Phonological Awareness

Performance Learning PLUS is a monthly e-newsletter by Performance Learning Systems (PLS), a comprehensive educational services company that has provided a full spectrum of programs, products, and consulting services to educators and business professionals since 1971.

Explore this issue to discover strategies for raising your beginning readers' PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS.

Tips

Phonological awareness is a key component of beginning reading instruction. In general terms, "phonological awareness" refers to a sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the sounds and sound structures of words. Types of phonological awareness include word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme awareness, and phonemic awareness. A "phoneme" refers to the smallest unit of sound in a word that makes a difference in the word's meaning.

Below, find five types of phonological awareness with definitions, examples, and activity ideas. These activities are not intended to replace other forms of reading instruction, such as reading aloud, writing, and exposing students to the printed language. Rather, phonological awareness activities should complement these activities, calling students' attention to the essential phonological foundations of our language.

Though the activities below were designed with younger students in mind, any of them can be adapted to suit older students. Phonological awareness is critical to reading and writing skills, and can be nurtured at any age or developmental level. If you are an upper grade level teacher, use your creativity to modify these activities using poetry and other means that will appeal to your students.

1. Phoneme Isolation — Isolating the phonemes in words

For example, ask your students, "What's the beginning sound in the word CAT?" (Answer: /k/)

Sample Activity: Sing That Sound!

Emphasize a single phoneme throughout an entire song, or emphasize a different phoneme in each verse. For example, sing the following song with your students to the tune of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm":

What's the sound that starts these words:
TURTLE, TIME, and TEETH?
(wait for a response from students)
/t/ is the sound that starts these words:
TURTLE, TIME, and TEETH.
With a /t/, /t/ here, and a /t/, /t/ there,
Here a /t/, there a /t/, everywhere a /t/, /t/.
/t/ is the sound that starts these words:
TURTLE, TIME, and TEETH!

(and so on)

Source: Yopp, H.K. (1992).

2. Phoneme Blending — Blending phonemes together to form words

For example, ask your students, "What word do these sounds make: /s/-/u/-/n/?" (Answer: sun)

Sample Activity: "What Am I Thinking Of?"

Tell the class you are thinking of an animal, and ask them to guess what kind. As a clue, give the separate sounds in the word. For example, if you're thinking of a cow, say, "The animal I'm thinking of is a /k/-/ow/." Your students must then blend the sounds together to discover what animal you are thinking of.

Variations

• In addition to animals, choose other categories that correlate with a current unit or instructional theme.
• Use picture cards of the animals (or other objects) you're thinking of. Face each card away from your students as you give the segmented clue, then turn the picture around once your students have guessed.
• Use a toy box or grab bag, peek inside, and give your segmented clue. For example, you can say, "I see a toy /d/-/u/-/k/ in here. Who knows what I see?"

Source: Yopp, H.K. (1992).

3. Phoneme Segmentation — Separating phonemes in words

For example, you can say, "I'm going to say a word, and then I'll say each sound in the word. Listen carefully. CAT (pause) /k/-/a/-/t/. Now tell me the sounds in OFF." (Answer: /o/-/f/)

Sample Activity: "Tell Me All the Sounds You Heard"

Sing the following song with your students to the melody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star":

Listen, listen
To my word
Then tell me all the sounds you heard: RACE
(slowly)
/r/ is one sound
/a/ is two
/s/ is the last in RACE
It's true.

Thanks for listening
To my words
And telling all the sounds you heard!

(and so on)

When working with the segmentation of entire words, it is best to use words of no more than three sounds (phonemes). Segmentation tasks are quite difficult for young children, so the words used should be as simple as possible.

Source: Yopp, H.K. (1992).

4. Phoneme Deletion — Leaving out one sound while saying a word

For example, say to your students, "Say the word BACK." (Students respond) "Now say it again, without saying /b/." (Answer: /ack/)

Sample Activity: Word Pairs

With the class seated in a circle, explain that sometimes when you take a sound away from a word, you end up with a totally different word. To give students an example, say, "f-f-f-f-ear," elongating the initial consonant, and have students repeat after you. Then say, "ear" and have students repeat. Ask the class if they can determine which sound has been taken away, repeating the words for them as needed (for example, "f-f-f-f-ear ... ear ... f-f-f-f- ... ear ... ear"). Through this activity, students learn that the presence or absence of an initial phoneme results in different words. In this way, students can begin to separate the sounds of words from their meanings.

Variations

• To help students notice that the initial sound makes a big difference in the words' meanings, ask them to use each word in a sentence.
• Call students to line up by saying their first names without the initial sound (for example, [J]-onathan). Students have to figure out whose name has been called and what sound is missing.

Source: Adams et al. (1998).

5. Phoneme Substitution — Substituting one sound for another

For example, say to your students, "Say the word CAT." (Pause) "Now change the /k/ with a /b/. What word do you get?" (Answer: bat)

Sample Activity: Sound Swapping

Use colored letter blocks to show a student the different sounds in words. Say, "I'm going to show you how to make the word FUN with these blocks. Each block is one sound of the word." Touch each block while saying, "/f/-/u/-/n/." Then say, "Now watch while I change FUN to RUN." Replace the first block with a different block and say, "Now it says RUN." Then have your student follow the same process, spelling out a word in blocks, sounding it out, then replacing one block to make a different word.

Source: Torgeson, J.K. (2001).

When you want to give your students opportunities to raise their phonological awareness, first think about the task you want them to practice (for example, isolation, blending, or segmentation). Then, considering the developmental level of your students, create a playful means to get them to perform the task. Tasks may include reading aloud, storytelling, singing familiar songs, saying nursery rhymes, playing word or name games, or telling riddles.

Below, find a few general guidelines for doing phonological awareness activities with your students.

General Guidelines

• Maintain a sense of playfulness and fun to keep students engaged. Avoid drill and rote memorization activities.
• Conduct activities in interactive group settings. Children enjoy the social aspects of learning and often learn from one another. Language play is most appropriate in a social setting.
• Encourage students' curiosity about language and their experimentation with it. Students' attempts at manipulating language should be responded to positively and enthusiastically.
• Allow for individual differences. Research on phonemic awareness reveals tremendous variation among children's rates of development.
• Keep the tone of the activities informal and instructional rather than evaluative. Avoid judging students based upon their ability to do these activities.

Source: Yopp, H.K. (1992).

The above concepts are from the PLS graduate course Learning to Read: Beginning Reading Instruction™. The CD-ROM for this course is Copyright 2001 Interactive Training Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

References: