tracking phonological awareness: a research journey

Tracking Phonological Awareness: A research journey

JOANNE FAULKNER

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

The University of Western Australia

unceremoniously

What are some of the things that happen in your head when you hear this word, so that you can say it again?

blixonasbotumpjoffip

The University of Western Australia

Why measure phonological awareness in pre-primary students?

The University of Western Australia

How did we measure it originally?

•Repeating words

•Rhyming

The University of Western Australia

Person item distribution graph

Answers the question:Are the items too hard or too easy for the students we are testing?

The University of Western Australia

Item location graph

Answers the question:How difficult are the item sets in relation to each other?

Repeating Rhyming

The University of Western Australia

Easy• Repeatin

g• Rhyming

Medium• Repeatin

g• Rhyming

Difficult Very Difficult

The University of Western Australia

How do we measure it

now?

•Repeating words •Splitting words•Isolating phonemes

The University of Western Australia

Person item distribution graph

Answers the question:Are the items too hard or too easy for the students we are testing?

The University of Western Australia

Item location graph

Answers the question:How difficult are the item sets in relation to each other?

Repeating Splitting Isolating

The University of Western Australia

Easy• Repeatin

g

Medium• Splitting

Difficult• Isolating

Very Difficult• ???

The University of Western Australia

Don’t forget the unexpected anecdotal evidence we always find when working with students!

The University of Western Australia

We have a created a tool that is

• more robust and detailed

• useful to show the starting point of a student’s phonological awareness

• useful to measure progress in phonological awareness in the first year of formal schooling

• useful for identifying students who may need support in the area of phonological awareness