Ep. 181: What Research Says About Phonemic Awareness with Matt Burns

Summary
In this conversation, Matt Burns discusses the importance of phonemic awareness in reading instruction. He explains that phonemic awareness is an outcome of skilled reading, not a precursor, and that it has a reciprocal relationship with reading. Matt also emphasizes the need to focus on decoding skills in second, third, and fourth grade, rather than solely on phonemic awareness. He suggests using nonsense word fluency assessments to assess decoding skills and cautions against teaching nonsense words. Finally, Matt provides practical takeaways for teachers and recommends additional resources for learning about phonemic awareness.
Takeaways
Phonemic awareness is an outcome of skilled reading, not a precursor.
Phonemic awareness and reading have a reciprocal relationship.
Decoding skills are a strong predictor of reading success.
Nonsense word fluency assessments can be beneficial for assessing decoding skills.
Avoid teaching nonsense words and focus on decoding instead.
Go to www.literacypodcast.com to find our show notes with links to resources.

[@sheilakeller8573]

I totally get the segmenting, which is thinking of a word and identifying each sound or phoneme crisply (to spell). Because of the Gonzalez-Frey (2021) study, I think of really anchoring a word with a vowel and keeping that stretched out word connected, like /mmaaat/ or even /caaat/ to teach blending. While reading, many students that don't learn this way, really struggle with recoding. So, wouldn't it be indicated to always teach blending that way, as opposed to the classic "speed it up" segmentation approach?