Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is understanding that speech is composed of a sequence of sounds (phonemes) that are recombined to form other words. It is also the ability to identify and manipulate these sounds. Phonemic awareness is particularly important, because it is a primary predictor of early reading and spelling proficiency (K-2). It is also independent of intelligence. Students may not benefit from phonics instruction until they have rudimentary phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is not the same as phonics.

What is the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness?

Phonics: describes a system by which symbols represent sounds in an alphabetic writing system. Phonics is a system for teaching how letters represent sounds.

Phonemic awareness: The ability to identify, think about, or manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in words. Phonemic awareness is a purely auditory phenomenon.

Listening to and Producing Oral Language

Before students can segment sounds within words, they must be able to attend to and produce oral language. The following activities are typical of pre-kindergarten and the beginning of kindergarten. These activities are appropriate for kindergartners who have not developed any of the phonemic awareness concepts on the Texas Primary Reading Inventory.

1. Making Different Sounds and Listening

For this activity, have students attend to and identify sounds you play on a tape recorder or produce with the help of musical instruments. The students listen carefully, with their eyes closed, and raise their hands when they know what the sound is or where it comes from. You may want to use tapes with animal sounds or make sounds by clapping, closing the door, using the sharpener or the stapler, etc. You may record some sounds at home (telephone, alarm clock, door bell, footsteps, drips, cars, dogs, cats, birds, etc.) and play them in the classroom. (Phonemic Awareness, pg. 16)

2. It Doesn't Make Sense

For this activity, you will use some very well known rhymes, riddles, and stories that you will modify by reversing, substituting, and swapping words. The students are invited to listen carefully and identify the part that has changed. For example:

Twinkle, twinkle little car
Humpty Dumpty wall on a sat
Goldilocks went inside and knocked on the door.(Phonemic Awareness , pg. 23)

3. Whisper Your Name

Have one student become the listening student. Tell that student the name of some other student in the classroom and then blindfold the listening student. All of the other students should be standing in a circle whispering their own names. The listening student is guided around the circle listening for the name of the student that was told to him/her. When he/she hears the selected name, the listening student acknowledges the student and they change roles. (Phonemic Awareness, pg. 25)

4. Describe a Picture

Describing different pictures can be a very beneficial activity for oral language development. Cut out pictures from various sources such as magazines, advertisements, and old books. Have students describe the pictures. Use pictures with increasingly more complex themes for this purpose. You will need to prompt the students to elaborate the descriptions of their pictures through questioning. You might ask questions such as the following: Who or what is in the picture? What is its size? Tell me about the color of the picture. When and where does the picture take place? Tell me about the shape of the picture. Tell me more about the background, etc. You should be able to describe the picture fully based on what the student or students have told you. Later, ask the students to make up a story based on the picture they see.

5. Dramatize a Story

Read a simple or familiar storybook to your students. After the reading, you may distribute some materials that refer to the story and help them dramatize what has been read. For example, after reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, designate some space with chairs and a table to be the bears' house. You will place three plates on the table, etc. Encourage the students to use their own words, along with the book's dialogue, to elaborate or extend the story.

6. Let's Rhyme!

Students like to participate in this activity as you invite them to produce words that rhyme with the words you present. Real or made-up words may be used. For example:

cat – hat              book – hook
car – far              face – lace
rose – hose          map – nap

Bean bags may also be used to facilitate taking turns. (Phonemic Awareness , pg.34)

7. Alliteration Book

For this activity, the students may draw, cut out, or paste pictures that start with the same sound. Then you can create a funny book based on these drawings or pictures. For example:
Alligators ate all apples.
Brown bears bicycling.
Crazy cats calling coyotes.

8. Can You Rhyme?

Rhyming words can also be presented in sentences. Introduce this game by reading several rhyme phrases aloud. You should emphasize the rhyming words when you introduce the game. Students should complete each rhyme aloud. For assessment purposes, individual responses should be requested. Some examples are: A cat wearing a ___________(hat).
A mouse that lives in a _________(house).
A goose with a tooth that is________(loose)
A pig that is dancing a _______(jig)
Some kittens wearing some_______(mittens)
(Phonemic Awareness, pg. 34)

9. Making A Rhyming Big Book

This activity can be done for 15-20 minutes each time you work on the rhyming book. Select a different word each day about which to make a rhyming page. At the top of each page, glue a picture of the selected word (for example, bat). Then, display a variety of pictures you have cut out of magazines or coloring books, and ask the students which of these words rhyme with bat. The pictures that rhyme with bat should be glued on that page. Write the word under the picture. Students also can draw pictures of words that rhyme if you choose. When you have completed the rhyming words you choose, make the pages into a big book to be used in class for reading and writing. (Strategies, pg. 162)

10. Rhyming Poem

Write a popular classroom poem on chart paper, and share it with the class. After they have heard it read and have read it orally as a class many times, have them find all the rhyming words. Write them on chart paper so it can be left up in the room. Next, have the class think of other rhyming words. Add these to the list already on the chart. Students may take one of the rhyming lists and draw pictures next to it. (Strategies, pg. 162)

11. The Ship Is Loaded With

Have the students sit in a circle and make sure you have something to toss (e.g. bean bag). To begin the game, say, "The ship is loaded with cheese." Then toss the bean bag to someone else in the circle. This person must make a rhyme from the sentence. For example:
The ship is loaded with peas (fleas, trees, bees, keys, etc.)
The ship is loaded with logs (dogs, hogs, frogs, etc.) (Phonemic Awareness, p. 36)

12. Clapping Student Names

One way to teach syllable awareness is to start by clapping syllables in the students' names. This is a good activity because it starts with something very familiar. Next, progress to clapping syllables with two- and three-syllable names of objects in the room.

13. The Word Box

Prepare a box with different objects or little toys for students to select, one at a time. Invite them to pick an object and then clap or pronounce the name of the object segmented into syllables. For example, ba-na-na, pen-cil, cal-cu-la-tor, etc. Make sure the objects you include in the box have different numbers of syllables for added practice. (Phonemic Awareness, pg. 51)

14. Picture Sorting for Initial and Ending Consonant Sounds

Closed Sort
For this activity, you will use picture cards. Use a folder with a picture of two objects with different beginning sounds. Leave one column blank for pictures that don't fit. Sort through the picture cards for words that have the same beginning sound as the two pictures. Put pictures with neither sound in the blank column. The students can sort again for ending sounds. (Words Their Way, pg. 171)

Open Sort
Ask students to use the pictures to sort where they see a pattern. Some students will sort for meaning, such as the concept of animals, while others will look for initial or ending consonants.

15. Guess What I'm Thinking!

Challenge your students by inviting them to guess words about which you are thinking. Give them cues that refer to either the initial or the final sounds of the words as they try to guess. For example:

• I'm thinking of something that begins with /m-m-m-m/. It's an animal with a long tail.
• I'm thinking of something that begins with /t-t-t-t-t/. It is red and goes in a salad.
• I'm thinking of something that ends with /f-f-f-f-f-f-f/ and has one syllable, etc.
  ( Phonemic Awareness, pg. 62)

16. What Sound?

This game is played like Concentration. For this activity, you will use picture cards. The students match pictures that begin with the same sound. If there is a match, the student keeps playing. When the student misses, a different student has a turn. Initially, students can sort the cards based on the initial, middle, or final sounds. (Phonemic Awareness, pg. 61)

17. Letter Sound Boxes

Put together containers of objects that begin or end with the same sounds. Students sort the objects into containers marked with a lead picture for objects that begin or end the same way. A check sheet can be provided.

18. Comparing Beginning Sounds

Have the students nod their heads "yes" if the words begin with the same sound and shake their heads "no" if they do not begin with the same sound.

carrots, cabbage	vase, bear
weed, gift	you, year
sick, chop	catch, cap
jump, jug	time, dance
dip, talk	road, rip

19. Comparing Beginning Sounds

Ask the students to compare these words. If all of the words begin with the same sound, ask the students to hold one finger up to indicate "yes". If one of the words does not match, ask them to hold up two fingers to indicate "no". If you are comparing three words, use pictures to relieve the load on memory.

dip, down	tall, tail
hurt, fit	well, wall
lost, lip	buy, pat
men, nice	mouth, limp
bed, vase	song, sock

20. Comparing Ending Sounds

Ask the students to compare the sounds in these words. Ask the students to give the thumbs up signal if the words end in the same sound and give the thumbs down signal if the words do not end in the same sound. Again, start by comparing two words. Progress to comparing three words when students are successful with two words.

ship, soap	pass, pace
hat, pan	bug, take
itch, bean	tub, ripe
work, walk	build, paid
farm, barn	wash, reach

21. Comparing Middle Sounds

Ask the students to compare the middle sounds in words. Start again by comparing two sounds.

Show the students the letter a. Ask students what sound it makes. (aaa, short a)

Show the students the letter i. Ask students what sound it makes. (iii, short i)

Tell the students that you are going to say some words and that they should listen to the middle sound in each word. The words will either have the a sound (pronounced as short a) or the i sound (pronounced as short i). Have the students repeat the sound as you hold up the letter card.

For example, what sound do you hear in pig? (i, short i)

cat aaa (short a)	rack aaa (short a)
tan aaa (short a)	drip iii (short i)
pin iii (short i)	hip iii (short i)
ran aaa (short a)	lap aaa (short a)
it iii (short i)	flip iii (short i)

Proceed to comparing other middle sounds.

22. Picture Sorts

Collect picture cards. Be sure to go over the pictures with the students so there won't be any confusion. Sort pictures according to beginning, ending, and, finally, middle sounds.

23. Blending Word Parts, List 1

This activity should be done as a game. Have the students sit in a circle on the floor and listen carefully as you say real and nonsense words in parts. Then ask them, " What word did I make?" Increase the difficulty of the words you say as the students become more proficient with the task. Remember, this is an auditory activity. Some examples of words are as follows:

d og sh e b all m ouse b a ke d i sh

b oy c amp p aw w a sh sh o p l ea f

Blending Word Parts List 2

l ake b oa t ch ea p p art

s ing er s ang w ash t art

c l amp

24. Blending Phonemes with Pictures

Find pictures of two- and three-phoneme words. A coloring book or the Sounds Abound book are good resources. Cut the pictures into two or three parts, depending on the number of phonemes in the words. Ask the students to move one part of the picture at a time as they say a phoneme. They can put all of the parts of the picture together to say the word. Some examples of pictures that you can use are as follows: (Sounds Abound)

fish	spoon	dog
leaf	ship	cat
jet	pick	fork
This activity is good for at-risk students.

Ample time should be spent with activities that include phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation. These skills help beginning readers because students must be able to segment sounds and blend them back together to read. (Examples are activities #23, 24, 25, 26)

25. Say the Sounds

Select different objects or use picture cards. Ask the students to name the items first so they are clear about what they represent. Then, have students pronounce the words, one sound at a time. This is a good activity to use with the "Move It - Say It" strategy. Have the students use chips, counters, M&M's, etc., to move when they say a sound. Make sure to select appropriate cards that will represent words of increasing difficulty in terms of the number of phonemes they contain. For example, start with two-and three-phoneme words until the students are successful.

26. Move the Sounds

Move from pictures in the Say the Sounds activity to saying the words. Ask the students to move their chips for each sound. Below is a list of words and the number of sounds. Be sure to switch between 2 and 3 sounds so the students are not used to one phoneme. Remember - this is an auditory activity.

size (3) shave (3) odd (2) oat (2) shop (3) choose (3) each (2) miss (3) nice (3) night (3)

flat (4) best (4) ski (3) cats (4) pump (4) risk (4) fox (3) sleep (4) sat (3) shoot (3)

27. Detecting the Initial Sound

This is also a good activity to play in a circle as a game. Have the students listen as you say a word. Then, ask the students to repeat the word. Next, have the students say the word without the beginning sound. For example, say "lime". Now say "lime" without the l (ime). Say "fish". Now say "fish" without the f (ish). Some of the remaining sounds can be real or made-up words. Remember to say the sounds and not the letters. Play this game many times, until the students are comfortable with dropping the beginning sounds. As the students become more proficient, proceed to more challenging words. Some examples are as follows:

cake without the /c/ meet without the /m/ song without the /s/ ball without the /b/ but without the /b/ list without the /l/ shin without the /sh/ shrub without the /sh/ thread without the /th/ mask without the /m/

ake eet ong all ut ist in rub read ask

28. Detecting Final Sounds

Next, play the game, and ask the students to drop the ending sounds. For example, say "sleep". Now say "sleep" without the p (slee). Some examples are as follows:

meat without the /t/ rake without the /k/ card without the /d/ time without the /m/ felt without the /t/ bike without the /k/ pave without the /v/ lake without the /k/ soak without the /k/

me ray car tie fell bye pay lay so

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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