Phonemic awareness instruction is part of a balanced literacy program, and can be developed in several ways during shared reading and shared writing. Shared reading and shared writing typically occur during the language arts time block, but may also occur during content-area learning.

Shared reading is reading with children and involves the reading, re-reading and shared reading of enlarged print (book, poem, nursery rhyme, song) with a class or small group. Shared reading invites children of varying levels of ability to participate in the reading experience. Through repeated readings, children can develop many literacy concepts including:

  • phonemic awareness
  • letter/sound symbol associations
  • the meaning of print
  • concepts about print
  • story structure
  • reading strategies and behaviors
  • genre study

    • Shared writing is writing with children. The teacher and students talk about what to write. The teacher may act as a scribe or share the pen with the students. Shared writing introduces writing to students through writing. Shared writing can focus on the following concepts:

  • how to hear sounds in words
  • letter/sound symbol associations
  • different ways writers plan for writing
  • the thought processes that occur as you write
  • strategies writers use
  • concepts about print
  • conventions of written language
  • spelling strategies