PLC: Emergent Literacy-Module 2 Phonological Awareness (Session 4-6)

Very young children begin to develop language and literacy skills long before they enter formal school. They learn through interactions, conversations, experiences, and relationships with caring adults in their lives. Preschool teachers help children to continue to learn by teaching emergent literacy skills, using effective practices, and supporting all domains of learning and development. The goal of emergent literacy instruction is to teach the building blocks that will, in later grades, provide children the foundation needed to become good readers.

This learning series has four modules and each module includes three sessions, for a total of 12 session. At the conclusion of each session credit hours are available with the completion of the session and survey. For more information about credit hours please contact the Deal Center at galiteracy@gcsu.edu.

Module 2: Phonological Awareness (Sessions 4 – 6)

The phonological processing system in the brain must be activated to perceive and produce the speech sounds of language for a student to read and write. Phonological awareness is the understanding that spoken language can be broken down into parts and the ability to manipulate those parts at the word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme levels. Phonological awareness is a foundational skill for reading. It is associated with achievement in decoding in later grades. If phonological awareness is strong, reading is likely to be strong. If phonological awareness is weak, reading is likely to be weak.

1. Understand phonological awareness and why it is important.

2. Understand the phonological awareness continuum and how to use it for instruction.

3. Understand how to explicitly teach phonological awareness in small groups.

4. Understand how to effectively scaffold phonological awareness instruction.

5. Learn about considerations for teaching phonological awareness to English learner students and students with disabilities.

6. Understand why deficits in the phonological processing can cause reading difficulties and how this relates to dyslexia.

Session 4: Thursday, May 11, 2023 | 5:30pm – 7:45pm (EST) What Phonological Awareness Is, When It Develops, and Why It Is Important

Session 5: Thursday, May 25, 2023 | 5:30pm – 7:45pm (EST) Levels of Phonological Awareness and Features and Examples of Effective Phonological Awareness Instruction

Session 6: Thursday, June 8, 2023 | 5:30pm – 7:45pm (EST) Phonological Awareness Instruction in Action, Considerations for English Learner Students and Students with Disabilities, and Additional Resources

You must register for each session individually. Please select each date in the ticket sales to reserve your spot .

Presenters:

Marcia Kosanovich, Ph.D.

Dr. Marcia Kosanovich is a reading educator with 30 years of experience in teaching, creating and delivering professional development, and designing curricula. Her areas of expertise include reading instruction and intervention for Pre-K-12, ongoing job-embedded professional development for teachers and educational leaders and using data to differentiate instruction. Dr. Kosanovich completed a doctorate in Elementary Education with an emphasis in literacy at Florida State University. She is a former Pre-K-5th grade classroom teacher and tutor and taught undergraduate and graduate courses. Dr. Kosanovich has co-authored intervention reading curricula, research articles in peer-reviewed journals, and chapters in books. She is the former Director of Curriculum and Instructional Projects at the Florida Center for Reading Research and Deputy Director for the National Center on Instruction for Literacy. Currently, Dr. Kosanovich is the Chief Executive Officer for MK Educational Research & Practice, LLC and engaged in literacy projects for the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast at Florida State University.

Amy Reddick, ED.S.

Amy Reddick is an experienced educator with over 25 years in the field of education having served as a birth to preschool professional learning specialist, Dyslexia Endorsement instructor, literacy coach, and educator. Her areas of expertise include ongoing job-embedded professional development for teachers and educational leaders, aligning curriculum to structured literacy, and using data to provide needs-based literacy instruction and intervention. Currently, she is a national trainer for the teacher curriculum Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) and Language Essentials for Teachers of Early Childhood Educators. She works with schools across the nation to provide structured literacy training and continues to serve struggling readers in her community.

Upcoming Events:

Module 3: Vocabulary (Sessions 7 – 9) - TBA

Module 4: Oral Language (Sessions 10 – 12) - TBA