Phonemic awareness and the science of reading

What does the National Reading Panel report actually say?

Research is clear: letters > sounds

Phonemic awareness is under attack. Kind of.

Mark Seidenberg, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, has written several recent articles (and a book) questioning the efficacy of the way phonemic awareness is being taught. Phonemic awareness, of course, is regarded as the cornerstone skill for beginning reading and a pillar of Orton-Gillingham and “science of reading” instruction. It is the ability to distinguish and order individual sounds (phonemes) within words.

Seidenberg affirms the importance of phonemic awareness. His contention is that it is widely not being taught in alignment with best practices as outlined in a 2000 report by the National Reading Panel – a report often referred to collectively as “the science of reading.”

In light of Seidenberg’s critique, let’s revisit what the panel’s report says about phonemic awareness and the best ways to teach it.

The National Reading Panel (NPR) is a group of experts who analyzed studies, interviewed educators, and compiled a report outlining the best methodology to teach all children to read. It particularly emphasizes phonemic awareness (PA).

The report found that teaching children to blend and segment phonemes within words leads to better reading and spelling, especially for very young students and struggling or disabled readers.

But how phonemic awareness is taught makes a big difference.

In Orton-Gillingham based programs students typically begin by manipulating phonemes without letters. A core exercise is using colored blocks or squares to represent sounds, then changing them based on teacher instructions. The word “cup” would have three different-colored blocks. To change it to “cap,” a student would substitute the middle block. For “clap,” they would add a new block between the first and second, etc.

This is good, according to the NPR report. But doing the same exercises with letters is almost twice as good.

“PA instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes with letters,” the report concluded. “Instruction that taught phoneme instruction with letters helped normally developing readers and at-risk readers acquire PA instruction better than PA instruction without letters.”

The panel also cautioned that phonemic awareness should be limited to one or two types of manipulations (for instance, blending and segmenting) and need not take much tutor session time.

“More is not necessarily better,” the NPR report states. It noted that students had the largest gains in reading and spelling when total phonemic awareness instruction lasted less than 20 hours.

Here’s where it gets a bit weedy.

Manipulating phonemes without letters – shifting colored blocks, sorting pictures by vowel sounds, pronouncing the vowel sound in “house” – is phonemic awareness. Doing the same sorts of exercises with letters – manipulating Scrabble™ tiles, categorizing words by vowel sounds, underlining the “ou” in house – is phonics.

A helpful distinction: you can do PA activities with your eyes closed. For phonics instruction, you need to see letters and words. The NPR report advocates phonics.

“Teaching with letters is important because this helps children apply their PA skills to reading and writing,” according to the report. “Teaching children to blend phonemes with letters helps them decode. Teaching children phonemic segmentation with letters helps them spell. If children have not yet learned letters, it is important to teach them letter shapes, names, and sounds so that they can use letters to acquire PA.”

Hmm...seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? Phonemic awareness instruction should be done with letters, and does not need to be over-done.

The NPR report does remind that the level and type of PA instruction needed differs by student. Initially manipulating sounds or learning how letter sounds are made by the mouth will be more beneficial for some students. Overall, though, it’s best to start PA instruction with letters over sounds.

Lindamood-Bell’s base reading progression, Seeing Stars™, substitutes letters for colored blocks. Partly because of this, Seeing Stars™ and similar programs have not earned “official” Orton-Gillingham sanctification.

But considering what the National Reading Panel recommends, maybe that’s a good thing.

Comments and thoughts?