The Fate of Phonemic Awareness Beyond The Elementary School

Gee, Sue, I would worry about some people picking on this as another place to hang misinterpretations.

Let us please all note that PA does NOT disappear or even get lower than the age where we usually teach reading! It merely drops below the high level attained in the years when students are increasing reading vocabulary the most.

Well then again makes you wonder about the LAC. I believe I would have trouble with it! It is one hard test, not that I have seen it in all, just parts of it.

You take some blocks, assign them as sounds and then start rearranging them.

But then keep in mind I’m not a normal adult. I’d be happier if they used the CTOPP, as at least it is an easier test. The LAC may represent more of a loss in some short term memory or somesuch.

—des

No, it’s not lower than that of average kiddos of reading-teaching age… but they’re just learning to read. Do we need better PA / get better PA as we become better readers? I dunno.

Yes, information can be misinterpreted. When you already have a conclusion and a mindset, you’ll look for a way to interpret anything to support your view (this article is cited in “the case against phonemic awareness” and other places). I do have to wonder if it has bearing on how we teach older students to read, though — certainly on how we assess them.

If somebody gloms that as Further Evidence That Phonics is horrible torture inflicted on teachers and students as part of a profit-margin conspiracy…. well, they’ll be looking for that anyway. Somebody just might have something else more interesting to suggest, though. Censorship is just not my style .

It only begs teh question of precisely how important the PA is for reading at an older age - whether you need it to figure things out at the beginning, and then you don’t need it for the more sophisticated stuff because everything’s gone to automatic — in which case, age notwithstanding, it should be built into instruction. Or, does how we process language change? And of course, it’s going to be different for different kinds of learners …. and were any choral singers in the mix?

Maybe it just becomes automatic and thus less consciously known. I can’t say I had a lot of phonemic awareness prior to acquiring it to teach my son. This is not to say I didn’t once have it….I probably did but I didn’t even realize little things like short words with e at the end almost always have long vowels. I could read all these words….I just didn’t realize the pattern.

I don’t know if the fact that adults and older kids become automatic means anything about how we should teach struggling readers.

Beth

When the struggling readers are adult, it’s worth entertaining whether the high PA is a necessary stage — or wehther it’s part of the phenomenon of spoken languages being more easily acquired while younger.