PHONEMIC
AWARENESS
By: Miranda Bird
WHAT?
• Phonemic Awareness is the ability to detect,
identify, and manipulate phonemes in spoken
words.
• Phonemic awareness is not the same as phonics.
• Phonemic awareness is the understanding that
spoken language can be broken into phonemes.
• Phonics- is the understanding of the relationship
between phonemes and graphemes, the letters
that represent the sounds in written language.
WHAT?
• Phonological awareness can be
broken into 4 developmental levels:
•
•
•
•
1- Word
2- Syllable
3- Onset-rime (intrasyllable)
4- Phoneme- the smallest unit of spoken
language that makes a difference in a
word’s meaning.
Phonological
AwarenessThe Umbrella
Term
• Word
Awareness
• Syllable
Awareness
• Onset-Rime
awareness
• Phoneme
Awareness
WHAT?
Effective Phonemic
Awareness Instruction
• Should be explicit with
clear explanations.
• Systematic from easy to
difficult. For example:
isolating initial phonemes in
words rather than in final
or medial phonemes.
• Instruction should be in
small groups.
• Instruction should be no
longer than 20 hrs. over
the school year.
• Lesson should target one
skill at a time.
• Lesson should be engaging
and phonemes pronounced
correctly.
WHAT?
Blendable Sounds
• Stop Sounds-a sound
that can be
pronounced for only an
instant.
• /b/ /d/ /g/ /h/
• /j/ /k/ /p/ /t/
• Continuous Sounds –
sound that can be
pronounced for
several seconds
without distortion.
• /f/ /l/ /m/ /n/
• /r/ /s/ /v/ /w/
• /y/ /z/ /a/
• /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/
WHY?
• Acquiring phonemic awareness is a
means rather than an end. Phonemic
awareness is not acquired for its own
sake but rather for its value in
helping children understand and use
the alphabetic system to read and
write. –National Reading Panel,2000
WHEN?
• Amount of
Instruction
• Kindergarten- about
10 to 15 minutes per
day.
• 1st grade- about 10
minutes per day, 3 or
4 times per week, for
about 10 weeks.
WHEN?
• When to Assess and Intervene:
• Begin phonemic awareness assessment in
Mid-Kindergarten and continue to assess it
throughout the early elementary grades as
needed.
• Types of Assessment include- Phonological
Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) or
Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI).
HOW?
• Rhyming- “The Hungry Thing”
• The recognition of rhyme may be the entry
point to phonemic awareness.
• This lesson teaches the ability to recognize
words that rhyme and focus on single syllable
words with digraphs and blends. For example:
“The Hungry Thing” says he wants to eat
“Pilk”. The students will recognize that “Pilk”
rhymes with “milk”.
How?
Example of
Phonological
Medley:
putting dog
and house
together to
make
doghouse.
• Phonological Medley is “the
most fundamental level of
phonological awareness is the
word level. At the word level,
two-syllable compound words
provide a good starting point
for skill instruction in blending,
segmentation, and deletion.” –
Lane and Pullen 2004
• Word part blending,
segmentation, and deletion helps
students with an in-depth
knowledge of compound words.
Yummy, Yummy
Segmenting Words Chant
• Class Chants: Yummy, yummy, rub your
tummy. What’s a treat you like to eat?
(students rub their tummies)
• Student Chants: I like pop- corn. (Student
supplies a food name, clapping the word
parts as they are said.)
• Class Chants: [Student’s name] likes popcorn. (Class repeats food name, clapping
the word parts.
HOW?
• Syllable Segmentation and Blending
• Salad Toss- teaches the ability to segment
syllables and usually precedes the ability to
segment phonemes.
• Students can blend syllables to form a whole
word.
• Students can segment and count the syllables in a
3-syllable word.
• For example the word pep-per is a two syllable
word. While cu-cum-ber is a three syllable word.
HOW?
• ONSET-RIME BLENDING
• Critter Sitter teaches the students the
onset-rime principle. The Critter Sitter
says /k/…/at/ to teach the students the
beginning and end of a word.
• The students can blend onset and rime to
produce a one-syllable word.
HOW?
• Phoneme Isolation- Bridge Game
• Phoneme isolation requires students to
recognize individual sounds in words.
• The teacher says the first sound /mmm/
in mouse that way students can isolate the
initial sound in a one-syllable word.
• The teacher says the last sound /sss/ in
mouse that way the students can isolate
the final sound in a one-syllable word.
HOW?
• Phoneme Identity-Phoneme identification requires
students to recognize the common sound in different words.
• Sound Match-The teacher holds up a book and asks what is
the 1st sound or last sound. The students are able to
identify initial and final sounds in the word.
• The teacher asks which word has the same first or last
sound as book. The students are able to match the same
sound in different words.
• The students then name an object whose name has the same
1st or last sound as ball. The students are able to generate
words with same initial or final sound.
HOW?
• Phoneme Categorization- Odd one
out game helps students recognize
the odd phoneme or sound in a set of
3 or 4 words.
• For example:
• The 2 start with /b/ and the other
starts with /m/.
HOW?
• Phoneme Blending- Simon Says game.
• Leader: Simon says, “Shake your /l/ /e/
/g/.”
• The phoneme blending requires students to
listen to a sequence of separately spoken
sounds and then combine them to form
whole words.
HOW?
• Phoneme Segmentation and
Blending- Say- It-Move –It game helps
the students to break a word into its
separate sounds.
• First sound in egg /eee/
• Second sound in egg /g/
• The students say the word
then move the button down.
HOW?
• Phoneme Segmentation and
Blending using Elkonin Sound Boxes.
• Students can segment spoken words
into sounds.
S
U
N
Conclusion
• “Phonemic Awareness instruction
improves phonics skills and phonics
instruction improves phonemic
awareness: the relationship is
reciprocal.” ~Lane and Pullen 2004