EPIC Teacher's Guide - Book - Page 13
Phonemic awareness also facilitates growth in phonological representation
recognition (Kahn-Horowitz, Shimron, and Sparks 2005; Good, Simmons, and
Kame'enui, 2001; Torgesen 2004). Through both oral and written practice, pupils
become familiar with the sounds of the language, creating a smooth gateway to
beginning reading (Russak 2019).
Phonemic awareness is an essential skill for learning grapheme-phoneme
correspondences and representation, along with decoding and encoding words.
Beginning in the aural/oral stage and continuing throughout the entire program,
Epic guides pupils into gradually building phonemic awareness skills and knowledge.
This includes the ability to identify initial, medial, and final sounds, identifying
syllables, manipulating phonemes in words, identifying and producing rhymes, and
much more as described in the Can-do Descriptor statements in the Guidelines for
the Teaching of English at the Pre-Foundation Level Stage 1. These skills are
introduced progressively, in order to aid learners in their reading development.
Teachers should be aware of the target objectives of each unit as they pertain to
these skills and should take care to monitor pupils' development throughout the
program.
Unit Assessment Rubrics (including Can-Do descriptors related to phonemic
awareness) appear in Appendix Vc.
c. How to Teach a Letter
These initial stages of preparation for reading and writing are followed by Stage II of
the program. In this stage, pupils are slowly introduced to the letters and their
sounds in English, gradually build decoding skills of isolated words with different
orthographic patterns, and then finally work on reading comprehension of shorts
sentences and texts. Phonemic awareness, in this stage, continues to be emphasized
and strengthened, to making phonetic reading easier.
Introducing the ABCs
Central to the Epic program is the procedure for teaching the letters of the English
alphabet, which utilizes multiple modes and sources to introduce pupils to the name
of the letter, the shape of its grapheme and its associated sound.
The procedure of teaching a new letter begins by using the “ABC Song” and ABC
poster in combination to identify the target letter in its alphabetical order. The ABC
poster can be used in many ways, and is an excellent resource for review of letters,
sounds, and related vocabulary. If possible, it should be hung in a central location in
the classroom, becoming a resource of reference for pupils while they work on
reading and writing throughout the course of the year and beyond.
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