Phonological Screeners: What are they and how are they helpful in the FI classroom?
- FrenchTwistsFSL
- Feb 23, 2021
- 3 min read
I was first introduced to phonological screeners in 2011. At the time, I was a Vice-Principal working alongside select primary FI educators involved in a teacher-based inquiry on how to better support students struggling with French literacy skills. On one particular occasion, our area appointed instructional coach slapped what appeared to be an article on my desk. The article was in fact a monograph entitled: Early Identification and Intervention for At-Risk Readers in French Immersion written by Nancy Wise and Dr. Xi Chen. Based on a study conducted by MacCoubrey in 2004, the authors of the monograph posited that "English phonological awareness tests, administered at the beginning of Grade 1 French immersion predicted future reading achievement of native-English speakers in both French and English" (Wise and Chen, 2009). As I furthered my understanding of phonological awareness and the benefits of phonological screeners, I came to realize that early identification of at risk readers in both English and French was possible. I further thought that if we could create a phonological awareness profile of an entire grade 1 class by using a phonological screener then teachers could provide specific, targeted phonological skills instruction to support the literacy success of primary French immersion students. Why hadn't anyone in our board mentioned this before?
Accordingly, my goal in the following blog is to provide primary French Immersion teachers with a basic understanding of phonological screeners and where such screeners may be obtained.
To read the Wise and Chen monograph in its entirety, check-out the link below:
Wise, N & Chen, Xi (2009). "Early Identification and Intervention for At-Risk Readers in French Immersion", monograph 18. ON: Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat
WHAT IS A PHONOLOGICAL SCREENER?
Phonological screeners (aka: sound skills screeners) are designed to assess a primary student's phonological awareness. Phonological awareness skills, like those addressed in our previous blogs, are those skills that underlie the reading and writing process. These skills include:
-word boundary recognition
-initial and final sound recognition
-rhyme
-syllable blending and segmenting
-phoneme blending and segmenting
Phonological screeners are easy to administer and one assessment session runs about 3 to 4 minutes. Here are some examples of questions that could be found on a phonological screener:
Word Boundaries
Tap one time for each word in this sentence: My hamster is brown. (answer: 4 taps)
Initial and/or Final Sounds in a Word
I am going to say a word. Tell me the first (or last) sound that you hear in that word: bat (answer:/b/ or /t/)
Rhyme
I am going to say two words. Do they rhyme?: bat, cat
Syllable Blending
What word do these two sounds make?: Mon day (answer: Monday)
Syllable Segmenting
Clap one time for each part of this word: pantry (answer: 2 claps pan-try)
Phoneme Blending
What word do these sounds make?: /p/ /i/ /t/ (answer: pit)
Phoneme Segmenting
Listen for each sound in the following word.
Put up one finger for each sound that you hear: pig (answer: /p/ /i/ /g/)
DOES THE ECOUTONS, LISONS, RIONS RESOURCE CONTAIN A PHONOLOGICAL SCREENER?
Unfortunately, the ELR resource does not contain a phonological screener. However, if you are a teacher interested in assessing your primary students' phonological awareness skills, phonological screeners can be easily obtained through the speech and language pathologist assigned to your school or through the special education resource teacher on staff. These individuals can also teach you how to use the screener correctly. By going through the proper channels in obtaining your sound skills screener, you are ensuring that your screener aligns with board standards and provides reliable results.
IN OUR NEXT BLOG: French decodable books that support phonics practice!
Want to know more? Here are some additional references:
Lesaux, Nonie K., Siegel, Linda S. (2003). "The Development of Reading in Children who Speak English as a Second Language." Developmental Psychology, 39 (6), 1005-1019
MacCoubrey, S.J., et al. (2004). "Early Identification of at risk L2 readers". The Canadian Modern Language Review, 61(1), 11-28
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