Chapter 5: Phonemic Awareness

1. Chapter 5: Phonemic Awareness Teaching Reading Sourcebook 2nd Edition

2. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness • A phoneme is the smallest unit of spoken language that makes a difference in a word’s meaning. • Phonemic awareness is the ability to detect, identify, and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. • Phonemic awareness is one component of phonological awareness. This is an umbrella term that includes larger parts of spoken words (syllables, onsets and rimes) as well as the smallest parts (phonemes).

3. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics • Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken language can be broken down into phonemes or individual sounds. • Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between phonemes and graphemes,the letters that represent the sounds in written language. • When phonemic awareness is taught with letters it becomes phonics instruction.

4. Levels of Phonological Awareness • Word: blending, segmentation, deletion • Syllable: blending, segmentation, deletion • Rhyme: recognition, generation, categorization • Onset and Rime: blending, segmentation • Phoneme: isolation, initial, ending, medial • Phoneme: identifying/matching, categorizing • Phoneme: blending, segmenting • Phoneme: deletion, addition, substitution See the Phonological Skills by Level chart pages118 and 119.

5. Effective Phonemic Awareness Instruction • Explicit: clear explanations, modeling, sufficient practice • Teach with systematic instructional lessons. Progress from easier to more difficult tasks; follow sequence beginning with phonological awareness lessons. • Make sounds less abstract and more concrete with markers. • Support blending through clear articulation of sounds. • Be engaging, motivating and use interactive games.

6. Phonemic Awareness Research • Phonemic awareness is a strong predictor of long-term reading and spelling success. It predicts literacy performance more accurately than intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, and socio-economic status. • Phonemic instruction is more effective in small groups and when it focuses on only one or two phoneme manipulations. • The development of the sound structure of words in a native alphabetic language can be transferred to a second language.

7. When to Teach Phonemic Awareness • Kindergartners should receive short, 15-20 minute lessons, as one lesson or broken into informal activities throughout the day. • First grade students should receive 10 minutes per day in conjunction with phonics instruction. • Instruction in second grade and above is usually only taught for students who do not automatically recognize words or who are reading below grade level.

8. When to Assess and Intervene • Begin PA assessment in mid-Kindergarten and continue to assess throughout the early elementary grades as needed. • Generally, once a student demonstrates decoding ability, then phonemic awareness assessment is no longer necessary. • If a student continues to struggle with decoding in the upper grades, assessment and intervention in PA may be appropriate.