The Phonemic Awareness professional development webinar, provided by a knowledgeable Literacy Specialist, provides educators with an overview of the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness curriculum.

Participants will learn about the lesson components and activities included in all three levels of the curriculum: the Pre-K version, the Kindergarten version, and the Primary version, which can be used with 1st and 2nd grade classrooms and is recommended for use with older learners who struggle to decode. The webinar focus can be on the English and/or the Spanish curricula.

Zoom is the online platform that is used to provide the webinar for teachers, so an internet connection, video screen and speakers are required.

The outline of this webinar PD is as follows:

1. What is Phonemic Awareness? Defining Phonological and Phonemic Awareness and how it is different from Phonics

2. Why is Phonemic Awareness Important? Brief overview of the research behind the curriculum

3. How can the lessons be implemented in a classroom? Defining the 10 components included in the Phonemic Awareness curriculum

• Review of the scope & sequence for each skill over the 35 weeks of lessons
• Complete modeled lesson
• 8 Phonemic Awareness skills: Rhyming, Onset Fluency, Blending, Segmenting, Isolating Final or Medial Sounds, Adding, Deleting, and Substituting Phonemes
• Hand motions modeled for some skills
• 2 Early Literacy Components: Letter Naming & Language Awareness

4. Suggestions for implementing Phonemic Awareness in an intervention setting.
5. Questions and Answers

Lori Jurjovec

Lori Jurjovec is an experienced teacher and dyslexia instructor. Lori taught at the elementary level for 6 years before becoming a private tutor. She has worked with learners aged pre-K through adult. Lori has earned a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education from Illinois State University and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from National-Louis University. She is also a certified Orton-Gillingham Instructor holding a Dyslexia Certificate from The Dyslexia Training Institute in San Diego, California. Lori is passionate about providing reading instruction that is rooted in the science of reading.

Kelsi Lundvall

Kelsi is an experienced teacher and elementary administrator. She taught Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st Grade over the course of her teaching career and spent five years as an Assistant Principal/Instructional Coach to Kindergarten and First Grade teachers. Kelsi earned a bachelor's degree in both Psychology and Spanish from Washington and Lee University and a masters degree in Early Childhood Education from American University. She also has an ELA certificate of endorsement and over seven years of experience supporting bilingual learners.