Word limit: 1800 (+/- 10%)
Due date: April 28
This assignment will be in the form of an essay. The topic of this essay is centred on the teaching of phonological awareness in support of children’s emergent and early reading and writing development.
For this essay, you are required to choose a specific group (for example, 3 to 4 year olds or 6 to 7 year olds) to focus on. In addition, references to a relevant sub-outcome under Outcome 5 from the Early Years Learning Framework or a relevant content description from the Australian curriculum: English (or a state equivalent) must also be included in your essay to contextualise your descriptions of the learning experience and the teaching resource.
Your essay must address the following components:
• Using research literature and relevant sources, critically discuss the importance of teaching phonological awareness in relation to children’s emergent and early reading and writing development.
• Describe and evaluate a learning experience that supports the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.
• Describe and evaluate a teaching resource that supports the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.
Your essay can be structured as follows:
1. Introduction (approximately 100 words):
• Introduce the topic.
• Include a thesis statement.
• Outline how you intend to address the topic in your essay.
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2. Body of the essay (approximately 1600 words)
• This section will consist of a series of paragraphs through which you will address the components of the essay.
• Each paragraph in this section should begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea or theme of that paragraph. Typically, the topic sentence and the discussions would be supported with a reference to scholarly or professional source(s).
• It would be ideal to try and keep to one main idea or theme per paragraph. In addition, avoid writing paragraphs that only consist of one or two sentences.
• Ensure that there is a cohesive flow of ideas throughout the series paragraphs.
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3. Conclusion ( approximately 100 words)
• Highlight the key points that you have covered in your essay.
• Relate your key points back to your thesis statement.
• State your concluding remarks.
Note: Your essay needs to be written in third person and you must justify your explanations and Assessments by making links to the EYLF, the Australian Curriculum, your relevant state/territory curriculum, scholarly sources and other relevant sources—at least 10 references. All references cited in your essay must be included in your reference list using the APA 7th edition style. This reference list will not be included in the word count.
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Introduction
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) that make up spoken language. It is a critical foundation skill for reading and writing, and research has shown that children who have strong phonological awareness skills are more likely to be successful readers and writers (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).
In this essay, I will critically discuss the importance of teaching phonological awareness in relation to children’s emergent and early reading and writing development. I will then describe and evaluate a learning experience and a teaching resource that support the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.
The Importance of Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is important for reading and writing for a number of reasons. First, it helps children to understand that words are made up of individual sounds. This is essential for decoding words, which is the process of sounding out the individual sounds in a word and blending them together to read the word. Second, phonological awareness helps children to learn letter-sound correspondences, which is the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent. This is essential for spelling words, which is the process of writing the individual sounds in a word using the correct letters. Third, phonological awareness helps children to develop fluency, which is the ability to read words quickly and accurately. Fluency is important for reading comprehension, which is the ability to understand what is being read.
Research has shown that children who have strong phonological awareness skills are more likely to be successful readers and writers. For example, a study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000) found that children who received phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten were more likely to be reading at grade level in first grade than children who did not receive phonological awareness instruction.
Learning Experiences to Support Phonological Awareness
There are a number of learning experiences that can be used to support the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education. Some of these experiences include:
Playing rhyming games, such as “I Spy” and “Pitter-Patter.”
Singing songs that have a strong rhythm and rhyme.
Segmenting words into their individual sounds.
Blending individual sounds together to form words.
Playing with onsets and rimes.
Identifying initial, medial, and final sounds in words.
Manipulating phonemes in words.
Teaching Resources to Support Phonological Awareness
There are a number of teaching resources that can be used to support the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education. Some of these resources include:
Books that have a strong rhythm and rhyme.
Songs that have a strong rhythm and rhyme.
Phonics games and activities.
Computer software programs that focus on phonological awareness.
Online resources that focus on phonological awareness.
Conclusion
Phonological awareness is a critical foundation skill for reading and writing. Children who have strong phonological awareness skills are more likely to be successful readers and writers. There are a number of learning experiences and teaching resources that can be used to support the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.
References
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: Evidence-based reading instruction for kindergarten through third grade. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
