same learning while also allowing them to get up and move around.

• Many of my tamariki did not enter school with phonemic awareness required for a good foundation for literacy learning (they could not isolate or manipulate the sounds in spoken language, for example; identifying rhyming words, the first sound in words, or blending and segmenting sounds). Within the BSLA the tamariki do focus on phonemic awareness, but I believe the gap in this area for my tamariki needs more explicit teaching to cover other elements of phonemic awareness (that are missing in the BSLA). For example; simple listening games, rhyming words and syllables. 

I then had a think about my tamariki and what I'd love for literacy learning to be like for them in our classroom this year:

• I’d love to create learning based on the science of reading.  

• I’d love for  literacy in my classroom to not be a “one size fits all” type approach but an approach that that honours my five year olds and everything they bring to the classroom.

• I’d love literacy in our classroom to honour my tamariki who have arrived at school not yet ready for the curriculum. Many of my tamariki are not yet ready to sit still, listening carefully to the teacher, or have not yet developed the fine motor skills needed for a strong pencil grip.

• I’d love  literacy in my classroom to honour my tamariki’s home life. My tamariki bring a home life with them to school that is often complex, at times unsettling and often doesn’t align with the expectations for school life.

• I’d love literacy in my classroom to be a time that honours my tamariki’s need to move and develop their gross motor skills - rather than spending extended periods of time sitting.

• I’d love to create literacy learning that is at a pace that is appropriate for their cognitive abilities.

• I’d love to create literacy that honours the gap in words that my tamariki enter school with, that grows and develops their vocabulary. I'd love for the shared picture books that I use of connect with my learners - I have been on the lookout for picture books by Pasifika authors.  

But most of all I’d love for my students to not leave their learning at the classroom door but for them to see how what they are learning in the classroom connects to their world.

Nga mihi nui! 

Magic Moment!

It's a friday afternoon at the end of term four, the class is busy playing. I am getting all the decodable texts ready for the following week. I put the readers into each groups box. Moments later, I turn around and two of my boys and are rushing over to their groups reading box, pulling out the new books and reading together. Success! 

Better Start Literacy Approach

This year I have participated in the Better Start Literacy Approach micro credential. BSLA is a structured literacy approach to teaching reading and writing in Year 0/1 classrooms using the Ready to Read Phonics Plus books.  

Here are some snapshot of my case study where I analysed the learning that took place for two of the children in my classroom. 

Focus Child A

At baseline was unable to proficiently identify initial phonemes (6/10). The letter-sound recognition task showed that he was unable to identify  the sounds that a given letter makes (1/8). He was able to proficiently complete the phoneme blending task (10/10). 

 

After completing 40 BSLA lessons, he  was now able to proficiently identify initial phonemes and blend and segment phonemes. He is now able to proficiently read set 1 and set 2 words. He is reading texts at the Tupu level. 

The next steps for this child are to continue working through the scope and sequence of the BSLA whole class teaching sessions and the Phonics Plus Readers during our small group lessons. The non-word reading assessment showed that he needs to learn the “qu” sound, a_e, o_e and i_e (the magic ‘e’). These are covered in both the BSLA whole class sessions and the Phonics Plus Readers that we are yet to complete in class. 

Focus Child B

At baseline  was unable to proficiently identify initial phonemes (3/10). The letter sound recognition task showed that she was unable to say the sound that a given letter makes (1/8). She was unable to proficiently complete the phoneme blending task (3/10). 

After completing 40 BSLA lessons, this child was still unable to proficiently identify initial phonemes (6/10) but has shown progress. She was able to proficiently identify the sound a given letter makes with set 1 (7/8) and was unable to proficiently identify the sounds on set 2 (7/11). She was unable to blend and segment phonemes. 

The next steps for this child  are to participate in the explicit teaching and scaffolding provided by a  tier two intervention in the classroom implemented by the classroom teacher. It will look like increasing the intensity of the small group lessons by supporting her phoneme awareness and transferring this skill to literacy tasks in a small group and providing additional exposure to the learning opportunities of Tier 1 by repeating the Tier 1 programme with the whole class (due to irregular attendance).

I differentiated the BLSA for child A by speeding up the teaching of the scope and sequence for him during his small group sessions. The children in this group moved through the scope and sequence of the Ready to Read Phonics Plus ahead of the whole class teaching by working through one decodable per week. 

I differentiated the BSLA for child B by using the small group lessons as an opportunity to create more repetition of the skills she was learning in the whole class session and to provide opportunities to practice the sounds she had learnt in previous weeks.

Child A began reading the Phonics Plus readers at the Kakano level with the level, Tap Tap, and now after 40 lessons is working the Tupu level reading the text “Frog in a Log”. Child A enjoyed seeing the Te Reo Maori kupu in the readers, and quickly learnt that the Te Reo Maori words were non-decodable. 

Child B began reading the Phonics Plus readers at Kakano level, with the decodable Tap, Tap. I noticed that the Phonics Plus Readers started out difficult for emergent readers, like child B and the progressively got more challenging too quickly and didn’t provide my learners with the repetition of sounds needed for them to experience success. The use of Te Reo Maori Kupu in the Phonics Plus Readers was confusing for child B, and many other children in my class. In response to this, the school purchased the “Sunshine decodables” and found the pace of these decodables better suited many of our learners - as they provide 10 decodable texts at stage of the scope and sequence and they closely align with the scope and sequence of the BLSA.  Child B is now reading the Set One ‘Sunshine Decodables’ and the text “Tap the Tin”. This is the ninth decodable in set one. 

The beginning of our BSLA journey began as our school was hit with a wave of covid 19 which affected our attendance negatively for many months. We had planned to invite whanau in, but in these uncertain times it was not safe to meet with our whanau in person. I shared the BSLA information sheet with my whanau individually and spoke to them about our new approach to teaching literacy when I had the opportunity, like during school pick up and drop off times. It was encouraging to hear from whanau that they had observed their children sounding out words and practising the sounds that letters make at home without prompting. We plan to start off the year in 2023 with a Meet the Teacher evening where we will have the chance to share with our whanau the success of this year's cohort using BSLA and the continuation of this  journey. This new cohort of new entrants will be Term One  2023. 

A facilitator of success in our classroom was the high priority I gave to the BSLA. I ensure that all four building blocks are completed during the school day, four times a week.

A facilitator of success for my focus children was their regular and consistent attendance at school. Child A attended school 94% of the time and Child B 91% (the attendance within my classroom ranged from 32%  - 95% attendance - the average being 70%).  I used a Google Sheet to track my classes attendance in our BSLA sessions and I only assessed my children when they had completed 40 sessions, rather than after I had taught 40 sessions of BSLA.  I  built positive relationships with our whanau and worked alongside our school ‘Mutukaroa’ (school/community partnership) worker to break down the barriers to my children’s attendance. 

A challenge that was faced by Child A was he was able to progress through the scope and sequence of the BSLA quicker than his peers. I provided extra support for Child A during his small group reading session by extending using the Ready to Read Phonics Plus books.

A challenge that was experienced  by Child B was her ability to retain information and her lower level phonemic awareness skills. Despite being highly engaged and participating in all of my lessons she struggled to make the expected progress when tested after 40 sessions. She was very good at mimicking the other children in the class and clever at guessing the answers. A positive was that because BSLA assesses children after only 10 weeks of school her challenges were identified early and now she can get the extra support she needs from a tier two intervention. 

The steps I took to identify which children in my classroom needed to participate in the Tier 2 programme were:

• Completing  the 10 week assessment with those children who had completed 40 BSLA sessions. 

• Sorting the data by the “Non-word Spelling” assessment results. 

• Analysing the data using traffic light colouring coding as suggested by the BSLA. I gave a high weighting to the “non-word spelling data” as this is a strong indicator of early literacy success BUT also took into account the children’s scores in other parts of the 10 week assessment and used my overall teacher judgement. 

Plan for Tier 2 support: 

• Teacher to provide four Tier 2 sessions a week to this small group of children using the Tier 2 lesson plans provided on Learn.

• I will repeat the first 10 week of Tier 1 teaching for the whole class as during the previous lesson our classroom experienced low and irregular attendance due to an outbreak of covid 19 in our community. 

Child B has shown growth in their literacy skills after completing 10 weeks of Tier 2 (see the graph above). She has made significant gains as the result of a Tier 2 intervention.

Reflections on my own learning:

• I feel more confident teaching literacy in my classroom. I have found the explicit nature of this approach really helpful as I now know exactly what to teach by following the lesson plans and the scope and sequence, and how to teach it. 

• Initially, I found that change challenging as there was a lot of new learning. My own knowledge of language was very limited at the beginning of this BSLA journey. I have learnt alot about language  this year, and I am keen to continue this learning journey. 

• When faced with challenges and new learning I was well supported by my BSLA facilitator and my team leader (who was also taking part in the BSLA PD). We engaged in professional conversations about the BSLA and structured literacy.  

Kia kaha!

Rebecca Kirby

Better Start Literacy Approach - Maternity Leave PD!

Scrolling on my phone while on maternity leave with my second baby I discovered the Better Start Literacy Approach. 

Junior school literacy was on my mind as my oldest child was due to turn five in the new year and she was very keen to get started with learning to read and write. 

The Better Start Literacy Free Short Course presented early literacy in a way that is very different to how I was taught at University and from my own learning as a child. I am really interested to see how this might be able to be applied to my own five year old learning and that of my new entrant class back at school! 

Here is a link to the free short course offered by the University of Canterbury. 

Nga mihi!