Anticipation Guide

Chapter 4

Cracking the Alphabetic Code

Part I: Overview

Overview

Chapter 4 addresses many concepts related to phonemic awareness and phonics. Teachers must be knowledgeable about phonemic awareness and phonics in order to teach reading and writing well. Teachers come to this topic with a variety of background experiences. Some may have had extensive phonics training in their early education; others may be unfamiliar with phonics generalizations. Professors could use a pretest to assess their students’ knowledge of phonics generalizations. G. Thomas Baer’s Self-Paced Phonics (Baer, 2003) would be an appropriate source for a pretest. Students could use the results of their pretests to plan a program of independent study.

Chapter Outline

Vignette: First Grade Phonics Instruction

Introduction

Learning Outcomes

PHONEMIC AWARENESS

· Phonemic Awareness Strategies

· Teaching Phonemic Awareness

· Nurturing English Learners

· Assessing Children’s Phonemic Awareness

· Why Is Phonemic Awareness Important?

PHONICS

· Phonics Concepts

· Teaching Phonics

· Assessing Children’s Phonics Knowledge

· What’s the Role of Phonics?

Accountability Check! Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

References

Part II: Teaching Suggestions

Preview and Focus Questions

Phonics has become a controversial subject. Use the following questions to encourage your students to reflect upon their own experiences with phonics.

1. Do you remember receiving phonics instruction when you were in the primary grades? What was it like?

2. What role should phonemic awareness instruction and phonics instruction play in a balanced literacy program?

3. What is the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics?

4. Why do children need to be phonemically aware in order to learn phonics?

5. Which phonics concepts are most important for children to learn?

6. What is the role of phonics in a balanced literacy program?