Introduction
Phonemic awareness is a critical foundation for early reading. It's the ability to identify, manipulate, and produce individual sounds in spoken words. Developing strong phonemic awareness skills can significantly impact a child's reading success, especially for those who may face learning challenges like dyslexia. As a teacher and CALT, I've seen firsthand how effective strategies can empower young learners to overcome obstacles and become confident readers.
The Importance of Phonemic Awareness
Building a Strong Foundation: Phonemic awareness is the cornerstone of phonics, which involves understanding the relationship between sounds and letters. By mastering phonemic awareness, children can more easily decode unfamiliar words and become fluent readers.
Identifying and Addressing Challenges: For students with learning differences, phonemic awareness difficulties can often contribute to reading struggles. By targeting these specific challenges early on, we can provide targeted support and help prevent future academic difficulties.
Effective Strategies for Developing Phonemic Awareness
Oral Language Activities: Engage students in activities that promote oral language skills, such as storytelling, rhyming, and singing. These activities help develop phonemic awareness by focusing on the sounds of words.
Phonological Awareness Games: Play games that involve identifying and manipulating sounds in words, such as clapping syllables, blending sounds to form words, and segmenting words into individual sounds.
Explicit Instruction: Provide explicit instruction in phonemic awareness concepts, using a systematic approach that gradually builds upon students' understanding - following a evidence-validated structured literacy curriculum with fidelity helps to maintain a controlled-safe atmosphere for developing phonemic awareness.
Multisensory Learning: Incorporate multisensory activities that engage multiple senses, such as tracing letters in sand, using letter tiles, or listening to auditory cues.
Individualized Support: Tailor instruction to meet the unique needs of each student, providing additional support and resources as necessary, including filling in foundational gaps even at an older age. Don't assume each student is highly skilled in the previous curriculum objectives - they may need retaught or reviewed regularly for struggling learners.
Real-World Examples and Success Stories
When I was teaching kindergarteners, I could tell they were behind in the crucial foundational skills of phonological awareness. Once we began filling the gaps, which begin developing before preschool, student progress SOARED! Focusing on whole-body, multisensory, and/or gross motor movement incorporation made a major impact in their retention of these skills.
One simple, yet oh so effective, activity we practiced regularly was blending the onset and rime of word. First, I would give them an onset and a rime, like /s/ … /at/. We would begin by producing the /s/ sound while touching their shoulder, then they would slide their hand down their straight arm as they sounded out the rime of the word /at/. We eventually did this for blending words, as well, using 3-5 sounds. Doing the reverse can also be used for segmenting words.
As we practiced these things, it is important to note that we did not use letters during this portion of our lessons. There is conflicting research about whether to use letters or not during phonological awareness development, and I have seen the most success WITHOUT using letters - these skills could essentially be completed in the dark!
I have also had students that truly struggle to retain the sound that matches the symbol. A key component in every single lesson I teach is to introduce a keyword that fits the sound/symbol correlation. A simple example would be “h” says /h/ like in “hat.” While this is very simple and common practice these days, I challenge teachers to truly think about what keywords they introduce. Many curriculums include this component, but do not match the sound to the graphemes (symbols) they are teaching. I have seen many curricula that use “ice cream” when introducing the letter “i.” While the letter “i” can make the long /i/ sound, the reason “i” says the long /i/ sound in ice cream is because it is a vowel-consonant-silent e syllable type. This can be confusing to students. Another typical mistake I have seen curricula make is to attach the keyword “x-ray” to the letter “x.” A better example would be “box” to match the /x/ sound for the letter “x.”
It is vital that the keywords be rehearsed in each lesson to create a spiral review through each sound and grapheme (letter or letter combination) that have been introduced. This is easily done through the practice of flashcards that contain the keyword picture (not the written word) and the sound picture (with the diacritical coding marks). Reviewing these in each lesson may seem a little “drill and kill,” but this repetition is VITAL for 60% of our learners and creates the automatic pathway from sound to symbol that is needed to produce fluent readers.
Conclusion
By implementing effective tools and strategies, we can empower young learners to develop strong phonemic awareness skills and build a solid foundation for reading success. As educators, it's our responsibility to provide the necessary support and guidance to help all students reach their full potential.
#TeacherTips #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth #ScienceOfReading
Who Am I?
Hello, I'm Sarah Houser, and I've been an educator for a decade. My journey in education has been driven by a passion for understanding and teaching the foundational skills that make reading accessible and joyful for all students. As a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), I specialize in the science of reading and dyslexia intervention. My goal is to equip teachers and parents with the tools they need to transform reading education and ensure that every child can achieve their potential in literacy. Join me this month as we explore practical, research-backed strategies to enhance our teaching and support our students effectively. Together, we can unlock the full potential of every learner.
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