Phonological Awareness: Fundamentals of Reading
As educators, all of us have a responsibility in helping our students learn to read and improve their reading comprehension. Too often this task is left up to a reading teacher or reading specialist with the assumption that reading fundamentals are ingrained during the primary grades. While this month’s feature piece spotlights foundations of reading at the primary levels, you might find some tips and tricks that work for your students, no matter what grade level or content area you teach. After all, every educator plays an instrumental role in promoting student literacy.
Tips for quick and easy reading strategies you can use right away to improve student literacy.
Rhyming
Rhyming is taught and practiced by reading nursery rhymes, singing songs, and calling students’ attention to words that rhyme (words where the endings are the same). Students can also make up nonsense words that rhyme because it helps them practice the act of rhyming.
For example, you might read your students a simple poem about a cat. You can then ask your students to help you find rhymes for cat. Some of the children might reply with “bat” “mat” “sat.”
Sentence Segmentation
Sentence segmentation and blending are taught and practiced by reading or speaking a sentence and then going back and doing it one word at a time. Then you can try leaving out a word and see if the student can tell you which word was left out. Another way to segment sentences is to count words in the sentence as you say each word (holding up fingers to count with).
For example, you might read a short passage from The Cat in the Hat to your students. You can then ask them to help you count the words as you say them. After they reach ten (or any number you’ve designated), congratulate them on a job well done.
Another sentence segmentation strategy is to write a sentence on a strip of paper then cut off each word as you say it. Each student can hold one word, then line them up to see how the sentence is divided up into words.
Syllable Segmentation
Syllable segmentation is taught and practiced through several strategies. Rhythm is one way to practice syllable segmentation by saying words while clapping for each syllable or holding your fingers up (or have your students hold their fingers up) to count syllables.
Another strategy is to have students put one hand just beneath the chin and count the number of times the chin hits the hand as a word is said. The mouth opens for each vowel sound.
Syllable blending is taught and practiced by saying each syllable separately and asking the students to blend the syllables into a word (ca-ble). Ask student to say the syllables faster and faster until they are pushed together (or blended together).
Onset and Rime
Another strategy for teaching and practicing phonological awareness is the use of onset and rime. The sound before the vowel sound is the onset and the vowel plus whatever comes afterward is the rime (or chunk). For example, in the word “cat,” the onset is the “c” and the rime (chunk) is the “at.”
When teaching onset and rime segmentation, teach words that use the same rime or chunk (also called a word family). For example, cat, hat and mat are all in the same word family. Print is also used very quickly in onset and rime segmentation.
Once a student can segment words, he or she can take off the onset and choose a new onset to blend with the rime (chunk) to make a new word (onset and rime blending). For example, cat can become bat or sat with the removal of the original “c.” Students need to be able to hear and say onset and rimes before they encounter them in print.
Phonemic awareness (blending and segmenting individual phonemes) is taught and practiced by saying a word and then vocalizing each individual sound separately. Students say the sounds faster and faster to blend the sounds together to create the word.
For example, you might say each sound in the word “cat” and the student will need to say the sounds “c-a-t” out loud and then blend them together to hear the word “cat.”
Students learn to blend the sounds first before they segment them. Students are practicing a smaller unit of sound than in syllable segmentation and blending. The smallest unit of sound into which you can divide words is a phoneme.
Did you know?
No area of reading research has gained as much attention over the past two decades as phonological awareness. Perhaps the most exciting finding emanating from research on phonological awareness is that critical levels of phonological awareness can be developed through carefully planned instruction, and this development has a significant influence on children’s reading and spelling achievement (Chard & Dickson, 1999).
According to the National Reading Panel, “teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading when compared to instruction without any attention to phonemic awareness.” ( http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/faq/faq.htm#2 )
Phonics is an essential component of effective reading instruction. By using repeated reading and performing of rhyming poetry, students can learn to read words accurately, automatically, and with appropriate and meaningful expression (Rasinski, Rupley, & Nichols, 2008).
“No skill is more crucial to the future of a child, or to a democratic and prosperous society, than literacy.”
—Los Angeles Times, “A Child Literacy Initiative for the Greater Los Angeles Area”
The tips above are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Foundations of Literacy: Beginning Reading™ Online . Other reading courses we offer include Reading Across the Curriculum™ (offered on-site) and Reading Across the Curriculum™ Online .
References
Chard, D. J. & Dickson, S. V. (1999). Phonological awareness: Instructional and assessment
guidelines. LD Online. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254
National Reading Panel http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/faq/faq.htm#2
Rasinski, T., Rupley, W.H., & Nichols, W. (2008). Two essential ingredients: Phonics and
fluency getting to know each other. The Reading Teacher, 62(3), 257–260.