The last few years, it seems everyone’s been talking about phonemic awareness – what works best, how to teach it right, and even how much of it students really need. Today, I’ve got two experts with me, Dr. Florina Erbeli and Dr. Marianne Rice, and they’ve been digging deep into these questions and more.
Dr. Erbeli is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Marianne Rice just completed her PhD there.
In this episode, we’re breaking down the findings from two recent meta-analyses these researchers did on phonemic awareness. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty – like, does it work better in big groups or small ones? Do those letters really matter when you’re teaching phonemic awareness? How much PA instruction do students really need? And, of course, we discuss deleting and substitution. Lots to unpack in this episode!

References:
Erbeli, F., Rice, M., Xu, Y., Bishop, M. E., & Goodrich, J. M. (2024). A Meta-Analysis on the Optimal Cumulative Dosage of Early Phonemic Awareness Instruction. Scientific Studies of Reading, 0(0), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2024.2309386
Rice, M., Erbeli, F., Thompson, C. G., Sallese, M. R., & Fogarty, M. (2022). Phonemic Awareness: A Meta-Analysis for Planning Effective Instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(4), 1259–1289. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.473