The Listening Center & Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness is a critical skill in early reading. I was reminded of this as I studied the new SC Readiness Assessment and reviewed current AIMS Web data. As I thought about phonological awareness I immediately thought of a great technology tool - the good old fashioned listening center.

Let's look at the Phonological Awareness continuum. It shows essential stages in order of difficulty, starting with the first skills to develop and moving towards a more complex set of skills. Each level contributes to building a strong literacy foundation. The phonological activities used in the classroom should change and vary by stage as well as difficulty. 

For the next several weeks we will look at listening center activities that foster the development of each skill on the continuum.

Listening: The foundation of phonological awareness is listening.  Being able to attend to sounds in the environment and the spoken word promote phonological awareness.  Activities help children identify sounds, find the source of a sound and listen to sounds in a series. 

1. Same or Different: record sounds of everyday objects, i.e. animals, household tools, musical instruments, nature sounds, etc. Play 2 sounds at a time. Ask students to identify if the sounds are the same or different. Students could record their responses on a sheet by circling the happy or sad face. 

2. Name that Sound: using the same sounds, play 1 sound at a time. Students identify the sound by placing a marker on a sheet with pictures representing the sounds (like Bingo). Start with 5 sounds then gradually increase the number.

3. Sequencing Sounds: play 3 sounds and invite students to indicate which sound was heard first, second, and last.  Picture cards representing the sounds could be used and placed in order or a worksheet in which the students number the pictures 1,2,3 based on the order the sounds were heard.