Phonemic Awareness and Phonics "The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness" Marilyn Jager Adams
Phoneme- The smallest unit of sound in a word. Phonemic Awareness-The understanding that spoken words are made up of a series of discrete sounds. Phonics-The system by which symbols represent sounds and is associated with printed words.
According to the Position Statement of the International Reading Association (1998), later reading achievement is strongly related to skills related to phonemic awareness.
Phonemic Awareness instruction should be explicit and sequenced logically. According to Yopp & Yopp (2000), phonemic awareness instruction should include activities that are child appropriate, deliberate and purposeful, and are part of a larger literacy program (p.132) The following is a recommended sequence for phonemic awareness instruction: Emergent Listening Games-The purpose of this is practice listening attentively to language. Some suggested activities include: Identify environmental sounds on a CD· Discriminating auditory sequence of sounds such as clapping, then coughing. Nonsense songs, rhymes, or poems. Rhyming-This directs children’s attention to sound structure of words. Sensitivity to rhyme is a rudimentary form of phonological awareness. Use a variety of rhyming books such as: Green, A (2007).Mother Gooses Storytime Nursery Rhymes, New York, Knopf. Florian, D. (2005). Zoo’s Who, San Diego, CA. Harcourt A fun game for rhyming is Building Language for Literacy : click here Alliteration-This directs children’s attention to the initial consonant sounds in words through repetition word play: Tongue twisters Here is a list of tongue twisters to try: click here Oddity Tasks-Discriminating beginning sounds by saying several words with the same initial or final consonant sound with one word that doesn’t begin with that initial consonant:
Which doesn’t belong? An example would be; Sit-Man-Mom, which one is different?
How does it end? An example of this would be: Cat-Bug-Bat. Which one doesn’t have the same ending sound?
Beginning
Oral Blending-This begins with blending syllables, then onsets and rimes, and finally whole words sounded out by phonemes: Mystery Words-Sound out each phoneme in a word and have students say the word by blending the sounds together-ex. P/I/G/= Pig.
Elkonin Boxes-Students are given a set number of square boxes on a piece of paper. As students say a word, they move a bingo marker into each box to represent the phonemes they hear, and then blend the sounds together. Watch this video of use of Elkonin boxes:
Watch the video-Elkonin Boxes Variations of Elkonin Boxes to try:Drive a matchbox car into each box as they hear a phoneme and then drive the car through the word.
Use a paper slide icon and having the student blend the individual phonemes in a word as they move their finger or a paper doll figure down the slide (see figure on the left).
Oral Segmentation-These activities assist students in separate words into sounds: First Sound First game-Students are read a list of three words that begin with the same initial consonant letter. The students guess the first sound of all three. Last Sound Last game-Students are read a list of three words with the same ending consonant letter and guess the ending sound of all three. Secret Sound game-Say three words with the same medial sound. Students have to guess the secret sound in the middle (ex. soap, road, and note).
Intermediate Phonemic Manipulation-These activities are often incorporated as word study to assist students sorting words by patterns in order to decode unknown words.
Word sorts and ladders-change an initial or final phoneme to make new words (ex. cat -> mat or cat ->can). A variation for students with disabilities is to use letter stamps to make new words.
Sound or blend deletion-Show pictures of objects or animals. Delete the beginning, medial, blend, or final sounds as you say the word and students guess the name of the object.
Pick it out game-Students are asked to say words aloud without word parts (ex. sunshine without sun, stake without the /s/, table without the /ta/, meat without the /t/.
click here for information about phonemic manipulation Linking Sounds to Spellings-These activities take place after phonemic awareness skills have begun to develop. The purpose of these activities is to teach the connection between sounds they hear and reading and writing.
Sound-spelling correspondence- Using letter cards, model “sock” beginning with letter “S.” Students recall other words that begin with “S.”
Build words-Using letter cards; make the word “mat.” Review how each letter makes a sound and when we blend it together it makes a word.
Onset and Rimes -Word Families
Word family bowling
Lego/Megablocks word family building-click here
Word family cups-place one cup inside the other. The outer cup has consonant sounds and the inner cup has word endings such as at, ug, en, ig
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Strategies for Diverse Learners:
Read aloud to children and provide opportunities to talk about what is read.
Provide print-rich environments
Engage in finger plays, rhymes, and songs for very young children
Embrace code-switching (going back to first language to increase conceptual understanding)
A modification for ELL’s and students with special needs is to use of picture cards to represent words.
References: Adams, M., Foorman, B., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1998) Phonemic awareness in young children. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brooks Publishing Co., Inc. Blevins, w. (1997). Phonemic awareness activities early reading success. Jefferson, MO: Scholastic professional books. International Reading Association. (2012). Adolescent literacy (Position statement, Rev. 2012 ed.)Newark, DE: Author. Morrow, L.(2009). Literacy development in the early years; helping children read and write, sixth edition. Boston, MA: Pearson. Scanlon, D., Anderson, K., & Sweeney, J. (2010). Early inter- vention for reading difficulties; the interactive strategies approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Yopp, H., & Yopp, R. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom, The Reading Teacher, (54)2, 130-143.