Date of Award

10-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Jeanne Surface

Abstract

This study explored and analyzed the phonological and phonemic awareness components of a teacher edition of a school district's kindergarten language arts curriculum material. Criteria for this pragmatic content analysis were derived from the research on phonological awareness and the sequence of instruction and intervention (Schuele and Boudreau, 2008). Lessons designated by the publisher as phonological and phonemic awareness in the weekly plan were coded for the type, occurrence, scope, and sequence of phonological and phonemic awareness components, through the 11 instructional units. The phonological and phonemic awareness skills were then coded according to the sequence of phonological instruction and intervention. The findings indicated that phoneme blending, blending sounds into words, a more complex phonemic awareness skill was prevalent in scope and presented through lessons beginning with Unit 1. Findings further noted phonological or phonemic awareness lessons designated by the publisher when compared with the sequence of phonological awareness instruction and intervention as phoneme deletion, manipulation, and segmenting of initial and final sounds were taught though not present across the entire instructional year or in the case of phoneme deletion was presented 6 times at the end of the instructional year. Phonological awareness skills of less complexity were noted to be limited in scope. Other language experiences as part of the language arts curriculum were evident such as weekly word work phonics lessons linking phonological awareness skills to the alphabetic principle, practice writing letters, shared reading of poems, reading words and sentences, and opportunities to practice decoding words in connected text with the use of decodable readers. The study's findings demonstrated the scope and sequence of phonological and phonemic awareness skills taught. Of note, the language arts curriculum’s sequence of phonological and phonemic awareness skills taught did not necessarily align with the framework of the sequence of phonological awareness instruction and intervention, even though the phonological and phonemic awareness skills were evident in the curriculum materials

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