Phonological and phonemic awareness are essential foundations for reading development. When students have not yet developed these skills, they may experience difficulty with decoding, spelling, and fluent reading.

This self-paced, asynchronous course equips educators with the knowledge and practical strategies needed to assess, teach, and support phonological and phonemic awareness. Participants will explore the science behind these foundational skills, distinguish among phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics, and examine explicit, structured, and multimodal approaches to instruction.

Through interactive learning, classroom scenarios, case studies, and assessment analysis (including the PAST assessment) educators will learn to recognize student strengths and needs, identify potential barriers to literacy development, and use evidence to make responsive instructional decisions.

The course is designed to provide flexible professional learning while supporting meaningful application to classroom practice.