Effective kindergarten phonemic awareness instruction

The research question addressed in this project is, what teaching strategies most effectively teach phonemic awareness to kindergarten students? The capstone defines phonemic awareness, states its importance and documents how to best teach it to kindergarten students. The author found that quality phonemic awareness instruction uses letters during teaching, focuses on segmenting and blending and teaches students to apply their skills to reading. Key influences in the research and curriculum development were Linnea Ehri, Hallie Kay Yopp and Ruth Helen Yopp. The author used Understanding by Design to create a kindergarten phonemic awareness curriculum that focuses on segmenting and blending phonemes. Diagnostic, formative and summative assessments are included