Reading and Phonemic Awareness Activities PreK-2 September 2012

Objectives Identify sequence of skills for phonemic awareness for your grade level. Create manipulatives to use in teaching phonemic awareness. Name activities for teaching phonemic awareness.

Agenda Review of Phonemic Awareness Sequence of Skills for Teaching Phonemic Awareness in Grades K-2 Small Group Activities

Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness is the ability to understand consciously and analytically that words are made up of sound segments that are abstract and can be manipulated. It depends on installing that system in long term memory and having it available to working memory when deciphering a printed word. Teaching Our Children to Read: The Role of Skills in a Comprehensive Reading Program-Crowin ,p. 96 William Honig.

Phonological Awareness Rhyming Words into Syllables Words into Sounds: Phonemic Awareness Sentences into Words Alliteration

Phonemic Awareness Words into Sounds Manipulating Segmenting Blending Most Critical Phonological Awareness Skills Words into Sounds Manipulating Segmenting Blending

Why is Phonemic Awareness important? Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read. Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to spell.

Phonemic awareness skills assessed in kindergarten and first grade serve as a potent predictor of difficulties learning to read…we can predict with approximately 92% accuracy who will have difficulties learning to read. Reid Lyon, NIH

The Research Says… “Children who fall behind in first grade reading have a one in eight chance of ever catching up to grade level.”(Juel, 1994) “Phoneme awareness is the single best predictor of reading success between kindergarten and second grade.”(Adams, Stanovich, 1995) “Phonemic awareness is more highly related to learning to read than are tests of general intelligence, reading readiness, and listening comprehension.” (Stanovich, 1993)

Alphabetic Principle This does not come naturally or easily to humans. Without direct instructional support, phonemic awareness eludes about 25% white middle class first graders and more from less literacy rich homes. These children show evidence of serious difficulty learning to read. It is the basis for reading. Readers must understand that spoken language is made up of sequences of these little sounds.

Progression of Difficulty Words-syllables-individual phonemes Initial sound-final-medial Receptive-expressive Pictures-tokens-eventually graphemes

Who is it for? Preschool Kindergarten through second grade

Skills mastered by … Age 3 Recitation of rhymes Rhyming by pattern Alliteration Age 4 Syllable counting (50% of children by age 4) Age 5 Syllable counting (90% of children by age 5) Age 6 Initial consonant matching Blending 2-3 phonemes Counting phonemes (70% of children by age 6) Rhyme identification Onset-rime division Age 7 Blending 3 phonemes Segmentation of 3-4 phonemes (blends) Phonetic spelling Phoneme deletion Age 8 Consonant cluster segmentation Deletion within clusters

Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills Usually engaged in as preschoolers. -Rhyme play and nonsense words -Syllables: Implicity segmenting as in chants and songs, clapping to syllables. Linda Cummins, 2002 Word Syllable Phoneme

Areas of instruction Isolation Identify Categorization Blending Segmentation Deletion Addition Substitution

How Much Instructional Time? “No more than 20 hours over the school year.” Stanovich, 1993

What does instruction look like? Direct Instruction Model I Do We Do You Do

individual sounds in a word. Phoneme Isolation Children recognize individual sounds in a word. I do: Teacher: What is the first sound in van? The first sound in van is /v/.

Phoneme Isolation We do: What is the first sound in: Tire Pail You do: Goat Clock Star Fish What is the last sound in:

Phoneme Isolation You Do: I spy something in the room that starts like: Purple Water Teacher Cat

Children recognize the same sounds in different words Phoneme Identity Children recognize the same sounds in different words I Do: Teacher: What sound is the same in fix, fall, and fun? The first sound /f/ is the same.

Phoneme Identity We do: Which sound is the same in…? sat sister sorry run rice river You do: bike bake birth mouse mat make

Phoneme Categorization Children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd” sound. I do: Teacher: Which word doesn’t belong? bus, bun, rig Rig does not belong. It doesn’t begin with /b/.

Phoneme Categorization We do: shake ice shave milk butter bug You do: candle cookie gutter

Phoneme Blending Children listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the phonemes to form a word. Then they write and read the word. We do: Teacher: What word is /b/ /i/ /g/? Children: /b/ /i/ /g/ is big.

Sound by Sound Blending Types of Blending Continuous Blending Sound by Sound Blending Vowel-First Blending

Types of Blending I do: What word is /_/ /_/ /_/? /h/ /ou/ /s/ /p/ /i/ /t/ /f/ /o/ /k/ /s/

Phoneme Segmentation Children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as they tap out or count it. Then they write and read the sounds. We do: Teacher: How many sounds are in grab? Children: /g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.

Segmentation Levels Counting words in a sentence Counting syllables in words Compound words Counting phonemes in words

Segmentation Levels We Do: How many sounds are in ___? Cake Lock Hen Flag

Phoneme Deletion Children recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word. I do: Teacher: What is smile without the /s/? Children: Smile without the /s/ is mile.

Phoneme Deletion We do: What is ___ without the /_/? Ball without /b/ Fly without /f/ You do: Rent without /r/ Eight without /t/

Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word. Phoneme Addition Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word. I do: Teacher: What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of park? Spark.

Phoneme Addition I do: What word do you have if you add /_/ to the beginning of ____? /s/ to the beginning of mile /c/ to the beginning of law You do: /g/ to the beginning of lad /t/ to the end of pass

Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word. Phoneme Substitution Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word. I do: Teacher: The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/. What’s the new word? Children: Bun.

Phoneme Substitution We do: The word is ___. Change /_/ to /_/. What’s the new word? Tight /t/ to /m/ Bag /b/ to /w/ You do: Lid /d/ to /p/ Cot /o/ go /a/

May seem like play; however, Requires explicit teaching Highly structured practice Independent practice

Which methods have the greatest impact? Blending and Segmenting Phoneme Awareness instruction is most effective when it focuses on only one or two types of phoneme manipulation, rather than several types.

Developmental Sequence for Remediation Word, syllable, and sound awareness Rhyming Odd one out/alliteration Blending and segmenting Manipulation

Phonological Awareness Instruction Use different materials to represent sounds. Larger materials for larger chunks of sounds Segmenting sentences into words Segmenting words into syllables Smaller materials for smaller chunks of sound Segmenting words into sounds

Syllable Cards Use for Blending Use for Segmenting “Blend this into a word “bas-ket-ball.” Touch each space as you say each part. Let’s blend together… ‘bas-ket-ball’ What word is it? Yes, it’s basketball. Use for Segmenting How many parts? Touch each space as you say each part of the word. Repeat after me- ‘elephant.’ Let’s break it up together…’el-e-phant’ Use for Segmenting Recognition Task Give students several strips with different #’s of spaces (labels) Raise up the card with the correct number of parts in this word ‘octopus.’ That’s right! There are three!

Syllable vs. Phonemes Struggling readers often get the concept of phonemes mixed up with the concept of syllables when doing phonological awareness tasks. Teach syllable awareness and sound awareness in separate lessons until there is sufficient understanding of each.

Scaffolding Why provide scaffolding when developing phonological awareness? Students needs support as they work towards mastery. The most helpful scaffolding is taking something abstract and making it concrete. For example, students can touch objects and move them as they say the sounds or syllables in a word. It helps them understand phonological awareness at a deeper level. Scaffolding is dismantled as students master the concept. A new skill or new level of difficulty requires the scaffolding to be reintroduced.

Goal of Phonemic Awareness Instruction The ultimate goal of taking a student from speech to print is to have the phonological components of a word correspond to orthographical components (the print or spelling patters) so that decoding and encoding can become automatic.

Summary Phoneme awareness is necessary, but not sufficient. Phoneme awareness can be directly taught. Phoneme awareness does not require extensive teaching time. Phoneme awareness should be assessed in the early grades. Focus majority of instruction on blending and segmenting sounds.