Does Phonemic Awareness Belong in Your Phonics Lesson?
Have you heard the recent buzz surrounding phonemic awareness instruction? It goes something like this.
“They say you can do phonemic awareness in the dark, but should you?”
I would like to first start by saying that I like to research, but I am not a researcher. I am a practitioner. So what does that mean? It means that I work with students of all ages, in a small group setting, every single day. Why am I telling you this? Well, the strategies I am going to share with you today are research-based strategies that I have used time and time again that support my students.
In my experience, phonemic awareness is the bridge between letter sounds and phonics. It is what makes the two come together. Having the early foundational skills will help to support your students as they make the jump to phonics.
I love using phonemic awareness as a quick way to warm up the brain, and then I move into phonics. But do I stop there? Nope. I try to incorporate the idea of phonemic awareness into my phonics instruction.
Let me show you what I mean.
Activity 1: Word Chaining
Word chaining is a great way to practice addition, deletion, and substitution while applying it to print. Word chaining involves asking a student to spell words using a pencil and paper, or letter tiles. As the student is working to spell, they are asked to either add, delete, or substitute one sound at a time. This reinforces phonemic awareness while adding in print. Watch as this student practices word chaining.
Deciding on words for your word chaining lesson can be tricky, especially if you are changing only one sound at a time and trying to stick with known phonics skills. I have created word chaining cards for each phonics skill on my continuum. You can find them here.
Activity 2: Phoneme Grapheme Mapping
Phoneme-Grapheme mapping is an activity that helps readers build word their recognition skills. We know that phonemes are the sounds we hear in words and graphemes are the letters that represent those sounds. If our ultimate goal is to help students become strong decoders as quickly and efficiently as possible, we must give them lots and lots of practice. Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping helps to build decoding skills which will help build fluency and automatic word recognition.
Watch as one student practices mapping words.
*It is important to note that when we map words, we count the phonemes first. Some graphemes such as /ay/ will stay together in one box, as they only make one sound (phoneme).
If you would like this template and practice pages for independent stations, you can click the link below.
Activity 3: Vowel INtensive
A vowel intensive is an Orton Gillingham method used to help students master short vowels. However, if you dive a little deeper, it is also phoneme isolation! Students are asked to listen for the vowel sound in both VC syllables and CVC syllables. They are then asked to hold up the vowel sound they hear. Watch as one student practices a vowel intensive
If you would like to create your own vowel tents, sticks, or strips, you can download the template here for free.
So back to the question I posed at the beginning of this blog post.
“They say you can do phonemic awareness in the dark, but should you?”
The answer, phonemic awareness is a crucial foundational skill for our students. We should absolutely practice it orally, but it should not be the bulk of our instruction. We can conduct a quick warm-up and then apply it to print as soon as possible.
Oral phonemic awareness can also serve as a scaffold for students who are struggling with a particular phonics skill. Once they are able to do it orally, we should add print to it!
What are your thoughts? Do you use these activities in your classroom? Are there any activities that you would add?
