Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to segment and manipulate the sounds of oral language.

It is not the same as phonics, which involves knowing how written letters relate to spoken sounds.

Research has shown that a child’s awareness of the sounds of spoken words is a strong predictor of his or her later success in learning to read -International Reading Association

7 Dimensions of Phonemic Awareness

1. The ability to hear syllables within a word2. The ability to to hear initial sounds or recognize

alliteration ( Sally Sells Seashells by the sea shore)3. The ability to distinguish rime and rhyme(Rime: hat cat

sat; Rhyme: great late bait)4. The ability to distinguish oddity (man money cat)5. The ability to blend sounds orally to make a word (/a/

+/t/=at)6. The ability to segment words orally (at=/a/+/t/)7. The ability to manipulate sounds orally to create new

words (Plug-/g/=Plu; Plu+/m/=Plum)-Devries

Scaffolding

By choosing books with alliteration, assonance, rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia, and nonsense words educators help new readers, “develop an ear for the sounds within words” (Devries 2004).

Read aloud (model good reading, use expression)

Use Gestures (clap, tap, snap syllable and rhyme)

Vary reading materials (tongue twisters, nursery rhymes, poems, songs and music)

Use “concrete cues”-manipulatives (wicklund 2004)

Activities

Jump Rope JinglesChopping gameMatch Game

ISEL

Illinois Snapshot of Early LiteracyAssesses phonemic awareness, letter

recognition, and knowledge of letter soundsGiven three times a yearOn Target vs On Watch

Literature to support Phonemic Awareness

References

DeVries, B. A. (2011). Phonemic Awareness. Literacy assessment and intervention for the elementary classroom (pp. 76-100). Scottsdale, Ariz.: Holcomb Hathaway Publishers.

International Reading Association. (2012). Phonemic Awareness . Phonemic Awareness and the Teaching of Reading. Retrieved April 10, 2012, fromhttp://reading.org/General/AboutIRA/PositionStatements/PhonemicAwarenessPosition.aspx

Wicklund, B. (2004). Using scaffolding to teach phonological/phonemic awareness skills to english language learners Hamline University | Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hamline University | Saint Paul, Minnesota. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from www.hamline.edu/WorkArea/linkit.aspx? LinkIdentifier=id...