Phonological Decoding as Part of an Integrated Literacy Program

The following extract is taken from the PETAA book, The alphabetic principle and beyond...surveying the landscape, Edited by Robyn Cox, Susan Feez and Lorraine Beveridge.

Chapter 4 of this text, written by Jennifer Buckingham, Robyn Wheldall and Kevin Wheldall, explains that phonological decoding is fundamental to word reading for beginner readers. We hope that teachers who read it will understand that children are more likely to learn the alphabetic principle and be able to use it to phonologically decode words accurately and fluently if letter–sound correspondences are taught explicitly and systematically and are reinforced through aligned reading and writing activities.

A good understanding of the characteristics of explicit and systematic phonics instruction will lead teachers to develop lessons that embed information in long-term memory for instant retrieval. This requires the careful presentation of new content and then repeated and varied opportunities to practise and apply this knowledge. Here are some specific ways in which the program outline can be adjusted to address phonological decoding more effectively.

• The component of the lesson devoted to the development of the alphabetic principle should be at least twice as long as, and more strongly focused on phonics (letter–sound correspondence), than on phonemic awareness, given that this is a lesson plan for Week 9.
• Both new and known letter sounds need to be integrated into the reading and writing activities. In the example outline (see below), a new letter sound is introduced but there seems to be no planned opportunity to practise the new content knowledge in combination with previously taught letter sounds in shared and independent reading, or in writing activities.
• If the book for shared reading is selected to reinforce the alphabetic principle component of the lesson, it would be better aligned with the phonics content, rather than the phonemic awareness content. As phonemic awareness is an oral/aural ability (and does not involve print), it would be more appropriate to connect the reading and writing activities to the phonics content. 

Chapter 8 of this text, written by Bronwyn Parkin and Helen Harper draws attention to the importance of a rich reading of the text. In the case of the program outline above, a rich reading of Rosie’s hat would reveal that:

• the structure of the text is cyclical, i.e. it begins with a lost hat, and ends with a lost hat 
• each page has a similar structure: what happens next in the story is followed by onomatopoeia (printed in capital letters) associated with those events.

The teacher can talk to students about what can be inferred from the sounds represented on each page. The teacher can also select letters and digraphs from the story and, using these, launch phonemic awareness, phonics and handwriting activities.

To make the program more effective, the teacher could:

• incorporate phonemic (rhyming) awareness into the shared reading of the story (e.g. by getting the students to join in with saying the rhyming words during the reading)
• begin teaching alphabetics (knowledge about the alphabetic principle) with words that are meaningful and memorable in the context of the story, and the sounds/letters associated with those words (e.g. focus on / h / (from ‘hat’) rather than / d /).

The teacher could provide activities and opportunities for practice that include:

• returning each day to a rich reading of the text
• combining phonemic awareness, phonics and handwriting so that students can hear, see and write the sounds/letters (e.g. teach the sound, the letters and handwriting of / h / and / -at /)
• teaching letters and digraphs that are prominent on one page of the story (e.g. on page 1: / w /, / h /, / bl / / at /) and using these letter patterns to launch other phonics activities
• inviting students to use their knowledge of letters and sounds to contribute to a jointly reconstructed sentence from the story
• brainstorming with the whole class a new story about losing something, imagining what might happen to it before the owner finds it again, while thinking about the onomatopoeia we might use to help the reader engage with the story.