Graphophonemic Knowledge

Graphophonemic knowledge is the recognition of the letters of the alphabet and the understanding of sound-symbol relationships.

In order to link phonemes with alphabetic letters, students need to know the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. The following activities progress from a focus on letter-name recognition to letter-sound connections.

1. Story Hunt

Give students a copy of a familiar text. It could be from a language experience story the class has written, or it could be from a book that the class has read many times. Have students circle certain letters in the text. When they re-read the story in the reading group, call attention to the letters circled.

2. Letter Sort

This will help the students to focus on identifying one letter. For example, pass out word cards that have the letter t on them. Have the students come up and display their words in response to such questions as:

• T as the first letter (ten, two, three, they, to, then, truck, tractor, train, the, etc.)
• T as the last letter (eight, at, went, fast, sailboat, jet, eat, etc.)
• T someplace in the word but not in the first or last spot (little, sitting, wanted, tractor)
• Two t's in the word (sitting, tractor)
• T with an h after it (three, they, something, then, the)
• T with an r after it (truck, tractor, train)

(Phonics They Use, p. 32)

3. Student for the Day

Write the students' first names on sentence strips. Cut the sentence strips so that long names have long strips and short names have short strips. Choose a new name each day. This student becomes Student of the Day, and that student's name becomes the focus of many activities that day. This is a good beginning-of-year activity for first grade.

Day 1
Select a student's name. Have the other students interview this student to find out about him or her (family, favorite things, etc.) The teacher should have a list of predetermined questions that each student will be asked. Write the questions on a piece of chart paper. Then, write the answers that the student gives on the experience chart for use in making a class book later on. Point to the student's name on the sentence strip (for example, Roger). Point out that it takes many letters to make the word Roger. Notice that Roger begins and ends with the same letter. Talk about why the R and r in his name are different (capital, lower case). Have the students chant the name. Write the name on another sentence strip, and cut it up. See if someone can put the name back together correctly. Put Roger's name up in the room. Keep Roger's interview up and consider keeping all of the interviews on a flip chart so that the class can read them over and over.

Day 2
Select another student and do the interviewing and chart making that you did for Roger. Focus their attention on the student's name. Count the letters, and discuss which letter is first and last. Point out any letters that are the same, etc.

Day 3
Draw a third name. Do the interviewing and chart making. Follow the same procedures as before, with the new name. Write it again, cut it up, and do the letter arranging. Begin comparing the names up on the board so far. In your extra time, you might want the class to practice together reading the class interviews.

Day 4 and on
Follow the procedure until all of the students have been interviewed, charted, chanted, letter arranged, etc.

Variations of the "Student for the Day" Activity

• Write the letters of the alphabet across the board. Count to see how many names contain each letter. Make tally marks or a bar graph, and decide which letters are included in most of the names and which letters are in the fewest names.
• Make up riddles about students' names. (This is a girl. She has six letters in her name. She has two e's and two b's). Let the students make up riddles.
• Pass out laminated letter cards -- one letter to a card, lowercase on one side and uppercase on the other side. Call out a name from the bulletin board, and lead the students in chanting the letters in the name. Then, the students who have those letters come to the front of the room.
• (Phonics They Use p. 29)

4. Alphabet Hunt

For this activity, introduce a letter for study. Students practice making the letter and saying it. Then, the students take a letter card (or magnetic letter) with them to their seats to find other words that contain this letter. They can look in books, on the word wall, etc. Have the students keep a list of all the words they find with that letter in them.

Variations: Find the letter at the beginning of words, or at the end of words. Students should share their work with the teacher in small groups for feedback. These words can be placed on a word wall under the correct letter.

5. Tongue Twisters

Tongue Twisters provide many word examples of the targeted sound, and the students have fun doing them. Use your students' names as much as you can. (Betty's brother, Billy, blew bubbles badly. Careless Carol couldn't cut cooked carrots.). Do one or two each day. (Phonics They Use, pg. 46)

Procedure:

• Have the students repeat them orally after you.
• Students should say them fast, then slowly, and then with some rhythm.
• When students have them memorized, have them watch you write them on a chart or poster. Underline the first letter with a different color of marker.
• Have students read them several times.
• Leave the posters up in the room so that the students can refer to them if they get confused about a sound.

6. Word Hunts

In this activity, students search for, and circle or cut out words which contain the sounds they are studying. The words can then be written on index cards, or cut out and pasted onto paper designated for that sound. This could be a reading group activity. Students can hunt through newspapers, magazines, or copies of familiar text that have been provided.

Variations:

• Students hunt for words that begin with the particular initial consonant blends and digraphs they are studying.
• Less advanced students can hunt for pictures that contain the sounds they are studying.
• Students hunt for words that have the same middle sound. For example, a student could be asked to find words that sound like "sad" in the middle. These words can be added to lists of words on the classroom wall (word walls that are grouped according to sound—not spelling). Students can also hunt for pictures.
• (Words Their Way, pg. 71)

Once students understand the sounds that letters represent, they can use this knowledge to decode (read) and encode (spell) words. The following activities progress from decoding and encoding single letter-sounds in initial, final, and medial positions, to working with initial and final blends, digraphs, and vowel team spellings.

7. Making Words with Sandpaper Letters

Use sandpaper letters to have students trace words, letter by letter. The students should say the sound as they trace the letter and then blend the word as the last step. This helps students improve their blending and word recognition skills. Older students can write the words and say each sound as they write and blend it.

8. Word Wheel/Flip Charts

This activity should be used after the students have sorted pictures from different word families and have also looked through their word banks for words from the word family. Directions for making the word wheel and flip charts are included.

• Cut two 6" circles from tagboard. Cut a wedge from one circle at the 9 o'clock spot, and write the vowel and ending consonants to the right of it. Make a round hole in the middle.
• On the second tagboard, circle and write beginning sounds that form words with that family. For example, the -op family can be formed with b, c, h, l, m, p, s, t, ch, sh cl, and st.
• Space the letters evenly around the outside edge so that only one at a time will show through the window wedge. Cut a slit in the middle of the circle.
• Put the circle with the wedge on top of the other circle. Push a brass fastener through the round hole and the slit. Flatten the fastener, making sure the top circle can turn.

Additional word families that can be used for the word wheels are:

-ad	-og	-im	-up
-am	-om	-id	-ut
-ag	-od	-it	-ud
-al	-ot	-ig	-um
-at	-op	-ip	-atch
-ap	-ob	-ib	-ant
-ab	-on	-in	-and
-an	-osh	-ish	-ang
-ash	-ox	-ill	-ank
-ax	-oss	-ich	-anch
-ath	-ogt	-ix	-amp

Variations

• Flip books can be made the same way.
• Students draw pictures of the words they make.
• Students make their own flip books.
• (Words Their Way )

9. Final Consonant Substitutions

Have the beginning letters (sa, ra, le, se, pi, ho, cu, fa) ready to use. Have the consonant letters ready to use. Add letters to the end of each of the two letters to form a word. Have students use all of the consonants in order to play with the language. Tell them that some words will be real words and others will not. The students will tell you which are real words and which are not. Real word combinations are as follows:

sa (t), (d), (g), (m), (p) ra (g), (m), (h), (g), (t) le (d), (g), (t) si (p), (r), (t), (x) pi (g), (n), (t) ho (g), (p), (t) cu (p), (t) fa (t), (d), (n), (r)

10. Detecting Medial Sounds with Word Building

Determine ahead of time which words you plan to have the students build. Provide each student with a set of letters needed to build these words. Then, have the students sit in a small group around you. Demonstrate how to build the word "hit", and then change "hit" to "hot". Change one sound at a time. You may use some nonsense words. Examples of some word pairs are as follows:

pet	pit	put	pot
bit	bet	bat	but
fit	fat	fan	fun
sit	sat	set	sut
pep	pip	pap	pup
tin	tan	ton	ten
lip	lep	lup	lap

11. Detecting Medial Sounds with Word Building

Have the letters (s______t), (b________t), (d______g), and (n________t) ready to use. Have the vowels ready to use. Using the frame (p_____t), show them how to build pet, pit, put. Have the students build words using the other frames.

12. Detecting Individual Letter Sounds and Blending Into Words

The goal of this activity is for the students to tell you each sound they hear in a printed word and then blend them into a word. Start with two-sound words to be sure they understand the concept, and then go to three-sound words. After they have mastered three sounds, go to four-sound words.

Directions:

Make one line per sound on the chalkboard or overhead. Get the letters that make up that word and place them above the lines.

Say, "What is the first sound you hear in 'cat'?" (for example) Swoop your finger under the lines as you say the word. When the student tells you the sound, have him/her bring down the letter that represents that sound down on the line.

Say, "What's the second sound you hear in the word 'cat'?"
Again, swoop your finger under the lines as you say the word. When the student tells you the second sound, have the student bring the letter representing that sound down on the line.

Say, "What is the last sound you hear in the word 'cat'?"

13. Building Words

Word Building is a good activity to reinforce decoding and word recognition.

Example of a word building lesson:

Teacher modeling:

• Put the word fan in a pocket chart or on the overhead with magnetic letters, etc.
• Say: "This is the word fan. Read this word with me (fan). I can change one letter of the word to make a new word."
• Change the n to t and have students say the new word (fat)
• Direct the students to build the word fat, one letter at a time.
• Students say the word.

Continue by having the students change one letter at a time and read the word:

• For example, put the letter s between a and t. What word did you make?
  (fast)

Examples for letters needed for word building lessons are contained in (Words Their Way)

14. Say-It-Move-It Using Letters

Say a word aloud. Ask the student to repeat the word. Then, ask the student to say each phoneme of the word separately, while a letter representing that sound is moved to lines or boxes (example drawn below). Start with two- and three-phoneme words. Then, mix in words with two-, three-, or four-phonemes.

15. Long/Short Vowel Sort

Students sort a deck of word cards into two piles by sound: long vowel sounds and short vowel sounds.

Variation:

Make a column for each vowel. Have the students sort for short vowels only. Students can sort each column of words by orthographic (spelling) patterns. Remember that various spelling patterns will occur for each sound.

16. Tongue Twisters Using Blends

The following are some tongue twisters with consonant blends that students enjoy saying and illustrating. It is best to create some twisters using people in your room or school. You can say some each day.

• Blind Blanche's blueberries bloomed and blossomed. Brenda's brother Brad brought Brenda bread for breakfast.
• Claire's class clapped for the clumsy clown.
• Craig Crocodile crawled 'cross crooked crawling creepies.

Leave your list up in the room for student to refer to. (A complete list of tongue twisters is in Words Their Way, pg. 55).

17. Initial Blending Substitution

Using the word families used in the Word Wheels activity, add the following blends to the beginning of each word family to make new words. The use of manipulative letters is helpful to student. For example, using the -ab family, you can add the blends to the beginning to make crab, fl ab, drab, grab. Using the -ank family, you can add blends to make crank, blank, flank, drank. Other initial blends you can use are cl, gl, pl, sl, br, gr, pr, tr.

18. Final Blend Substitutions

Use the letters nd as an ending, and add the letters, k, i, s, a, and l to the beginning to build the words kind, sand, land, and lend . Other endings that can be used are as follows:

• ct to build fact, pact, tract
• ft to build gift, left, lift, raft
• ld to build held, meld, weld
• lk to build milk, silk, bulk, sulk
• lt to build belt, felt, melt
• mp to build lamp, damp, bump, jump
• nd to build land, sand, bend
• pt to build kept, wept, crept, slept
• sk to build desk, disk, dusk
• st to build fast, last, test.

19. Making Digraphs Useful

To teach digraphs, sh, ch, th, and wh, it may be helpful to teach key words. You might want to add actions for the digraphs (sh-shiver, ch-cheer,etc.)

If your students liked tongue twisters with blends, you can make some for digraphs:Chief Charlie cheerfully chomped chili cheeseburgers.

(More examples are in Phonics They Use, pg. 50).

Make sure that you underline the first two letters of each digraph. Help students realize that these two letters have a special sound that is very different from the sound they make when they are alone.

Practice with words for which the students have been taught the sounds and corresponding symbols.

Write the letter of the first sound in the word on the chalkboard or overhead. Point to the letter, and ask for the sound. Have the students repeat the sound.

Next, write the second letter on the board, and ask for the second sound. Point to the first letter, and have them say the sound. Point to the second letter, and have them say the sound. Then, use a sweeping motion of the hand so that you hand is under the sound as you are saying it. Have the students say each sound as your hand sweeps under it.

Cover the first two letters, and write the letter of the last sound on the board. Ask students to say it in isolation. Then, go back and blend the first two sounds and add the last.

For example: Use the word "tip" after you have taught the short i and the consonants t and p.

Write the letter t on the board and ask: What is the first sound? "t"

Write the second letter on the board and ask: What sound does this letter make? "i"

Sweep your finger under the t and i, saying the sounds as you do this. Then, say: Blend and hold (t i "ti").

Write the p on the chalkboard, and ask for the sound "p". Now, start at the left, and blend to the end of the word.

Follow this blending lesson with print so that there is practice in connected text.

The word to be decoded is printed for the students to see. As the teacher moves a finger under each sound, the students blend the sounds orally. As the teacher touches each letter, the students hold that sound vocally without stopping until the teacher touches the next sound. The teacher then goes back to the beginning of the word and moves a finger quickly under the whole word. The student says the word.

When students come to new words that are multi-syllable, they need to blend by syllable. To help them do this, remind them that each syllable contains a vowel sound. Ask them to identify the vowels ahead of time so they can determine the number of syllables. Tell the students to look for chunks of words they already know.

Begin by sounding out the sounds within syllables. When students can blend each syllable, have them blend the syllables together. Later, they can learn to read the syllables and put them together. The most important thing is that the students can decode each syllable.

For example: Using the word "rabbit", have the students determine that the word should be divided into syllables as rab-bit. Decode the first syllable and blend it together as "rab". Decode the second syllable and blend it together as "bit". Then blend the two syllables together to make "rabbit".

Played like Jeopardy on TV.

Goal: While playing Jeopardy, students sort for words that contain patterns you choose. Four or five players can play. This is also a good vocabulary builder.

Make a gameboard from a large poster board. Make clue cards for each word in the pattern you are practicing. Categories may be short vowels, long vowels, "r" controlled vowels, or oddities.

Procedure:

• One player is a moderator. Decide who will go first.
• The game begins when the player picks a category and the number of dollars from the gameboard.
• The moderator reads the clue, and the player must respond.

Example: Moderator: When struck, it produces fire.
Player: What is match? M-a-t-c-h
Player receives the card if the answer is correct. Players only get two turns in a row before it becomes someone else's turn.
Game continues until all clue cards are read and won or left unanswered.
Player with the highest number of points wins.

(Lists of word ideas are included in Words Their Way).

24. Hink Pinks

Hink Pinks are rhyming pairs. Students can make up Hink Pinks and make their own unsolved riddles with them. Hink Pinks also help students look at the spelling patterns in rhyming pairs. Model to get them started, and then let students think of some on their own in small groups.

Examples:

1. wet pet
   Question: What do you get when your pet is out in the rain?
   Answer: wet pet
2. brain strain
   Question: What do you get when your teacher gives you too much homework
   Answer: brain strain
3. weak beak
   Question: What do you call a bird that can't chew?
   Answer: weak beak

It is fun for students to draw a picture to accompany their question and riddle.

(A list of Hink Pinks is in Phonics They Use).

25. Which Word Is Right?

Give students pairs of words. One is spelled correctly and the other is not. Have students circle the correct word. You can use this idea as one of several weekly spelling activities. It is good preparation for TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills).

26. Crossword Puzzle

Make a crossword puzzle with spelling or vocabulary words. This builds knowledge of spelling patterns and vocabulary.

27. Changing Forms of Words by Building Words

This activity demonstrates to students that, by knowing one form of a word, they can spell many other words with a variety of meanings (e.g, tall, stall, install, installment). By adding morphemes (endings like s, es, ing, er), they not only can change the meaning, but they can also change a verb from present tense to past tense (walk to walked), a verb to a noun (run to runner), or a singular noun to a plural noun (runner, runners). The activity also reinforces the idea that, by changing the initial letter, they can change the meaning of a word (e.g. card, yard, hard, ward). You can use an overhead projector to demonstrate this activity while students use small chalkboards or their paper to build the words.

Directions:

Call out the words and ask the students to build them. After they have built theirs alone, uncover your word, and discuss how you changed the original word. This activity lends itself to discussions about vocabulary. Some examples of words that can be used follow.

bending, sending, lending, fending
unbend, sender, lender
foam, roam, roaming, foaming,
boat, float, coat, floats, coats, boats
see, bee, tree, free, agree, disagree
up, upper, supper
cup, pup, pups, puppy
out, shout, shouting, pout, pouted, pouting, scout
an, can, cans, scan, man, bran

28. Word Sort According to Sound

This activity works well with whole classes or smaller groups. It is a powerful example to students that sounds can be spelled several different ways. Examples are as follows: long a sort (a, a_e,ai, eigh ), long e sort (ea, ee, e), long i sort (i_e, igh, y, ie, _i_ _ (CVCC), u sort (u, ew, ue, u_e), o sort (o_e, o, oa, ow, oe).

Say, "Can you think of words that make the a sound (long a)?" (a_e, ai, eigh, ay). Let the students brainstorm words that make the long a sound. Write each word on an index card and place the cards randomly in a pocket chart. After the students have thought of six to eight words, categorize the words according to spelling pattern. Underline the letters that make the long a sound. Help students blend and pronounce the words.

a-e	ai	eigh	ay
make	fail	weight	way
take	trail	freight	may
base	plain	eight	day
gaze	nail		stay
case	gain
	rain

29. Letter-Sound Review and Spelling From Dictation

Show letter-sound combinations that have been taught, and ask the students to tell you what sounds the letters make. This is a review of advanced code knowledge. Often, this is an area where students have difficulty. Some examples would be: ing, ong, ck, le, igh, er, ir, ur, ang, ce, ay, ai. The second step is to dictate words having those sounds and ask the students to spell them.

Bibliography

Adams, M.J., Foorman, B.R., Lundberg, I., Beeler, T. (1998). Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum. Baltimore, ML: Brookes.

Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnson, F. (1996). Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Catts, H. (1993). Sounds Abound. East Moline, IL: LinguiSystems.

Cecil, N.L. (1995). The Art of Inquiry: Questioning Strategies for K-6 Classrooms. Winnipeg, MB: Peguis Publishers.

Cunningham, P.M. (1995). Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Fox, B.J. (1996). Strategies for Word Identification: Phonics from a New Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Ogle, D.M. (1986) KWL. The Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570.

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