Children must be good readers to achieve academic success. To become proficient readers, they must have strong phonological awareness skills. What are phonological awareness skills, and what do they have to do with learning to read?
Beginning readers must learn that letters represent speech sounds. How do they gain this understanding? By becoming aware of how
- Spoken words can be separated into sounds
- Sounds can be combined to form words.
Almost 80% of struggling readers are estimated to have poor phonemic awareness, a key phonological awareness skill. Phonological awareness lays the foundation for strong phonics skills. Fortunately, research shows that these essential skills can be taught through easy, short, structured activities.
Our online workshop will guide KG and early primary teachers (and parents) in learning how to develop these skills in young children so they can be more successful in reading.
The workshop will explore
- What research says about phonological and phonemic awareness,
- Their role in how a beginning reader learns to read in English,
- The link between phonological awareness and phonics
- Differences in reading in English and the Indian languages derived from the Brahmi script
Participants will receive a handout with activities targeting each skill discussed in the workshop. We will review and practice these during the workshop.