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Ultimate List of IEP Accommodations,Modifications & Strategies

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Ultimate List of IEP Accommodations,Modifications & Strategies

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When children begin to learn how to read, they are greeted with simple, known words: cat, mom, and like. As they move through the grades, they are soon confronted with words such as habitat, subaquatic, and unrecognizable - words that can leave their heads swimming!

As students develop in their reading ability, they need to notice word parts, or "orthographic chunks," to help them decode these multisyllabic mysteries. For some students this is quite easy and natural; for others, it is a daunting task. Much can be done to help students' progress to the stage at which they readily notice larger parts of longer words to ease the decoding burden.

What Is a Syllable?

Early syllabication instruction should begin by providing explicit, multisensory lessons on the concept of a syllable. Try the following sample lesson in your classroom:

1. Distribute small mirrors to students, or have them find a partner to watch as he or she pronounces words.

2. Have students say aloud a series of words of varying lengths as they look in the mirror. Tell them to count the number of times their mouths open when saying the word. This is the number of syllables in the word. An alternative is to have the students cup their jaw and count the number of times it drops when saying the word. This is also a way to count the number of syllables.

3. Ask students to identify which part of the word causes the mouth to open (the vowel sounds). Point out to students that a syllable has one vowel sound.

Other Lesson Ideas

Ask students to generate a list of short words, then a list of long words. Compare the lists. Long words contain more letters and more syllables.

Ask students to repeat a series of words you say. As they pronounce each word, have students clap or tap the number of syllables. Start with compound words, progress to two-syllable words, then build to words of three and four syllables.

Ask students to repeat a series of words you say, but ask them to delete the first syllable in the word: "Say sunflower without the sun," or "Say robot without the ro." These phonemic-deletion tasks can progress to deleting ending syllables.

Six Common Syllable Spelling Patterns

Once students have mastered the concept of the syllable, begin teaching the six most common syllable spelling patterns. These include:

1. Closed: These syllables end in a consonant. The vowel sound is generally short. (Examples: rabbit, napkin)

2. Open: These syllables end in a vowel. The vowel sound is generally long. (Examples: tiger, pilot)

3. R-controlled: When a vowel is followed by r, the letter affects the sound of the vowel. The vowel and the r appear in the same syllable. (Examples: bird, turtle)

4. Vowel team: Many vowel sounds are spelled with vowel digraphs such as ai, ay, ea, ee, oa, ow, oo, oi, oy, ou, ie, and ei. The vowel digraphs appear in the same syllable. (Examples: boat, explain)

5. Vowel-silent e: These generally represent long-vowel sounds. (Examples: compete, decide)

6. Consonant-le: Usually when le appears at the end of a word and is preceded by a consonant, the consonant plus le form the final syllable. (Examples: table, little)

These common syllable-spelling patterns will provide students with insight into how words are put together. Since closed syllables are the most frequent, begin instruction there.

Understanding Closed Syllables

Key Concept: Explain to students that every syllable in a word has only one vowel sound. Write napkin and subject on the chalkboard. Divide the words syllable by syllable. Point out that the first syllable in each word ends in a consonant. Explain that this is called a closed syllable. Most closed syllables have a short-vowel sound.

As Dr. Allen and many other researchers contend, by the time struggling readers reach middle school, they are so used to failure and to meaningless exercises that they no longer have any interest in print. The goal of both the software and the literacy workshop is to give students a taste of success and build self-esteem. Technology, according to Dr. Hasselbring, is powerfully motivating to students and the multimedia approach of the software provides the systematic, consistent, leveled, and most important - nonjudgmental instruction that these students so desperately need.

Teacher Model: Write the word fabric on the chalkboard. Do not say the word, but provide time for students to examine the word's parts. Then model how to use syllabication strategies to read the word.

Think Aloud: I know that each syllable has one vowel sound. I see two vowels in this word separated by two consonants. If I divide the word between the consonants I get f-a-b and r-i-c. Both of these syllables are closed syllables since each ends in a consonant. Therefore, I will try the short-vowel sound when pronouncing each syllable: /fab/rik/. When I put these two syllables together, I get fabric.

Blending Practice: Write the words shown here (also in image above) on the chalkboard. Have students chorally read each word. Provide modeling as necessary.

Through systematic, focused instruction on and flexible use of common syllable patterns, the ability of students to read longer words can be improved.

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Decoding Multisyllabic Words | Scholastic

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When children begin to learn how to read, they are greeted with simple, known words: cat, mom, and like. As they move through the grades, they are soon confronted with words such as habitat, subaquatic, and unrecognizable - words that can leave their heads swimming!

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When children begin to learn how to read, they are greeted with simple, known words: cat, mom, and like. As they move through the grades, they are soon confronted with words such as habitat, subaquatic, and unrecognizable - words that can leave their heads swimming!

As students develop in their reading ability, they need to notice word parts, or "orthographic chunks," to help them decode these multisyllabic mysteries. For some students this is quite easy and natural; for others, it is a daunting task. Much can be done to help students' progress to the stage at which they readily notice larger parts of longer words to ease the decoding burden.

What Is a Syllable?

Early syllabication instruction should begin by providing explicit, multisensory lessons on the concept of a syllable. Try the following sample lesson in your classroom:

1. Distribute small mirrors to students, or have them find a partner to watch as he or she pronounces words.

2. Have students say aloud a series of words of varying lengths as they look in the mirror. Tell them to count the number of times their mouths open when saying the word. This is the number of syllables in the word. An alternative is to have the students cup their jaw and count the number of times it drops when saying the word. This is also a way to count the number of syllables.

3. Ask students to identify which part of the word causes the mouth to open (the vowel sounds). Point out to students that a syllable has one vowel sound.

Other Lesson Ideas

Ask students to generate a list of short words, then a list of long words. Compare the lists. Long words contain more letters and more syllables.

Ask students to repeat a series of words you say. As they pronounce each word, have students clap or tap the number of syllables. Start with compound words, progress to two-syllable words, then build to words of three and four syllables.

Ask students to repeat a series of words you say, but ask them to delete the first syllable in the word: "Say sunflower without the sun," or "Say robot without the ro." These phonemic-deletion tasks can progress to deleting ending syllables.

Six Common Syllable Spelling Patterns

Once students have mastered the concept of the syllable, begin teaching the six most common syllable spelling patterns. These include:

1. Closed: These syllables end in a consonant. The vowel sound is generally short. (Examples: rabbit, napkin)

2. Open: These syllables end in a vowel. The vowel sound is generally long. (Examples: tiger, pilot)

3. R-controlled: When a vowel is followed by r, the letter affects the sound of the vowel. The vowel and the r appear in the same syllable. (Examples: bird, turtle)

4. Vowel team: Many vowel sounds are spelled with vowel digraphs such as ai, ay, ea, ee, oa, ow, oo, oi, oy, ou, ie, and ei. The vowel digraphs appear in the same syllable. (Examples: boat, explain)

5. Vowel-silent e: These generally represent long-vowel sounds. (Examples: compete, decide)

6. Consonant-le: Usually when le appears at the end of a word and is preceded by a consonant, the consonant plus le form the final syllable. (Examples: table, little)

These common syllable-spelling patterns will provide students with insight into how words are put together. Since closed syllables are the most frequent, begin instruction there.

Understanding Closed Syllables

Key Concept: Explain to students that every syllable in a word has only one vowel sound. Write napkin and subject on the chalkboard. Divide the words syllable by syllable. Point out that the first syllable in each word ends in a consonant. Explain that this is called a closed syllable. Most closed syllables have a short-vowel sound.

As Dr. Allen and many other researchers contend, by the time struggling readers reach middle school, they are so used to failure and to meaningless exercises that they no longer have any interest in print. The goal of both the software and the literacy workshop is to give students a taste of success and build self-esteem. Technology, according to Dr. Hasselbring, is powerfully motivating to students and the multimedia approach of the software provides the systematic, consistent, leveled, and most important - nonjudgmental instruction that these students so desperately need.

Teacher Model: Write the word fabric on the chalkboard. Do not say the word, but provide time for students to examine the word's parts. Then model how to use syllabication strategies to read the word.

Think Aloud: I know that each syllable has one vowel sound. I see two vowels in this word separated by two consonants. If I divide the word between the consonants I get f-a-b and r-i-c. Both of these syllables are closed syllables since each ends in a consonant. Therefore, I will try the short-vowel sound when pronouncing each syllable: /fab/rik/. When I put these two syllables together, I get fabric.

Blending Practice: Write the words shown here (also in image above) on the chalkboard. Have students chorally read each word. Provide modeling as necessary.

Through systematic, focused instruction on and flexible use of common syllable patterns, the ability of students to read longer words can be improved.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Decoding Multisyllabic Words | Scholastic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When children begin to learn how to read, they are greeted with simple, known words: cat, mom, and like. As they move through the grades, they are soon confronted with words such as habitat, subaquatic, and unrecognizable - words that can leave their heads swimming!

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How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities

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How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities

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Research indicates a strong relationship between early phoneme awareness and later reading success, and it links some reading failure to insufficiently developed phoneme awareness skills. Intervention research clearly demonstrates the benefits of explicitly teaching phoneme awareness skills.

Many children at risk for reading failure are in general education classrooms where phoneme awareness training is not part of their reading program. This article presents a set of developmental phoneme awareness training activities that the special educator can integrate collaboratively into existing kindergarten and first-grade reading programs.

Instructional considerations

Before preparing to conduct phoneme awareness activities in a general education setting, the special educator needs to become familiar with the method being used to teach reading and should observe the class in action.

Most of the phoneme awareness activities should not take more than 15 or 20 minutes to complete and should fit the context of the classroom. Although a particular activity can be selected well in advance, the specific words targeted for phoneme awareness should be selected from material used actively in the class, such as a story or picture book that was just read and discussed, the immediate environment, words fitting a thematic unit being taught, or discussions about a field trip.

Phoneme awareness activities work well in classrooms where teachers implement shared reading. Typically, after previewing the text with the class, the teacher reads aloud a large-print text on a chart or in a big book, the teacher and children read the selection together, and then students complete individual activities related to the selection (Holdaway, 1979). Phoneme awareness activities are a natural extension of the shared reading activities.

To be successful, however, the general educator and special educator must plan ahead for sharing time, space, and teaching together in a collaborative effort. The benefits for the children far outweigh any disadvantages for the teachers. The willingness of the special educator to fit the activities to the contexts of the classroom can help diminish any existing reluctance a general education teacher might have toward phoneme awareness training.

Specific guidelines

Teachers need to be aware of the developmental requirements of phoneme awareness activities. For example, when teaching children to partition words into parts, segmenting a compound word into its two parts ("What two words do you hear in cowboy?") precedes segmenting syllables and sounds.

Similarly, identification tasks ("Which one doesn't rhyme - cat, hat, sun?") are generally easier than production tasks ("Tell me the first sound in car"). The difficulty level of most activities can be manipulated by changing the input or response modes. For example, "Find the picture that starts with /r/" will be easier than "What sounds do you hear in robe?" A set of guidelines to keep in mind when planning instructional activities is provided below.

Instructional Guidelines for Planning Phoneme Awareness Activities

1. Identify the precise phoneme awareness task on which you wish to focus and select developmentally appropriate activities for engaging children in the task. Activities should be fun and exciting - "play" with sounds, don't "drill" them.

2. Be sure to use phoneme sounds (represented by / /) and not letter names when doing the activities. Likewise, remember that one sound may be represented by two or more letters. There are only three sounds in the word cheese: /ch/-/ee/-/z/. You may want to target specific sounds/words at first and "practice" beforehand until you are comfortable making them.

3. Continuant sounds (e.g., /m/, /s/, /i/) are easier to manipulate and hear than stop sounds (e.g., /t/, /q/, /p/ /b/). When introducing continuants, exaggerate by holding on to them: rrrrrring. With stop sounds, just pronounce the short "pure" consonant sound one time and without the "uh" sound added at the end, to ensure accurate blending. For example, /b/ should not be pronounced "buh".

4. When identifying sounds in different positions, the initial position is easiest, followed by the final position, with the medial position being most difficult (e.g., top, pot, setter).

5. When identifying or combining sound sequences, a CV pattern should be used before a VC pattern, followed by a CVC pattern (e.g., pie, egg, red).*

*Note: CV = consonant-vowel; VC = vowel-consonant; CVC = consonant-vowel-consonant

Awareness of onset and rime

Phonograms are the common elements in word families (e.g., the letter sequence "and" in sand, hand, band, and land). The initial consonant that changes the meaning of the word is called an onset and the following vowel/consonant combination that remains constant is called a rime. Because an awareness of syllables, onsets, and rimes develops before an awareness of phonemes (Goswami, 1994, p. 36), the first set of suggestions focuses on ways to expose children to word play.

Literature

A natural and spontaneous way of providing children with exposure to phonemes is to focus on literature that deals playfully with speech sounds through rhymes. Simple rhyme patterns are easily recalled after repeated exposure, and children will get the idea of creating new rhymes.

In There's a Wocket in My Pocket (Seuss, 1974), initial sounds of everyday objects are substituted as a child talks about the strange creatures around the house, such as the "zamp in the lamp." Children can make up their own strange creatures in the classroom such as the "zuk in my book."

Alliteration is the repetition of an initial consonant sound across several words, such as presented in the alphabet book Faint Frogs Feeling Feverish and Other Terrifically Tantalizing Tongue Twisters (Obligato, 1983).

Assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds within words, is often combined with rhyme, as in "It rains and hails and shakes the sails" from Sheep on a Ship (Shaw, 1989) or in humorous ways such as "The tooter tries to tutor two tooters to toot" in Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses (Patz, 1983). Some books include music to go with the rhymes, such as Down by the Bay (Raffi, 1987), in which two children try to outdo one another in making up questions that rhyme, such as "Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose?"

Yopp (1995) presented an annotated bibliography of 44 books for young children that deal playfully with language. She also provided guidelines for using these books in class:

1. read and reread the stories;

2. comment on the language use;

3. encourage predictions of sound, word, and sentence patterns;

4. comment on or elicit specific aspects of sound patterns (e.g., "What sound do you hear at the beginning of all those words?"); and

5. be creative in inventing new versions of the language patterns utilized in the stories.

Word families chart

The exposure to rhymes leads naturally to the use of phonograms and the creation of word family charts. Charts can contain words from one story or a brain-stormed list from the children.

A story that leads naturally to a word family chart is Tog the Dog (Hawkins & Hawkins, 1986), which is constructed so that as each page is turned, a different letter lines up with the rime "og." For example, when Tog takes a jog, the letter "j" lines up with the "og." The children can dictate to the teacher words to be placed on a word family chart. As they begin to develop letter/sound knowledge, they can copy or write the words themselves.

You can use magnetic letters to "create" words for a word family chart. Provide a rime of plastic letters (e.g., at) and have the children take turns placing different letters in the onset position to create new words (e.g., hat, bat, sat, rat). These charts can be used as reference charts (or the children can make their own word families reference book) for spelling and creative writing activities.

Direct instruction

Children who are struggling with recognizing and creating rhymed words may need more direct intervention. Initial rhyme recognition can be reinforced by direct modeling of instances ( nose/ rose) and non-instances ( bed/ car) of rhyming word pairs. The children are then presented other word pairs and asked if the two words sound the same or sound different.

This can be made into a game-like activity by having them respond with a "happy face" card if the words rhyme and a "sad face" card if they don't (or they can use a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" response). It is important for the teacher to ask a child to repeat the rhyming pairs in this and the following activities to reinforce the verbal production of rhymed words.

Pictures provide visual cues for rhyme recognition and can be used during the modeling phase of instruction. The teacher can then present three pictures and ask the child to select and say the two that rhyme. A variation would be to display two nonrhyming pictures and have the child select the one that rhymes with the word being said by the teacher.

Bradley and Bryant (1983) used an activity called "Odd Word Out," which can be done with or without pictures. Four words, three of which rhyme, are presented by the teacher (e.g., weed, bead, pill, seed). The child determines which word is the odd one that doesn't belong with the others.

The game of concentration or memory is a good practice activity for rhyme recognition. Separate pictures (not printed words) of rhyming word pairs (e.g., cat/ bat) are shuffled, and all are placed facedown in a grid pattern. The children take turns turning two cards face-up, trying to match a rhyme pair. If a match is made, the child keeps that pair and takes another turn. If not, the cards are turned facedown and the next child gets a turn.

A summary of activities to heighten awareness of onset and rhyme is offered in the table below.
Awareness of Onset and Rime
Simple phonemic awareness

Isolated sound recognition

As stated by Lewkowicz (1980), "Children should be familiarized with speech sounds in isolation before they attempt to detect sounds within words" (p. 694). Because children are usually unaware that words are made up of individual speech sounds that can be produced in isolation, it is up to the teacher to provide children with a concept of speech sounds.

This is probably best done by associating phonemes with a creature, an action, or an object that is familiar to the child. For example, the phoneme /s/ can be associated with the hissing sound a snake makes - sssssss. A sound personality can be created by calling /s/ the "Sammy snake" sound. Many sounds have natural associations, such as a crowing rooster for /r/, a buzzing bee for /z/, and the "be quiet" sound for /sh/.

Figure 1. An example of pictures of sound personalities incorporating letter-shape association.

Sound personalities can be introduced naturally and in context by selecting a particular sound to talk about that is stressed in alphabet or other books that use alliteration. For example, Obligato (1983) presented "smiling snakes sipping strawberry sodas" for the alphabet letter S. It is helpful to create or provide pictures that represent these sound personalities and to post them in the room as each is introduced. A natural connection can sometimes be made between the sound and the letter, such as presenting a picture of "Sammy snake" drawn in the shape of the letter S or "Buzzy bee" flying in a pattern of the letter Z (see Figure 1).

Besides providing a label to facilitate talking about sounds, the pictures provide self-correcting cues for children engaged in initial sound isolation and sound-to-word matching activities.

Word, syllable, and phoneme counting

Because words and syllables are more salient and more directly perceivable than individual phonemes, activities that involve counting the number of words in a sentence or syllables in a word can be used as initial steps leading to isolated phoneme synthesis and segmentation (Lundberg, Frost, & Peterson, 1988).

Word counting can be done for any sentence selected from a reading or writing lesson. The sentence should be read to the children without being visible. The children listen and place a marker from left to right for each word heard. The teacher can confirm the number of words by showing the printed sentence to the children, pointing to each word as it is read, and having the children touch their tokens in one-to-one correspondence. Or the teacher can reinforce the children's "counting" using auditory input only by repeating the sentence and having them touch each token to confirm the number of words heard.

To count syllables in words, activities can be used such as clapping hands, tapping the desk, or marching in place to the syllables in children's names ( Ma- ry), items in the immediate environment ( win- dow), or words from a favorite story ( wi- shy, wa- shy). Initially, two-syllable words can be targeted, building up to three. Visible, manipulable representation of sounds also helps to clarify and guide counting and segmentation tasks for beginners (Lewkowicz, 1980).

The marker activity used for word counting can be adapted for use in counting syllables by providing each child with two or three horizontally connected boxes drawn on a sheet of paper. The children place a token in each box from left to right as they hear each syllable in a word. These same activities can be used to count sounds in words.

Sound synthesis

Sound synthesis or sound blending is an essential skill related to later reading ability (Lewkowicz, 1980; Lundberg et al., 1988; Wagner, Torgeson, Laughon, Simmons, & Bashotte, 1993) and one of the easiest phoneme awareness tasks for children to perform (Yopp, 1988).

Sound synthesis can be done using the following sequence: blending an initial sound onto the remainder of a word, followed by blending syllables of a word together, and then blending isolated phonemes into a word.

The teacher can model blending an initial sound onto a word by using the jingle, "It starts with /l/ and it ends with ight, put it together, and it says light." When they have the idea, the children supply the final word.

An element of excitement can be created by using children's names for this activity and asking each child to recognize and say his or her own name when it is presented - "It starts with /b/ and it ends with etsy, put it together and it says ." Context can be provided by limiting the words to objects that can be seen in the room or to words from a particular story the children just read. As the children become proficient, they can take turns using the jingle to present their own words to be blended by the class.

Guessing games that utilize words broken into syllables or isolated phonemes provide fun sound blending activities.

One involves using a puppet (perhaps representing a character from a current reading lesson) who speaks "funny" by saying words syllable-by-syllable or sound-by-sound for the children to figure out. Initial clues can be provided by displaying three pictures, one of which is the word being said by the puppet. The puppet can confirm or negate a student response by picking up the picture and saying the word being segmented: "/f/-/i/-/sh/ - I said fish!"

Another is the familiar "What's in the bag?" activity. Instead of describing what is in the bag, the teacher says the word syllable-by-syllable or sound-by-sound and the children guess the word. A correct response is confirmed when the teacher brings the object out of the bag.

Yopp (1992) suggested the use of song games and presented an example to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands":

If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word,
Then tell me what you've heard,
If you think you know this word, shout it out!

The teacher says a segmented word such as /k/-/a/-/t/, and the children respond by saying the blended word (pp. 700-701).

Sound-to-word matching

Sound-to-word matching is useful as a beginning step in sound segmentation. Basically, sound-to-word matching requires that the child identify the beginning sound of a word.

Awareness of the initial sound in a word can be done by showing the children a picture (dog) and asking the children to identify the correct word out of three: "Is this a /mmm/- og, a /d/d/d/- og, or a /sss/- og?" A variation is to ask if the word has a particular sound: "Is there a /d/ in dog?" This can then be switched to "Which sound does dog start with - /d/, /sh/, or /l/?" This sequence encourages the children to try out the three onsets with the rime to see which one is correct.

It is easiest to use continuants that can be exaggerated and prolonged to heighten the sound input. Iteration should be used with stop consonants to add emphasis.

Yopp (1992) also suggested the use of songs in sound matching activities. One of several examples she presented uses the tune of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm":

What's the sound that starts these words?
Turtle, time, and teeth.
(Wait for a response from the children.)
/t/ is the sound that starts these words:
Turtle, time, and teeth.
With a /t/, /t/ here, and a /t/, /t/ there,
Here a /t/, there a /t/, everywhere a /t/, /t/.
/t/ is the sound that starts these words:
Turtle, time, and teeth! (p. 700)

The children might use favorite stories from their reading lessons to identify different sets of three words that start with the same sound to incorporate into the song. Each repeated verse could then emphasize a different sound. The teacher again is cautioned to use the phoneme sounds, not the letter names for these activities.

Identification of sound positions

Establishing that sounds occur in different positions of words - initial, final, and medial - helps some children with the later task of segmenting whole words into isolated sound components.

One method of representing sound positions is to display a picture of a train composed of an engine, a passenger car, and a caboose. Three connecting boxes can be drawn under each component: one under the engine, connected to one under the passenger car, connected to the one under the caboose (use poster board and laminate). Explain that words have beginning, middle, and end sounds just like the train has a beginning, a middle, and an end part.

Demonstrate by slowly articulating a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant word (e.g., /p/-/i/-/g/) and pointing to the box corresponding to the position of each sound in the word. You can then repeat the word and ask the children to identify where they hear the different sounds - "Where do you hear the /g/ in pig?" Slowly articulate other CVC words for them to listen to and have them mark the box under the train that indicates the position of the sound you specify.

Sound segmentation

Segmenting refers to the act of isolating the sounds in a spoken word by separately pronouncing each one in order (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Spector, 1992; Wagner et al., 1993).

Yopp (1988) stated that segmenting the sounds in a word is one of the more difficult simple phonemic tasks for children to perform. Lewkowicz (1980) and Yopp (1992) suggested starting with isolated productions of initial phonemes as a precursor to segmenting entire words. The previous sound-to-word matching and identification of position activities help in early recognition and practice with initial phonemes.

Figure 2. An example of Elkonin boxes used for hearing sounds in words.

Several researchers (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Griffith & Olson, 1992; Lewkowicz, 1980) have used visual and tactile cues based on Elkonin boxes (Elkonin, 1973) to help with phoneme segmentation. A card is prepared with a picture of a simple word at the top. Below the picture is a matrix that contains a box for each phoneme (not letter) in the word (see Figure 2).

The teacher models the process by slowing articulating the word phoneme-by-phoneme while pushing a counter into a box for each phoneme. The children can say the word with the teacher while the counters are being placed. Gradually the children should participate in this "say it and move it" (Ball & Blachman, 1991) activity by taking turns placing the counters in each box while saying each sound in a word. Both the matrix and picture can be eliminated over time so that the children are segmenting the word without visual clues.

Words should be selected from familiar text to ensure a whole-to-part sequence of instruction and to provide the children with contextual cues that link word segmentation to everyday classroom lessons.

Letter-sound association

Many researchers (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Byrne & Field- Barnsley, 1993; Hurford et al., 1994; Iversen & Tunmer, 1993) have demonstrated the advantage of combining phoneme awareness with letter knowledge in a classroom setting. As stated by Griffith and Olson (1992), "The most pedagogically sound method of phoneme awareness training is one that eventually makes explicit the complete letter-to-sound mappings in segmented words" (p. 518).

All phoneme awareness activities that use tokens or other visual representations of sounds can be modified to include letter- sound associations. As individual sounds are mastered by the children, their corresponding letter names can be introduced and placed on the tokens (magnetic letters or Scrabble tiles can be used) and gradually introduced into the segmentation activities.

At first, only one letter or tile should be provided, and the remainder should be blank. After the child has successfully segmented with one letter or tile, others can be added as new letter names are mastered.

To reinforce letter names, Blachman (1991) played "post office" - the children select a picture, say the initial sound of the picture, and identify the letter represented by the first sound by "mailing" it in the appropriate letter pouch.

A modified game of bingo can provide practice in sound-letter association. The desired letters to be emphasized are selected, starting with two or three, and adding more as the children progress. The letters are printed in random order on cards that have 4-by-4 or 5-by-5 grids drawn on them, one card for each child.

The teacher draws from a container letter tiles matching those on the children's cards. The teacher says the phoneme for the letter drawn from the container (replacing it each time) and asks the children to identify the letter corresponding to the phoneme by placing a marker in the appropriate box on their cards. Any child who fills a row or column can then name the letters aloud.

The practice of invented spelling in a classroom can also be used to make explicit connections between sound segments and letters. Children select words they wish to write but don't know how to spell.

A box is drawn for each sound in the word (remember that one sound may be represented by two or more letters - the word shoes, for example, has only three phonemes, /sh/-/oo/-/z/). A child can fill in the letters he or she hears and knows with the teacher's help. The teacher can fill in any letters the child does not know.

A summary of activities for enhancing simple phonemic awareness is presented in the table below.
Simple Phonemic Awareness

Targeted Skill

Example

Isolated sound recognition

Sammy snake sound says... (/s/)

Word/syllable/phoneme counting

How many (words/syllables/sounds) do you hear in this (sentence/word)?

Sound synthesis

It starts with /l/ and ends with ight, put it together and it says... ( light)
What word am I saying?
Put these sounds together to make a word - /f/-/i/-/sh/.

Compound phonemic awareness

Word-to-word matching

Compound phonemic awareness requires holding a given sound in memory while performing a second operation such as determining whether two words begin with the same sound in a word-to-word matching task (e.g., "Do cup and cake begin the same?"; Yopp, 1988). Byrne (1991) offered several games for practicing word-to-word matching.

1. Make a set of dominoes that have two pictured objects on each card. The children are required to join cards sharing beginning (or ending) sounds.

2. A version of "snap" uses cards having one picture. The children take turns drawing a card from a face-down pile and placing it in a face-up pile. When a newly drawn card has the same beginning (or end) sound as the top card in the face-up pile, the first child to identify the match by saying "snap" collects the pile.

3. Sound bingo uses bingo cards with pictures that children mark if one of their pictures has the same beginning (or end) sound as the word said by the caller.

Each of these games can be related to other classroom activities by having the children make their own dominoes, snap cards, and bingo cards using pictures cut from catalogs or magazines, or hand drawn and laminated. The pictures selected by the children can represent things related to the literature and themes being covered in class.

Sound deletion

Because sound deletion tasks require manipulation of phonemes in words, they are considered to be more difficult than other types of phoneme awareness tasks.

Cole and Mengler (1994) stated that it is not until a mental age of approximately 7 years that children are able to perform phoneme deletion tasks adequately. Lewkowicz (1980) suggested that sound deletion activities be done after the children exhibit some skill in segmentation and after letter names have been introduced. Because phoneme deletion of medial consonants puts an undue burden on young children's memory, sound deletion should target only initial or final sounds in words.

To introduce the idea of deleting parts of a word, the teacher can show pictures or point to objects in the room that are compound words and demonstrate how each word can be said with a part missing. For example, "This is a seesaw. If I say seesaw without the see, it says saw (give other examples). Now you try it. This is a hotdog. Say hotdog without the dog." An element of fun can be introduced by making it a "Simon says" activity: "Simon says, 'say bookmark without the book.'"

Identification of a missing sound can be accomplished through a "What's missing?" guessing game. The teacher says two words for comparison and asks the children to identify the missing element: "Listen: eat/ meat. What's missing in eat that you can hear in meat?"

Final position deletions can be done in the same way (e.g., "What's missing in play that you can hear in plane?"). The children can be encouraged to make up their own "What's missing?" words for the initial position by referring to the phonograms on the word families charts: "What's missing in an that you can hear in pan ( man, ran, can)."

Identifying the missing element using phonograms tends to be easier than using unrelated words because the initial consonant determines the meaning of the word for the child and the rime remains constant.

The actual task of deleting a sound from a word can be made easier by building on earlier segmentation practice, playing a game of "sound take-away." The teacher models how to orally segment a word into the "target" sound plus "everything else" and then take the target sound away.

A modified version of the sound blending jingle can be used: " Chair. It starts with /ch/ and it ends with air; take the first sound away, and it says air." The jingle can be used until the children can delete sounds with a simple prompt: "Say ball without the /b/." A sound deletion that results in a "real" word such as deer becoming ear or card becoming car is easier than one resulting in a "nonsense" word such as book becoming ook or sun becoming su (although some children enjoy making "alien" or funny words).

Children who have difficulty with deleting sounds might benefit from visual clues. By placing two colored blocks side-by-side, the teacher can designate one as representing the target sound and the other as representing the remainder of the word: "I'm going to use these blocks to say moon. This (red block) says moo and this (yellow block) says /n/." The child is then asked what the first block says when the second block is removed.

A summary of compound phonemic awareness activities is given in the table below.
Compound Phonemic Awareness
Conclusion

Research has demonstrated not only a predictive relationship between phoneme awareness and reading success, but also a causal relationship. Phoneme awareness that has a positive impact on reading can be developed in children through systematic instruction in kindergarten and first-grade settings. Early training in phoneme awareness should be a priority for those interested in improving early reading instruction and in reducing reading failure.

General and special educators should be supported in their efforts to collaborate on incorporating phoneme awareness activities into kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.

These activities are not intended to replace children's interactions with meaningful language and print, but to be incorporated into classrooms as part of a language-rich environment. Reading aloud, using big books and predictable books, developing language experience charts, and using other language-oriented practices give children valuable reading experiences.

However, by supplementing these experiences with related phoneme awareness activities, general and special educators can draw children's attention to a critical aspect of their language - its phonemic base.

It takes only a few minutes a day to integrate activities that emphasize the sounds of language into the rich, oral language environments we are creating for our children. Those few minutes can result in a lifetime of reading benefits to children who otherwise might not learn to read.

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How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities

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Research indicates a strong relationship between early phoneme awareness and later reading success, and it links some reading failure to insufficiently developed phoneme awareness skills. Intervention research clearly demonstrates the benefits of explicitly teaching phoneme awareness skills. Many children at risk for reading failure are in general education classrooms where phoneme awareness training is not part of their reading program.

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Activity Objective

The goal ofDrumming Out Syllables: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness is to help bring students awareness to the sound structure of words by finding the number of syllables in words in a fun way.

What You Need

Prep Time:

Task Time:

5 minutes
- Teacher models how to find the number of syllables in words using a drum
- Each student has a turn to drum the number of syllables in a word

Materials Required:

What You Do

Teacher Role:

Modeling:
- when showing how to drum the beats in a word
Facilitator:
- as each student drums out the beats in a word

Student Grouping:

Assessment Ideas:

- On a checklist, note which students are able to successfully drum out their word and which have difficulty
 - Test students individually by having them clap the number of syllables in a few different familiar words you provide (for example, "teacher" -2, "lunch"- 1, "happy"- 2, "go" -1, "December"-3, "afternoon"-3)

Quick Tips

Activity Extensions:

- Have students clap out beats of pictured words and sort the pictures based on their number of syllables
 - Try another activity such as "Fishing for Syllables"

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BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced Literacy Diet

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The goal ofDrumming Out Syllables: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness is to help bring students awareness to the sound structure of words by finding the number of syllables in words in a fun way.

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As students progress in their literacy understanding, they move from reading and writing single syllable words (often with consonant-vowel-consonant constructions) to reading and writing multisyllabic words. Instruction focused on teaching students about syllables often focuses on teaching different…

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Learn what you are measuring with each literacy skill assessment, the age or grade when a skill should be mastered, and when during the school year you should administer the assessments. You’ll also find sample assessment questions.

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Syllables are one component of phonological awareness. A syllable is part of a word that has a vowel, or vowel sound. Here are some ideas for teaching syllables to English Language Learners.

Introducing Syllables

One way to teach students how to identify syllables is to have them close their mouth and say a word. They then count how many breaths of air they take to say the word. That is the number of syllables. You can read more about this and other phonological awareness activities on the Reading Rockets website.

Counting Syllables

One of the simplest ways of teaching syllables is to have students count them in a word. They can clap the syllables as a way to help them hear them. They can also sort them under numbers.

Use Pictures

Especially with ELLs, pictures help students learn new vocabulary words as they are practicing syllables.

Help with Reading and Spelling

For older students at beginning language levels, learning how to break apart words into syllables is helpful as they try and read or spell longer words. Students chunk words into different syllables for reading or spelling. For spelling, there are 6 different types of syllables that influence how a word is spelled. As ELLs become more advanced shift the focus away from syllables towards word morphology including prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

Use Vocabulary Words

For older students, one way to quickly practice syllables is to take vocabulary words that the students are already learning and find out how many syllables are in each word. Students can sort the words into the number of syllables in the word.

Resources

Syllable Activities- Get a set of picture vocabulary cards to use for sorting along with two levels of worksheets.

The Florida Center for Reading Research has free syllable activities for students in grades PreK-4th.

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Teaching Syllables to ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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Syllables are one component of phonological awareness. A syllable is part of a word that has a vowel, or vowel sound. Here are some ideas for teaching syllables to English Language Learners. One way to teach students how to identify syllables is to have them close their mouth and say a word.

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Six Captivating Songs that Build Phonemic Awareness

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Six Captivating Songs that Build Phonemic Awareness

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Songs are an excellent way to build phonemic awareness skills because they focus on the task of listening. These songs are teacher-approved and perfect for building and practicing phonemic awareness skills.

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Last updated on December 20, 2021
Why Phonological and Phonemic Awareness are Hard
Songs are an excellent way to build phonemic awareness skills because they focus on the task of listening. These songs are teacher-approved and perfect for building and practicing phonemic awareness skills.

Have you ever wondered why phonological and phonemic awareness can be such a hard concept for students to grasp. 😣

First of all, gaining phonological and phonemic awareness is an abstract concept. That alone makes it more difficult to understand.

Second, this is the first time where hearing the word (and the sounds inside of the word) matters more than what the word means.

Since they were born, they've been learning how to communicate. When you're learning a language, not only do you hear the whole word, but the focus is on what the whole word means.

For example: What's the point of being able to hear and say the word dog, if an image of a dog doesn't pop into the child's mind? You can say dog or hear dog, but it's meaningless in communicating if you don't know what dog means.

They've spent their whole lives focusing on word meaning. Now we are asking them to focus on the sounds of a word and not the meaning.

Has this ever happened to you? You ask the students, "What word rhymes with dog?" They reply with: cat, bone, paw. 🤦🏽‍♀️

And you think: Those do not even come close to rhyming...why are they saying that? It's because they are naturally focusing on the meaning of the word instead of the sounds inside of the word.

Phonemic Awareness Songs

Building Listening Skills for Phonemic Awareness

Whether you're working on rhyming or manipulating sounds or syllables, each skill comes back to one thing: being able to hear what's happening to the sounds in words.

Teaching these skills can feel like a daunting task because it is all about listening ?. That's why I love to use songs to teach phonemic awareness. The rhythm and music lend themselves to learning and practicing theses skills.

Do you know the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness? I used these terms interchangeably for years, but they're actually quite different. Read this post to learn the difference phonological awareness VS phonemic awareness.

Learning Videos for the Classroom

While I personally believe these videos are appropriate for first and second grade classrooms, remember that there can often be inappropriate ads before and after YouTube videos. Also, I always recommend previewing the full video before showing it to your class.

If you plan to show YouTube videos in your classroom, I highly recommend that you read this blog post by Catherine, the Brown Bag Teacher. She shares three ways to eliminate YouTube video ads so that you can safely play these learning videos in your classroom.

Phonological Awareness Songs

Since phonological awareness and phonemic awareness activities build on each other, I like to practice a few phonological awareness skills first.

Even if some of your kiddos have mastered hearing and manipulating words, syllables, and onset and rime, it never hurts to use these phonological awareness songs as a warm-up. It's just more listening practice, and you can't go wrong with that!

Syllable Songs

The cadence of this song is what really lends it so perfectly to phonological awareness practice. We practice rhyming as they finish the sentences.

When they are more comfortable with the verses we practice counting the syllables in the different words.

First of all, this song is just fun. That's a good enough reason to use it as a break in the day. ? It also just happens to be perfect for practicing lots of syllables, too!

The rhythm of the song is perfect for practicing syllables. We clap out several of the words and match them to each other. For example "We can't go over it," is 6 syllables. "We can't go under it" is 6 syllables, too!

Additionally, all of the actions are a single syllable. We discuss why they might have used words with the same amount of syllables in each part of the song.

Rhyming Songs

This familiar nursery rhyme is perfect to practice rhyming because many kids are already comfortable with it.

To extend our phonological awareness practice, I like to ask "What else could rhyme with the number two? We practice putting other words into the rhyme and make silly sentences.

Bonus: This can also be a practice of word discrimination and phoneme manipulation!

Down by the Bay is a classic for a reason! Kids love the silly, rhyming word sentences that tell them what they may see down by the bay.

There are rhymes all over this song! We don't just listen for the rhymes in the verses. We also try to find rhyming words in the chorus (like "say" and "bay").

Finally, once we are comfortable with the song, we come up with our own silly things we might see by the bay. This means we have moved on from identifying rhymes to creating them! #teacherwin

Perhaps we will see a man getting a tan or a cat chasing a rat. Not only are we rhyming but we are changing the beginning phoneme to make the new rhyme. So much important practice is happening!

Phonemic Awareness Songs

Sound Discrimination Practice

This is the perfect silly song to practice multiple phonemic awareness skills.

Kids will hear a difference in the sounds they are singing. Most often when practicing sound discrimination we focus on the beginning or end of a word. This gives kids a chance to practice listening for the vowel sound!

We are also practicing phoneme manipulation in this song. The vowel sound changes with each verse of the song but the other sounds stay the same. We change a single sound in a word and can hear how the whole word changes.

We love to use this song as at the beginning of the school year to practice names as well as phonemic awareness skills. We will sing it without the video during our morning circle time or when we need a time filler before lunch or specials.

This song practices several phonemic awareness skills. Most notably, it works on rhyming. Kids can guess the name of the student you are singing about.

When you say "Willaby Wallaby Wauren..." They think they are so clever as they sing the answer back to you: Lauren!

Because you're changing the beginning sound of each name, you are also practicing phoneme manipulation! See if your kids can figure out what their name might be in the song and let them sing a verse!

When they get comfortable with the "w" I change it to another letter and now the song is "Tillaby Tallaby too" or whatever fits with what we are currently working on.

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Videos

The fun doesn't have to stop there! Check out these engaging videos for practicing phonemic awareness!

Do you have any favorite songs to practice phonological and phonemic awareness with your new readers? I would love to hear them. Please share below! 👇

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Phonemic Awareness Songs - A Teachable Teacher

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Songs are an excellent way to build phonemic awareness skills because they focus on the task of listening. Click to hear them all!

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Looking for something to help learners distinguish beginning sounds? Try this free phonemic awareness activity!

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Looking for something to help learners distinguish beginning sounds? Try this free phonemic awareness activity!

A reader asked for a set of clip cards to help her students distinguish beginning sounds.

She asked for a set of pictures - three of which start with the same sound, and one that doesn't.

In answer to her request, I created this phonemic awareness activity.

The clip cards come in two different levels.

Level 1 - Three pictures begin with the same sound - and the fourth picture has a beginning sound that is quite different.

Level 2 - Three pictures begin with the same sound - and the fourth picture has a beginning sound that is quite similar to the first one.

In the above level 1 example, you have the words horse, ax, astronaut, apple.

The /h/ sound is easily distinguishable from the sound /ă/.

This is a level 2 card. Astronaut, alligator, egg, apple.

The short vowel sounds /ă/ and /ĕ/ are made in the same part of the mouth, making this card more difficult.

This is a level 2 card because the /t/ and /d/ sounds are made in the same part of the mouth. (The fancy phrase for that is "point of articulation.")

My daughter (age 5) is strong with beginning sounds, so I started right away with the level 2 cards.

She named each picture and then clipped the picture whose beginning sound was different.

She had no problems at all until she got to this one. Since she struggles to properly articulate the /r/ and /l/ sounds, she couldn't hear the difference.

Since my daughter knows all her letters and sounds, these cards were simple review/reinforcement.

They're best for children who are still learning to match sounds to their corresponding letters.

I hope your learners enjoy these!

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Teach your students how to hear sounds in words with this free phonemic awareness activity! The clip cards are a fun way to teach phoneme isolation. #phonemicawareness

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Use this assessment to check your students' phonemic awareness skills. Includes initial sounds, rhyming, syllables, phoneme segmenting, and blending.

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Use this assessment to check your students' phonemic awareness skills. Includes initial sounds, rhyming, syllables, phoneme segmenting, and blending. To see more phonemic awareness activities, click here. The Ultimate Phonemic Awareness PackPhonemic Awareness Intervention PrintablesPhonemic Awarenes...

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Phonemic Awareness Activities Task Cards

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Phonemic Awareness Activities Task Cards

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You know phonemic awareness is so important, and you do it in small groups...but sometimes it's hard to remember ALL the skills in the spectrum. Sometimes it's hard to think of one more pair of rhyming words. Sometimes it's hard to generate those silly sentences...Not anymore! With these Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Card activities, you have over 100 systematic and explicit phonemic awareness building activities at your fingertips (literally)!

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Phonemic Awareness Activities with Teacher Task Cards!

You know phonemic awareness is so important, and you do it in small groups...but sometimes it's hard to remember ALL the skills in the spectrum. Sometimes it's hard to think of one more pair of rhyming words. Sometimes it's hard to generate those silly sentences...Not anymore! With these Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Card activities, you have over 100 systematic and explicit phonemic awareness building activities at your fingertips (literally)!
What are these?
Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards are task cards that teachers can use to help their students build phonemic awareness. There are over 100 task cards that include skill building activities for the entire spectrum of phonemic awareness. All the activities are done orally, so there is no need for student copies or projector displays. The activities are scripted for a systematic and explicit approach, so simply read aloud and start building those skills with your students!
Why should I use these?
Time and time again, scientific research shows that phonemic awareness has a significant impact on learning to read. However, phonemic awareness is not just for children who will learn to read, it is also an effective intervention for students struggling with phonics. Research shows that instruction in phonemic awareness produces positive effects on decoding and word reading. Learning to listen to sounds in words can also foster improved spelling and writing.
When can I use these?
You can use these anytime during the day. Use them at your guided reading table, whole group on the carpet, while standing in line before leaving the classroom, one-on-one as an intervention, or as a classroom transition. Conveniently keep these task cards on a ring and be ready to use them anytime, anywhere!
The following skills/task cards are included with a clickable table of contents for your convenience!
-Beginning sounds discrimination

-Ending sounds discrimination

-Generating like phonemes

-Medial sound discrimination

-Identifying rhymes

-Generating rhymes

-Counting words in a sentence

-Alliterations

-Segmenting compound words

-Segmenting syllables

-Onset and rime

-Blending 2 phonemes

-Blending 3 phonemes

-Blending 4 phonemes

-Segmenting 2 phonemes

-Segmenting 3 phonemes

-Segmenting 4 phonemes

-Deleting compound words

-Deleting syllables

-Deleting phonemes

-Identifying phoneme position

-Switching syllables

-Beginning phoneme substitution/manipulation

-Medial phoneme substitution/manipulation

-Ending phoneme substitution/manipulation

Each task/skill is CLEARLY defined, with scripted teacher directions. Every task card is clearly labeled by skill and additional words/lists are provided for each skill to ensure your students get PLENTY of practice.

You only need ONE set of task cards, and they print four to a page to save ink and paper!

Pictures and directions included in both the preview and the file. Please see the preview for more details!

Enjoy!

Lauren
Are you looking for more phonemic awareness activities?
Check out these 100% picture based Phonemic Awareness Worksheets.

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Phonemic Awareness Activities with Teacher Task Cards!You know phonemic awareness is so important, and you do it in small groups...but sometimes it's hard to remember ALL the skills in the spectrum. Sometimes it's hard to think of one more pair of rhyming words. Sometimes it's hard to generate those...

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3 Appealing Apps to Teach Phonemic Awareness Skills that are 100% FREE!

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3 Appealing Apps to Teach Phonemic Awareness Skills that are 100% FREE!

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We can teach phonemic awareness to our kids all day long but if they don’t get the chance to practice it, they will never get it. That’s why I have these phonemic awareness apps available for them to use.

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Last updated on September 8, 2020

We can teach phonemic awareness to our kids all day long but if they don't get the chance to practice it, they will never get it. That's why I have these phonemic awareness apps available for them to use.

Bonus: [As of July 2019] They are free!

If your kids are anything like mine, they love the chance to use technology. I want any screen time in my classroom to be as purposeful as possible. I like to have my students practice skills that match what we are working on in class.

Let's face it, when kids have a screen, they are engaged with the screen. You might as well use apps that are giving them the opportunity to work with what they really need to learn. It makes it a win-win! 🙌

Free Phonemic Awareness Apps
Note: I use free apps in my classroom because we do not have a budget to download several paid ones to all of the iPads. There are many other options that cost anywhere from one to ten dollars that are also great options!
We have two iPads in our classroom that they can use during a dedicated technology center. One of the folders on them is called "Phonemic Awareness." It has three apps they can use during that center time.

Phonological Awareness VS Phonemic Awareness

Before we get started, do you know the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?

I used these terms interchangeably for years, but they're actually quite different.

I've explained it all (and even created a little cheat sheet for you) which you can read about here: The Difference Between Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness.

Rhyming App

The Partners in Rhyme app is my favorite for rhyming for two reasons.

First, it only uses pictures, no words. 🙌 That is exactly what we want when practicing this phonological skill.

Second, there are four games for kids to play!

Syllable App

The syllable game in Syllable Count is super engaging for our kids! The bright colors and cute clip art are eye catching and the fun sounds make them want to keep playing.

While this app does show text, I still think it is valuable practice for our kids. It will read the words aloud to them as well so they can practice all of those syllable claps we have been doing in class!

Sounds Discrimination App

This Phonemic Awareness Bubbles app focuses on sound discrimination. It has two games. One asks them to match the same sounds. The other asks them to eliminate the sound that does not match.

Just like Partners in Rhyme, this app uses only pictures! That allows the kids to really focus on the sounds they hear when they listen to and say the words.

Phonemic awareness apps can be a really useful tool to give our kids more opportunities to practice these pre-reading skills. In fact, I try to give my kids time to practice these skills as often as I can.

When I have a few extra minutes of downtime, I love using these phonemic awareness teacher task cards! They have hundreds of skill building activities, and it's all scripted for you! All you have to do is read them aloud.

I keep them on a ring next to the back door. After we get all lined up, we practice a few skills. I love that the skills build on each other. I just use a sticky note so that we never lose our place.

Do you have any favorites apps you use in your classroom? Please share them below so I can add them to this list (and to our iPads)! 👇

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Phonemic Awareness Apps: Free and Engaging - A Teachable Teacher

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Last updated on September 8, 2020 We can teach phonemic awareness to our kids all day long but if they don't get the chance to practice it, they will never get it. That's why I have these phonemic awareness apps available for them to use. Bonus: [As of July 2019] They are free!

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FREE Phonemic Awareness Warm Up Activity for small group reading

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FREE Phonemic Awareness Warm Up Activity for small group reading

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Play this spinner game to review and reinforce phonemic awareness concepts. Great for a small group warm up activity with guided reading. Simply have a stack of picture cards, spin the spinner, and complete the task.

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FREE Phonemic Awareness Warm Up Activity for small group reading

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Play this spinner game to review and reinforce phonemic awareness concepts. Great for a small group warm up activity with guided reading. Simply have a stack of picture cards, spin the spinner, and complete the task. Check out my phonemic awareness games HERE

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Are you looking for printable phonemic awareness activities? These phonemic awareness worksheets are just for you! They are no prep, cut and paste PICTURE-BASED activities. Please note that there are no letters/words on the page in reference to each skill. The only words on the page are for title, name, and directions. This is to ensure that students are practicing HEARING sounds and words (phonemic awareness) rather than letter-sound correlation (phonics).

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Are you looking for printable phonemic awareness activities? These phonemic awareness worksheets are just for you! They are no prep, cut and paste PICTURE-BASED activities. Please note that there are no letters/words on the page in reference to each skill. The only words on the page are for title, name, and directions. This is to ensure that students are practicing HEARING sounds and words (phonemic awareness) rather than letter-sound correlation (phonics).

These interactive phonemic awareness activities are perfect for guided reading, small groups, intervention, tutoring, partner work, EL/ELL students, and even as assessments!

The following skills are covered in this resource:
* Beginning Sound Sorts
* Rhyming
* Compound words
* Syllable Sorts
* Counting Sounds in Words Sorts
* Ending Sounds Sorts
* Medial Sound Sorts

Picture keys are included for ALL activities.

Looking for more? You can find 65+ Phonemic Awareness Worksheets here!

OR take the guess work out of teaching phonemic awareness with the best selling Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards !

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Are you looking for printable phonemic awareness activities? These phonemic awareness worksheets are just for you! They are no prep, cut and paste PICTURE-BASED activities. Please note that there are no letters/words on the page in reference to each skill. The only words on the page are for title, n...

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***FREEBIE*** First Grade RTI - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs

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***FREEBIE*** First Grade RTI - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs

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This packet teaches how to isolate the blend sounds at the beginning and at the end of words. How to combine these sounds with other sounds to make words and how to read these words in simple sentences.

All words used in this packet use the short vowel sounds.

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FREEBIE!!! First Grade RTI: Emergent Literacy - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs FREEBIE!

Get the FULL 125 page packet here:
Grade One RTI Emergent Literacy - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs

Dear Teacher,

Thanks for downloading this 31 page SAMPLE packet which uses a systematic way of teaching blends, digraphs and trigraphs.

The full packet is 125 pages.

Only spend about five to ten minutes a day on this. It's an intensive phonics intervention packet that will help beginning readers or poor readers in need of training. Pictures are purposely left out so students can focus on the letter sounds.

Students should know more or less the letter names and the sounds the letters stand for at this point.

If not, please see my packet on Emergent Literacy Kindergarten Phonemic Mastery:
Kindergarten RTI Emergent Reader & Speller - Phonemic Mastery Essential Lessons

There is also an Emergent Literacy Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness packet here;
Kindergarten RTI Emergent Literacy - Phonemic awareness and phonics

This packet teaches how to isolate the blend sounds at the beginning and at the end of words. How to combine these sounds with other sounds to make words and how to read these words in simple sentences.

All words used in this packet use the short vowel sounds.

This packet is design to be used in a binder, just insert into a transparent sheet, and print-n-go!
Use dry eraser markers for easy clean up.

This activity is aligned with First Grade Common Core State Standard 1.RFS.3a Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs (two letters that represent one sound)

Rock, Paper, Scissors.

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***FREEBIE*** First Grade RTI - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs

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FREEBIE!!! First Grade RTI: Emergent Literacy - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs FREEBIE! Get the FULL 125 page packet here: Grade One RTI Emergent Literacy - Phonemic awareness of blends/digraphs Dear Teacher, Thanks for downloading this 31 page SAMPLE packet which uses a systematic way of ...

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Lexia is an APP that my district uses for reading intervention.

Lexia addresses the development of oral language, reading, spelling, and writing skills for students who are learning English. Students learning English will develop fundamental reading skills with the rest of their classmates and receive student-driven and teacher-directed personalized instruction

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Lexia Core5® Reading® is a research-proven, blended learning program that accelerates the development of fundamental literacy skills for students of all abilities in grades pre-K-5. Following a rigorous scope and sequence, Core5 provides explicit, systematic instruction through personalized, adaptive learning paths in six areas of reading.

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Phonemic Awareness Strategies for Building Literacy Skills

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Phonemic Awareness Strategies for Building Literacy Skills

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Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words, according to the National Reading Panel.

Phonemic awareness represents a high level of phonological awareness, or understanding different ways oral language can be divided into smaller components and manipulated. Phonological awareness may begin with a child recognizing language sounds in rhyming songs and progress to recognizing how sentences can be broken down into individual words.

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A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. There are approximately 41 phonemes in the English language, according to a report from the National Reading Panel. Other estimates vary between 36 and 44 phonemes, Connie Juel writes in the Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2.

Syllables and words are a combination of phonemes. Some words have only one phoneme, such as a or oh. But most words blend several phonemes, such as go with two phonemes, or check with three phonemes, or stop with four phonemes, according to the National Reading Panel.

Phonemic awareness (PA) reflects a deep understanding of these units of sound. PA and letter knowledge are the two strongest school-entry predictors of how well students will learn to read in their first two years of school. Educators can implement phonemic awareness strategies to benefit children with reading skills.

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words, according to the National Reading Panel.

Phonemic awareness represents a high level of phonological awareness, or understanding different ways oral language can be divided into smaller components and manipulated. Phonological awareness may begin with a child recognizing language sounds in rhyming songs and progress to recognizing how sentences can be broken down into individual words.

Finally, the child may be able to approach individual words. This involves syllables, onset (the initial consonant or consonant cluster), rime (the vowel and consonants that follow the onset), and individual phonemes. The following examples of the term "protect" provide an illustration.

Syllable: /pro/ and /tEkt/

Onset and Rime Within the Syllable: /pr/ and /o/, and /t/ and /Ekt/, respectively

Individual Phonemes: /p/, /r/, /o/, /t/, /E/, /k/, and /t/

"The term phonological awareness refers to a general appreciation of the sounds of speech as distinct from their meaning," the National Research Council says in Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. "When that insight includes an understanding that words can be divided into a sequence of phonemes, this finer-grained sensitivity is termed phonemic awareness."

Assessing phonemic awareness typically involves tasks such as isolating or segmenting one or more phonemes of a spoken word, blending or combining a sequence of separate phonemes into a word, or manipulating the phonemes within a word, such as by adding or subtracting. For instance, a teacher may have students replace the /c/ in "cat" to /p/ to create a new word ("pat").

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Effectiveness of Phonemic Awareness Strategies and Training

The National Reading Panel analyzed 96 cases comparing treatment groups that received phonemic awareness education to control groups that received either an alternative form of instruction or no special instruction. Three main outcome variables were examined: phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling.

Training was found to be very effective in teaching phonemic awareness to students. The effect was strong immediately after training and remained so long-term. Phonemic awareness training also improved children's ability to read and spell in the short and long term, and this effect was moderate.

"Findings of the meta-analyses show that PA training benefits the processes involved in reading real words, pseudowords, and text reading," the National Reading Panel says. "It also benefits spelling skills in normally progressing readers below 2nd grade and in beginners at risk for developing reading problems."

Phonemic Awareness Strategies

Primary Tasks

The National Reading Panel identified common tasks used to assess or improve children's phonemic awareness. These methods include:

Isolation: This means recognizing individual sounds in words. For example, the first sound in "paste" (/p/).

Identity: This is recognizing the common sound in different words. For example, the sound that is the same in "bike," "boy" and "bell" (/b/).

Categorization: This is when the child is asked to find the odd sound in a sequence of three or four words. For example, "rug" is the word that does not belong in "bus, bun and rug."

Blending: By listening to a sequence of separately spoken sounds, the child learns to combine them to form a recognizable word. For example, the word created with the sounds "/s/ /k/ /u/ /l/" is "school."

Segmentation: Students may tap out or count the sounds of a word, or pronounce and position a marker for each sound. For example, counting the number of phonemes in "ship" (three: /š/ /I/ /p/).

Deletion: When a phoneme is removed, the child learns to recognize the word that remains. For example, the word created when /s/ from "smile" is eliminated ("mile").

Activities and Games

Activities and games are a great way to help educators teach phonemic awareness. The following examples are from the journal Intervention in School and Clinic, in an excerpt reprinted by Reading Rockets.

Simple Phonemic Awareness

Isolated Sound Recognition: Instructors can associate phonemes with a creature, an action or an object familiar to the child. For instance, associating the phoneme /s/ with the hissing sound of a snake and calling it a "Sammy snake" sound. Others include the crowing rooster for /r/, a buzzing bee for /z/ and the "be quiet" sound for /sh/. These sound personalities create a natural connection for children.

Word, Syllable and Phoneme Counting: Instructors can read sentences to children without the sentence being visible. The children place a marker from left to right for each word heard, and the teacher can confirm the amount of words by showing the printed sentence and pointing to each word as it is read. Clapping hands, tapping the desk or marching in place can help children count syllables or sounds in words.

Sound-to-Word Matching: Instructors can show children a picture of a dog, and ask children to identify the correct word out of three options ("Is there an /mmm/-og, a /d/d/d/-og or an /sss/-og?"). A variation is to ask if the word has a particular sound ("Is there a /d/ in dog?").

Compound Phonemic Awareness

Word-to-Word Matching: Instructors can use games to help children practice determining whether two words begin with the same sound. Dominoes, card games and even a bingo game using similar sounds can all be effective. One game is to make a set of dominoes with two pictured objects on each side and have children join cards sharing beginning sounds. Another is a version of the card game "snap," where children take turns drawing a card from a face-down pile and placing it in a face-up pile. When a card has the same beginning sound as the top card in the face-up pile, the first child to say "snap" collects the pile. Or, children can play sound bingo using cards with pictures. Children mark when one of the pictures has the same beginning sound as the word said by the caller.

Sound Deletion: Instructors can show pictures or point to objects in the room that are compound words, and demonstrate how each word can be said with a part missing. For instance, by saying "seesaw" without the "saw," or saying "hotdog" without the "dog." This can be done in the form of a "Simon says" game: "Simon says, 'say bookmark without the book.'"

Building Skills in Reading

Phonemic awareness strategies help young children build a foundation for reading and spelling. When students are ready to read, reading activities for kids can further develop these abilities and encourage a passion for reading.

Southeastern University offers online education degrees that help teachers inspire and lead students. Programs such as the Master of Education in Reading Education and the Master of Education in Elementary Education focus on literacy skills. They take place in a flexible and convenient online learning environment.

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Phonemic Awareness Strategies for Building Literacy Skills

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A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. There are approximately 41 phonemes in the English language, according to a report from the National Reading Panel. Other estimates vary between 36 and 44 phonemes, Connie Juel writes in the Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 2.

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FREE Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Cheat Sheet

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FREE Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Cheat Sheet

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are a vital set of skills that allows us to learn how to read.

Phonological and phonemic awareness skills provide children with a means to access the written form; phonics. Phonological and phonemic awareness skills are the basis for phonics.

As teachers, it is our responsibility to ensure our students have a strong and competent reading foundation. I wanted to have all the phonological and phonemic awareness skills in one place, so to cater for all students. However, after weeks of research, I found that each source has different skills. So I created my own ‘Cheat Sheet’. You might find this useful when planning out your phonemic awareness lessons.

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FREE Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Cheat Sheet

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FREE Cheat sheet which overviews 34 essential phonological and phonemic awareness skills. These skills are also used in our Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Assessment & Intervention BUNDLE which is 20% off when purchased as a bundle. Click the link above to download the free preview file.P…