Primary Teacher Phonological Awareness Professional Development Project and Website

Learning to read is the cornerstone of every child’s education. However, many students struggle to learn to read in their primary education years, resulting in frustration, lost learning opportunities and decreased exposure to academic vocabulary. The purpose of this project was to create a professional development workshop focused on increasing knowledge of foundational reading instructional skills among primary grades teachers. The goal was focused on increasing teacher understanding of the critical role phonological awareness plays in reading development, paired with evidence-based, multi-sensory instructional strategies and curriculum available to teachers. The multilayered professional development activities, spanning a nine-month school year were augmented with a website for teachers to access for collegial collaboration, via an online forum focused on reading development. The expected outcome of this project was to buttress essential phonological awareness instruction in the primary grades, thereby promoting increased reading achievement among all first grade students.