The Annual Newsletter of the International Reading Association's Phonics Special Interest Group
Tools for Teacher Preparation Programs in Reading Instruction
by Beth Ann Bader-Paetschow
California State University, Bakersfield
Introduction
As a teacher educator on a California State University campus, this researcher
works closely with credential candidates with diverse backgrounds and
varying levels of proficiency in understanding how the English language
works. Many students are themselves endeavoring to attain a basic competency
level in their understanding of phonics generalizations, the phoneme grapheme
correspondences, and the conventions of writing since their prior formal
educational backgrounds have not enabled them to develop and refine this
knowledge base. In addition, these students are required to demonstrate
an understanding of the reading acquisition process as well as systematic,
effective, research-based reading methodology and instructional practices
that will empower them to teach reading to children and adolescents.
Utilizing a systematic word study program, such as Ganske's Developmental
Spelling Stage and Word Knowledge Model, with the synthetic phonics instructional
training of the Spalding Method at the multiple subjects credential phase
in university training is particularly effective for teachers-in-training,
especially those who have limited backgrounds in English phonic generalizations
(Ganske, 2000; Spalding, 1990). The Spalding Method includes a synthetic
phonics component that combines use of the four sensory channels of hearing,
seeing, speaking, and writing to teach the 70 phonograms and 29 spelling
rules (Farnham-Diggory, 1990; Spalding, 1990; Spalding & North, 2003).
In the Spalding Method, the phonograms are the 70 single and multi-letter
combinations that represent the 45 common phonemes. The phonograms and
phonic generalizations are taught through the teacher's dictation of the
Ayres Word List that students enter into their spelling notebooks. This
priority word list contains many of the most commonly used words in the
English language as well as carefully chosen compounds, contractions,
nyms, base words, and derivations (Spalding, 1990). Correct pronunciation,
precise writing, spelling, reading, vocabulary development, comprehension,
and composition are outcomes of the students' use and mastery of the words
in the Ayres Word List at an application level in reading and writing
activities.
As words are entered and marked by the students in their spelling notebooks,
which are similar to word study notebooks, students apply the phonic generalizations
to specific words so that these guidelines and patterns of sound, symbol,
and meaning can be assimilated. Since phonemic awareness practice is a
necessary component of this synthetic phonics program, it is closely integrated
with the spelling dictation exercises and is engaged in during dictation
exercises.
The K-GAPAT and Phonological Awareness Study
The Kindergarten Group-Administered Phonological Awareness Test, or
K-GAPAT, was initially developed for use in large kindergarten classrooms
as a coarse screening tool to assess children having difficulty with rhyming,
initial sound discrimination, blending, segmenting, and dropping of the
initial phoneme(s) on picture word item sets (Bader-Paetschow, 2000).
The K-GAPAT was not utilized in a university classroom to help credential
candidates understand the phonological awareness tasks until the summer
of 2003.
The K-GAPAT enabled the credential candidates to assess their case study
target and tutor children in the fieldwork component of the course. The
K-GAPATwith its accompanying picture format offered children a picture
of the spoken word and served as a scaffold for English Language Learners
who might not have knowledge or understanding of the English words spoken
on the original test. The pictures were an excellent aid for those children
who had lexicon retrieval or short-term memory retention problems that
would interfere with the children carrying out the strictly phonological
component of the task.
Although these pictures provided clues to the correct answer for the
task, they also served as comprehensible input for English Learners. The
adult student could orally administer item sets without the child seeing
the pictures in order to determine if the child could carry out the task
without the picture scaffolds, utilizing auditory input alone. On subtests
such as the rhyme and initial phoneme discrimination, the adult student
could ask the target child to provide a word that would correctly answer
the prompt. The nature of the task as a rhyme or initial phoneme discrimination
recognition task would then become a rhyme or initial phoneme discrimination
production task. Used this way, the K-GAPAT became a springboard for alternative
ways that the adult student could assess the target child's phonological
task proficiency.
Adult students exhibit characteristic learning styles and may need the
same supports as adult learners that they needed as young learners. Many
credential candidates shared that they were visual learners and needed
the support of a visual in order to understand or retain concept material.
The actual K-GAPAT instrument itself proved to be of use to these individuals
since it provided them with a concrete, tangible example of what a phonological
awareness test structure looks like and how it is administered. The visual
and kinesthetic aspects of the K-GAPAT enhanced concept acquisition and
retention, particularly for adult students who needed visual and kinesthetic
experience in their own interactions with new concepts and materials.
The Phonograms, Phonic Generalizations, and Word Study
Many of the researcher's students had not been taught to read through
a phonics approach and had limited or faulty understanding of the English
phoneme and grapheme correspondences as well as the pronunciation and
spelling guidelines that operated on both common and uncommon English
words. The researcher introduced the 70 English phonograms, the Sweet
Sixteen Phonics Generalizations, and a priority word list to her students
(Spalding,1990). Using word sorts as an opportunity to apply the 16 phonic
generalizations studied in the course, the researcher combined two compatible
English language instruction partners by melding word study and a synthetic
phonics program (Ganske, 2000; Spalding, 1990). All adult students found
the phonograms and word sorts to be effective vehicles to transport them
around the circuitous twists and turns of the many-layered English language.
The often confusing orthographic patterns and variable pronunciations
of words were more clearly organized and made sense to students utilizing
the phonograms, phonic generalizations, and word sorts. Enchanting and
attractive phonogram card sets and word sorts were created by the adult
students and used in their tutoring fieldwork. The K-GAPAT, phonogram
cards, and word sorts were useful instructional tools for these credential
candidates. This marriage of methods has been successfully carried out
with adult learners in a university classroom where these future teachers
are participating in a reading acquisition process that they will be teaching
their young students in the near future.
References
Bader-Paetschow, B. (2000). The kindergarten group-administered phonological
awareness tests as phonemic task proficiency measures.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University.
Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys. New York: The Guilford Press.
Spalding R.B. (1990) The writing road to reading. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers.
Spalding, R.B., & North, M.E. (Ed.). (2003). The writing road to reading: The Spalding Method for teaching speech, spelling, writing, and reading. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.