The Phonics Program: Alphabet Awareness

The Buffalo Teacher Resource Center is requesting applications from schools for funding for The Phonics Program: Alphabet Awareness.  This residency can accommodate either Kindergarten or First Grade students.  Program content correlates to the New York State Learning Standards in the English Language Arts and the Arts.  If your application is approved, YA-WNY teaching artists will come to your school to enhance student learning with engaging workshops that use original songs, signs from American Sign Language, and simple dance movements to teach sound recognition of the consonants and/or vowels and to cultivate elementary literary skills.   The program culminates with a student performance.

Program Description 

The Phonics Program:  Alphabet Awareness improves sound and letter recognition for students in Kindergarten and First Grade.  Students participate in eight, 25 minute reading readiness workshops, including the final performance, that use singing, signing, dance and the visual arts to teach sound recognition and cultivate elementary literary skills.  Kindergarten students studying the consonants learn 21 original songs and movements that correspond to American Sign Language.  First grade students studying the vowels learn 20 songs, signs, and corresponding movements.  Between the workshops, teachers can use the accompanying workbook to underscore the learning with visual art activities while students listen and sing along to the CD of the songs.

Goals and Outcomes

Many students enter school unable to distinguish letters and their sounds.  To address this problem, The Phonics Program encourages oral language development and listening skills; advances kinesthetic learning; combines the visual arts with music; and addresses special needs presented by Limited English Proficiency and deaf or hearing-impaired students. The multi-sensory approach allows children with diverse needs to improve their ability to connect letters and sound.

Evaluation

Pre-tests and post-tests measure students’ progress, tracking increasing letter-sound recognition, an important component of pre-reading skills.  Classroom teachers administer pre-tests before the program starts and post-tests after its completion. YA-WNY staff then aggregates the results, and reports back to schools and funders. A Likert-scale teacher survey measures teachers’ support and understanding of this residency.

Background

The Phonics Program was developed by dancer and educator Cindy Hanna, Early Childhood Art Specialist Marna Burstein, and musician Jerry Raven and was first piloted at Buffalo Public School 54.