1. Foundational Skills Session Two
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
October 2017

2. Building a Solid Foundation for Reading
Easier
Phonological Awareness
Words, compound words, rhyming, alliteration
Syllables, onset and rime
Phonemic Awareness
Segmentation, blending, manipulation
No letters,
only sounds!
More Difficult

3. Video Clip Overview

4. Phonemic Awareness: Elkonin Sound Boxes
Student draws 3 boxes on wipe-off board
Each student receives 3 counters

5. Elkonin Sound Boxes
Teacher says a word with 3 phonemes. Students repeat the word.
Teacher pronounces individual sounds of the word.
For each phoneme, children move a counter to each box in a left-to-right progression.
Children say the word again, sliding their finger below the boxes from left to right.

6. Elkonin Sound Boxes Teacher says “mat.” Students repeat the word.
As teacher says individual sounds /m/ /a/ /t/, students move individual counters into the boxes.

7. Elkonin Sound Boxes
Students say the word “mat,” sliding a finger below the boxes from left to right while blending the sounds.

8. Elkonin Sound Boxes
Include words where one phoneme is represented by more than one letter, such as “duck” and “shirt.”

9. Video of Elkonin Boxes

10. Additional Elkonin Box Activities
Ask children to listen for a certain sound in a word. Say a word that has that sound.
Children place a counter in the first box if they hear the sound in the beginning of the word, in the middle box if they hear the sound in the middle of the word, and in the last box if they hear it at the end of the word.
Where do you hear /p/ in the word “soap”?

11. Example Teacher: “Listen for the /m/ sound.”
Teacher pronounces the word “lime.”
Students are asked to put counter in the box showing where the /m/ sound is heard in “lime.”

12. Manipulating Phonemes Using Foamy Squares
(bite)
(fight)

13. Manipulating Phonemes Using Foamy Squares
(fight)
(fine)

14. Phonemic Awareness Picture Sorts
Use clear column heading pictures (not ambiguous ones)
Discuss each picture that will be sorted to be sure students know what the picture represents
Model the process of saying the word, stretching it out, then deciding where it belongs

15. Resources for Phonemic Awareness Picture Sorts
Incredible wealth of resources available through FCRR
Words Their Way provides detailed information about determining students’ needs and tailoring sorts to those needs
Words Their Way is a stand-alone text that provides hands-on sorting activities designed to help students develop as readers and writers. A developmental spelling inventory will help you identify where to begin lessons with different groups of students. WTW provides both picture and word sorting cards along with routines and teaching strategies that support the transition from invented to conventional spelling.

16. “General Education Leadership Network” Resources
Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy
Pre-K
K-3

17. “What Works Clearinghouse” Resources
Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade

18. Relevant Sections of “No More Teaching a Letter a Week”
Page 65-66
Appendix B: Read-Alouds that support wordplay and poetry

19. Questions?
If you have additional questions about foundational skills, please contact:
Michelle Platzer or Meg Bowen
Extension or
Don’t forget, there are many resources available on the curriculum pages of ims.ocps.net, including phonological awareness continuums, and phonemic awareness and phonics progressions in the section above the CRMs for kindergarten and first grade. Additionally, there are many lesson plans within the CRMS that focus on foundational skills. More are being added as they are written and vetted. Finally, please check out the elementary curriculum and instruction course where even more resources are housed.