Quizzaroni Number One & Announcements

Nice job folks!  Many of you did well on the first quiz.  Hard work pays off.  Now that we have passed mid-semester, it is time for us to delve into some phonemic awareness activities.  We will be visiting Leap Frog Nursery School and you will have the opportunity to play phonological games with the children.  You will each work with a partner to develop age appropriate tasks that you think the children will benefit from- using the guidelines that I will give you of course.  We will also be visiting Poultney Elementary-kindergarten- so that you can try out your phonemic awareness lesson plan in a couple of weeks. Vavavooom!  We are off and running once more!

P.S.  REMEMBER THIS: Doogie woogies have NOTHING to do with letters!!!  You are working at the phonemic awareness level ONLY when you do a minimal pairs chain A.K.A. "Doogie Woogie" lesson!!!

Phonology Quiz and Midterm Exam

My Lovely Students,

Some reminders as we approach quizzaroni number one and the midterm exam...

1.  Remember that you must focus on the number of phonemes in a word FIRST.  Do not let yourself become confused by letters.  The first thing that we can know about a word is how it sounds.  You need to be able to identify the phonemes in any given word and justify your identification (e.g. some of you like to chunk r-controlled vowels / liquids which makes sense because of the elusiveness of the vowel phonemes surrounding the liquids- just be sure that you know that you're doing it).

2.  Beware of voicing confusion in your own identification of phonemes for a given word (e.g. voiced vs. unvoiced inter-dental fricatives).

3.  All syllables have a spoken vowels, however, lump affixes into a "does not always apply" category.

4.  Nasal phonemes as well as liquids create ALL KINDS of trouble for people!!!  Why?  They change in how they are articulated because of co-articulation in spoken language.

5.  Schwa is probably making more sense as you encounter it over and over again.  Remember:  Schwa is an unexpected vowel phoneme that is found in the unstressed syllable of a multisyllabic word. CALL THE DOG to find out the stressed syllable.

6.  YOU NEED TO KNOW THE CHARTS FOR THE MIDTERM, but not for the quizzaroni.

7.  Phonological processing is the "big umbrella" that includes many domains.  Know these components for the midterm.  I will put great emphasis on the importance of phonemic awareness instruction as well as the different levels of phonemic awareness (think umbrella).

8.  If you have trouble "feeling" the phonemes on the chart, use a mirror and continue to practice.  

9.  BREATH!  You can do this.  If you need me over break, call me.

"The difference between good and great is a little extra effort."

10.  You all have the potential to be phenomenal teachers.  It will be a long difficult journey to get there.   I know that this is new and very difficult material for you; I felt that disequilibrium with the material myself when I first learned it.  I expect you to learn it and that will take a lot of work.  I wouldn't insult you by expecting any less.