The article, “A Test for Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children” by Hallie Kay Yopp, stresses the significance of acquiring phonemic awareness in young children. Research has shown that phonemic awareness is strongly related to success in reading and spelling acquisition. Studies indicate that it is not just a strong predictor, but a necessary prerequisite for success in literacy. In order to promote success in literacy teachers need to include instruction and activities that facilitate the development of phonemic awareness. In this article, Yopp provided teachers with a tool for assessing phonemic awareness, to better guide their instruction. This tool is called the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation. This assessment measures a child’s ability to separately articulate the sounds of a spoken word in order. The test is administered individually, is simple, and takes only 5-10 minutes to complete.
I would use the Yopp-Singer assessment in my classroom to learn more about my students. Especially my students who are struggling with literacy-related tasks. Even though I teach second grade, I have majority of my students reading on a kindergarten level with very little phonemic awareness. I like that the test takes only 5-10 minutes and is simple. I could administer the assessment during my small group time. I could then use the data to develop differentiated word work centers based on my students phonemic awareness needs. The data could also be used to guide my instruction during small group. Something that I currently do but could put more of a focus on would be to use read aloud books. They are a great tool to draw my students’ attention to the sound structure of language used in the book.
Theory to Practice 