Instruction
While identifying individual sounds within a word is the foundational step in learning to read, write, and spell, phonological awareness is not natural and must be taught. In Coach, a virtual speech-language pathologist instructs students in phonological awareness skills. Each lesson is mastery-based, focusing on one sound or concept at a time. Students learn how each sound is made and how each differs from the others.
Each lesson begins with an instructional sound production lesson by the coach, followed by up to 12 instructional variations, each presenting the material through different methods or modalities while maintaining the same learning objective. Once a phonological awareness lesson is assigned, the program automatically differentiates instruction for each student, managing lesson selection, activity assignments, and targeted intervention lessons.
Remedial Instruction
Remedial Instruction in Phonological Awareness includes 21 additional instructions, each including up to 3 differentiated instruction levels. Remedial lessons cover similar sounds [e.g.,/m/ vs. /n/] and sound partners [e.g.,/b/ vs. /p/]. Remedial instructional assignment is based on the following criteria:
- A remedial lesson is needed if the student’s incorrect answer matches one of the sounds from a remedial lesson.
- The remedial lesson is assigned based on the student’s most common error.
- If none of the students’ incorrect answers align with a remedial lesson, a standard lesson assignment is used instead.
Activities
After each instructional presentation, the student is given up to four different activities to apply the concept presented in the lesson. The specific activities after the instructional presentation depend on the lesson and student performance.
There are six activity-specific presentations: counting sounds, blending sounds, rhyming, deleting sounds, adding sounds, and changing sounds. The activities function in the same general manner. For all but one of the activities, the student selects the correct answer from one of four choices. In the counting sounds activity, the student identifies the correct number of sounds in each word.
An activity is considered "mastered" if the student correctly answers the first four questions on the first attempt. If an incorrect response is selected, the coach provides specific feedback based on the student’s response. Then, the student tries to identify the correct answer again. If the student chooses an incorrect response on the second attempt, the coach gives more specific feedback related to the response, and the correct answer is provided.
The activity continues until the student answers all the questions correctly on the first attempt. The student may have to answer several questions before completing an activity.
Pathing
Kindergarten students begin Phonological Awareness lessons first and do not take a pre-test or post-test. The corresponding Phonics lesson follows the first 28 Phonological Awareness Lessons.
Phonological Awareness lessons are only assigned to students in 1st grade and above as remedial instruction based on non-mastery of the associated Phonics lesson. Phonological awareness instruction is also embedded in all sound-based phonics lesson instructions.
Example 1st grade+:
Phonics (short e-lesson/not passed) → PA (short e-lesson/pass) → Phonics (short e-lesson)