# data[].attributes.body
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3

Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.E

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yopp-Singer test of phoneme segmentation with a 5 year old girl

# data[].attributes.body
Syllable Suitcase

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Syllable Suitcase: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By: ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation

Learning to read begins well before the first day of school. When Ron and Donna tell nursery rhymes to their baby, Mia, they are beginning to teach Mia to read. They are helping her to hear the similarities and differences in the sounds of words. She will begin to manipulate and understand sounds in spoken language, and she will practice this understanding by making up rhymes and new words of her own. She will learn the names of the letters and she will learn the different sounds each letter represents. As she gets a little older, Ron and Donna will teach her to write letters and numbers that she will already recognize by their shapes. Finally, she will associate the letters of the alphabet with the sounds of the words she uses when she speaks. At this point, she is on her way to learning to read!

When she tries to read books with her parents, at school, and on her own, Mia will learn how to learn new words by sounding them out. With more practice, she will begin to recognize familiar words easily and quickly, and she will know the patterns of spelling that appear in words and the patterns of words as they appear in sentences. She will be able to pay attention not just to the letters and words, but to the meanings they represent. Ultimately, Mia will be able to think about the meaning of the text as she reads.

Where does phonological awareness fit into this process?

Key to the process of learning to read is Mia's ability to identify the different sounds that make words and to associate these sounds with written words. In order to learn to read, Mia must be aware of phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest functional unit of sound. For example, the word cat contains three distinctly different sounds. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including letter combinations such as /th/.

In addition to identifying these sounds, Mia must also be able to manipulate them. Word play involving segmenting words into their constituent sounds, rhyming words, and blending sounds to make words is also essential to the reading process. The ability to identify and manipulate the sounds of language is called phonological awareness.

Adams (1990) described five levels of phonological awareness ranging from an awareness of rhyme to being able to switch or substitute the components in a word. While phonological awareness affects early reading ability, the ability to read also increases phonological awareness (Smith, Simmons, & Kameenui, 1995).

Many children with learning disabilities have deficiencies in their ability to process phonological information. Thus, they do not readily learn how to relate letters of the alphabet to the sounds of language (Lyon, 1995). For all students, the processes of phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness, must be explicitly taught.

Children from culturally diverse backgrounds may have particular difficulties with phonological awareness. Exposure to language at home, exposure to reading at an early age, and dialect all affect the ability of children to understand the phonological distinctions on which the English language is built. Teachers must apply sensitive effort and use a variety of techniques to help children learn these skills when standard English is not spoken at home (Lyon, 1994).

How is phonological awareness taught?

To teach phonological awareness, begin by demonstrating the relationships of parts to wholes. Then model and demonstrate how to segment short sentences into individual words, showing how the sentence is made up of words. Use chips or other manipulatives to represent the number of words in the sentence. Once the students understand part-whole relationships at the sentence level, move on to the word level, introducing multisyllable words for segmentation into syllables. Finally, move to phoneme tasks by modeling a specific sound and asking the students to produce that sound both in isolation and in a variety of words and syllables.

It is best to begin with easier words and then move on to more difficult ones. Five characteristics make a word easier or more difficult (Kameenui, 1995):

1. The size of the phonological unit (e.g., it is easier to break sentences into words and words into syllables than to break syllables into phonemes).

2. The number of phonemes in the word (e.g., it is easier to break phonemically short words such as no, see and cap than snort, sleep or scrap).

3. Phoneme position in words (e.g., initial consonants are easier than final consonants and middle consonants are most difficult).

4. Phonological properties of words (e.g., continuant such as /s/ and /m/ are easier than very brief sounds such as /t/).

5. Phonological awareness challenges. (e.g., rhyming and initial phoneme identification are easier than blending and segmenting.)

Examples of phonological awareness tasks include phoneme deletion ("What word would be left if the /k/ sound were taken away from cat?"); Word to word matching ("Do pen and pipe begin with the same sound?"); Blending ("What word would we have if we blended these sounds together: /m/ /o/ /p/?"); phoneme segmentation ("What sounds do you hear in the word hot?"); phoneme counting ("How many sounds do you hear in the word cake?"); and rhyming ("Tell me all of the words that you know that rhyme with the word cat?") (Stanovich, 1994).

Beginning readers require more direct instructional support from teachers in the early stages of teaching. This is illustrated in the following example: The teacher models the sound or the strategy for making the sound, and has the children use the strategy to produce the sound. It is very important that the teacher model the correct sounds. This is done using several examples for each dimension and level of difficulty. The children are prompted to use the strategy during guided practice and more difficult examples are introduced. A sequence and schedule of opportunities for children to apply and develop facility with sounds should be tailored to each child's needs, and should be given top priority. Opportunities to engage in phonological awareness activities should be plentiful, frequent, and fun (Kameenui, 1995).
References
References

Adams, M.J. (1990) Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kameenui, E.J. (Winter, 1996). Shakespeare and beginning reading: The readiness is all. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 27 (2).

Lyon, G. R. (1995). Toward a definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 45, 3-27.

Lyon, G.R. (1994). Research In Learning Disabilities at the NICHD. Technical document. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.

Smith, S.B., Simmons, D.C., & Kameenui, E.J. (February, 1995). Synthesis of research on phonological awareness: Principles and implications for reading acquisition. (Technical Report no. 21, National Center to Improve the Tools of Education). Eugene: University of Oregon.

Stanovich, K.E. (1994). Romance and reality. The Reading Teacher, 47, 280-291.

A companion digest, #E539, and a companion ERIC minibibliography are available on request. ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated. This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RR93002005. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or the Department of Education.

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, The Council for Exceptional Children, 1920 Association Drive Reston, VA 22091

ERIC Digest #E540 December 1995

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beginning Reading and Phonological Awareness for Students with Learning Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
LD OnLine is the leading website on learning disabilities, learning disorders and differences. Parents and teachers of learning disabled children will find authoritative guidance on attention deficit disorder, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, reading difficulties, speech and related disorders.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recognizing syllables in words is an important step in developing spelling and reading skills. Give young students the practice they need by reading words aloud to them and asking them to identify the number of syllables.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonemic Awareness: Syllables | Worksheet | Education.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recognizing syllables in words is an important step in developing spelling and reading skills. Give young students the practice they need by reading words aloud to them and asking them to identify the number of syllables.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
RF.1.3.b- Common Core ID

Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.

RF.1.3.e- Common Core ID

Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables.

Common Core " 1st Grade English Language Arts Standards " Reading: Foundational Skills " Phonics and Word Recognition " RF.1.3.b, RF.1.3.e

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Counting Syllables Worksheet for 1st Grade (Free Printable)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
RF.1.3.b- Common Core ID Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words. RF.1.3.e- Common Core ID Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables. Common Core " 1st Grade English Language Arts Standards " Reading: Foundational Skills " Phonics and Word Recognition " RF.1.3.b, RF.1.3.e

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Syllable Sound Breaks: A phonological awareness activity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fishing for Syllables: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by Susan Verner 58,157 views

Why not try some of these catchy syllable activities with your ESL class the next time you plan to talk about rhythm in spoken English.

How to Teach Syllables in English

1. What is a syllable?
Helping ESL students understand the concept of syllables can be challenging, but it is necessary for good pronunciation skills. As part of a pronunciation lesson, have available for your students several small, hand held mirrors. Using a list of vocabulary from your current unit, have students repeat one word at a time after you, concentrating on clear pronunciation. Encourage your students to watch your mouth as you say each word. Then as they repeat the word, have them watch their own mouth in the mirror. Point out that with each vowel sound (not necessarily each vowel in the word) your mouth opens. Each time your mouth opens, you pronounce one syllable. Have your students count the number of syllables in each of their vocabulary words as they watch themselves in the mirror. While working in pairs, have your students group those same vocabulary words by the number of syllables each contains creating a list for one-syllable words, another list for two syllable words and so on.

2. What is in a name?
Another way to help your students understand the number of syllables in a word is to tell them that the number of beats in a spoken word corresponds with the number of syllables in that same word. The number of letters in a word or the way that word is spelled are not indicative of their syllabic structure, but simply clapping along with speech can make clear how many syllables that word contains. To practice counting the number of syllables in words, have your class take turns saying their names aloud. As each person says his name or as you say it, have your class clap along with it and count the number of claps. Once you have practiced the number of syllables in all the names of your students, give each person a list of his classmates and have him write down how many syllables each name contains. Do boy's names or girl's names usually have more syllables? Which nationality's names has the most syllables?

3. Open and Closed
During your lesson on syllables, it may be a good time to show your students the difference between a closed syllable and an open syllable. A closed syllable is one that ends with a consonant sound. Most often, the vowel sounds in closed syllables are short vowel sounds. You may want to select some examples from their current vocabulary lists or write other examples on the board such as helmet or candid. Open syllables are those that end with vowel sounds. Most often, these vowels are long vowel sounds. Again, use examples from your current vocabulary list or supply other words like sky or raven. Once students understand the difference between an open and closed syllable, point out that this knowledge can help them pronounce new words. By breaking the word into syllables and then determining whether those syllables are open or closed, your students can make educated guesses about vowel pronunciation when they encounter unfamiliar vocabulary.

4. The Root of It All
A natural extension of breaking words into syllables may be reviewing word roots, prefixes and suffixes. Your students will benefit from knowing that meaning can be found in the building blocks of words and that these building blocks can often be found in syllabic breakdowns. Take some time to review commonly encountered word roots including mal (bad), bene (good), ology (the study of), un (not), vis (see), and any other word roots that may make up your class' current vocabulary words. If you are unsure which word roots may be a part of the vocabulary you are using in class, you can check this online source for word roots. Encourage your students that the more word roots they memorize and know, the easier it is to break down new vocabulary into pieces and decipher their meanings.

Syllables in English are key to proper pronunciation, underlying word meaning and appropriate spelling. When you take the time to review syllables with your ESL class, you help them increase their linguistic skills in several facets of English.

Take the time to review syllables today and your students will surely benefit now and well into the future.

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library:

Dramatically Improve the Way You Teach

Save hours of lesson preparation time with the Entire BusyTeacher Library. Includes the best of BusyTeacher: all 80 of our PDF e-books. That's 4,036 pages filled with thousands of practical activities and tips that you can start using today. 30-day money back guarantee.

Learn more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Syllables Have It: Activities You Can Use to Teach Syllables in English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Susan Verner 58,157 views Why not try some of these catchy syllable activities with your ESL class the next time you plan to talk about rhythm in spoken English. What is a syllable? Helping ESL students understand the concept of syllables can be challenging, but it is necessary for good pronunciation skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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…