Chapter 1
Foundations of Reading Development
Course: Foundations Of Reading 890
Subject: Foundations Of Reading 890
Chapter: Foundations Of Reading Development 5849 9750
Lesson 2: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, and Phonological Awareness
Introduction to Early Word Reading Development
One of the most heavily tested areas on the Foundations of Reading exam is the relationship between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics. These three concepts are closely related and are easy to confuse, but they are not the same thing, and the distinctions among them are precisely what the exam is designed to probe.
Many beginning teachers blur these terms together because all three involve sounds and words in some way. A teacher might describe a rhyming game, a sound-blending task, and a letter-sound lesson all as "phonics," when in fact only the last one is. .
A useful way to think about these skills is as a developmental progression that moves from the broadest, most concrete awareness of language toward the most fine-grained and abstract: