Phonemic
Awareness
A brief overview
Phonemic Awareness is vital to language,
vocabulary, listening comprehension,
spelling, writing, and word recognition.
Phonemic Awareness
is
the ability to identify and recall individual sounds
in words.
hat
/h/ /a/ /t/
cat
/c/ /a/ /t/
Children sometimes do not perceive
or distinguish sounds accurately
…..and that makes it really hard to read
hat
cat
/h/ /at/
/c/ /at/
Why ?
Some research shows a delay among the areas of
the brain that control auditory perception. This makes it
difficult for children to identify and associate the correct
sounds.
Sometimes children have not heard clear speech at
home.
Huh ? Wudyasay ?
Phonological or Phonemic Awareness ?
Both focus on the SOUNDS in spoken words.
Phonics is connecting the letters with sounds (visual).
Phonological
Awareness
Broad term - includes
phonemic awareness
alliteration, rhyme, words,
and syllables
Distinguish words within a
sentence
Phonemic
Awareness
Narrower, subcategory of
phonological awareness.
Phonemes – sounds within
words
/w/ /i/ /sh/ - 3 sounds
Identifying Phonemic and Phonological
Awareness Issues
●
Jumbled words
●
“I push my hair.” “I brush my hair.”
●
Inability to attend to rhyme
●
Missing or incorrect sounds in words
●
Substituting one sound for another
–
/k/ for /g/
ride in a wakon
●
Difficulty following spoken directions
●
Unwillingness to participate in class
Identifying Phonemic Issues
●
Teacher Observation
●
DIBLES
●
Phonological Awareness Profile (PAP)
●
●
( screening only )
designed to provide information for instruction
Diagnostic Testing
How Teachers Can Help
●
Identify problems early –
●
Kindergarten or 1st Grade
–
●
●
and provide systematic instruction with older children
Explicit Instruction in Phonemic Awareness
●
Encourage self-awareness of sounds
●
Activities, Games, Raz-kids.com
●
Multisensory
Continuing Evaluation
●
assess progress and identify specific needs
Skills for Phonemic Awareness
●
Discriminate individual words in a sentence
●
Identify syllables within words
●
Rhyme words
●
Identify phoneme position (beginning, middle, end)
●
Blend sounds
●
Segment sounds
●
Accurate recall of sounds
Teacher Tools
Mirror
Whisper Phone
Rubber Band
Elkonin Technique
Short Vowel objects
Whole Class Activities to Teach
Phonemic Awareness
Stretchy Names
●
●
K – 1 - Whole Class or small group
Children and teacher clap and say a verse for each child in
class:
●
CHRISTOPHER, CHRISTOPHER, HOW DO YOU DO ?
●
●
WHO IS THAT FRIEND RIGHT NEXT TO YOU ?
Children and teacher say the next child's name very slowly,
stretching palms far apart as the word is stretched:
krrrr-/iiiiiii-/ssssss-/tuuuu-/ffffff-/errrrrr/
Whole Class Activities to Teach
Phonemic Awareness
●
Jump Along with Phonemes
●
●
●
K – 2 Whole Class or small group
Place 12 lines on the floor with painter's tape. The teacher calls
out a word, and students jump once for each sound in the word.
Use for new vocabulary words from Reading, Science, and
Social Studies
Instruction for Older Students
Older students who struggle may need individual
instruction.
–
Lesson Template
●
Select words from current spelling lesson, Social Studies
vocabulary, Math terms, or high utility words.
Time
No more than 20 hours per year or about 7
minutes per day.
For more information about Phonemic and
Phonological Awareness visit
http://lincs.ed.gov/readingprofiles
Thank you !