Phonemic Awareness
Deep Dive
Rizalina Labanda
TODAY’S AGENDA
01 - INTRODUCTION
02 - OVERVIEW OF PHONEMIC
02 - WEBSITE
AWARENESS
03 - PHONEMIC AWARENESS
03 - SOCIAL ACTIVITES
MEDIA
04 - CONCLUSION AND QUESTIONS
05 - HOW TO LEARN MORE
• The brain is wired for language, not
reading.
• We use multiple areas in the brain to
read.
• The occipital lobe is the orthographic
processor. It recognizes images, letters,
and words. This stores the letter
sequences to help us read.
• The frontal lobe is the phonological
processor that processes speech sounds.
• The parietal lobe is the phonological
assembly. It connects speech sounds to
images and letters.
The brain is wired for language not reading.
• The brain processes individual letters,
not whole words. Therefore, we must
teach letter-sound correspondence
using explicit, systematic instruction
with lots and lots of practice!
WHAT IS
PHONEMIC AWARENESS?
Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to recognize and
manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) that make up words.
It's part of phonological awareness, which refers to the ability to hear
and manipulate sounds (can be syllables, onset, rime, or phonemes).
WHAT IS
A PHONEME?
The smallest unit of sound in speech. English
has 44 phonemes, or sounds.
WHAT IS
PHONEMIC AWARENESS?
A part of phonological awareness, it’s the ability to hear and
manipulate individual sounds.
Phonemic awareness activities involve manipulating sounds
at the phoneme level only.
Example of Phonemic Awareness activities:
• Segmenting phonemes using sound boxes and chips.
• Blending phonemes together after hearing them.
• Deleting phonemes after hearing a word.
• Substituting phonemes after hearing a word.
Phonological Awareness does not equal
Phonemic Awareness
Phonological Awareness skills
involve manipulating sounds: Examples of Phonological
Awareness activities:
• Blending sounds
• Segmenting sounds • Identifying rhymes
• Adding sounds • Blending onset and rime
• Deleting sounds • Splitting syllables
• Substituting sounds • Deleting a syllable
What the Research Says?
• Start early!
• Pre-k to kinder is ideal.
• Use explicit systematic instruction. Connect speech to text. It's
more effective to use letters when doing PA activities.
• PA instruction is most effective when focusing on phoneme level
skills (individual sounds) instead of phonological skills (syllables,
onset-rime, etc.)
• Focus most on segmenting and blending.
• Small group instruction has been shown to be more effective than
whole class.
• Teach one or two PA skills at a time.
• Daily short lessons.
What the Research Says?
• Currently not clear on if teaching syllable awareness is
counterproductive to phonemic awareness skills
• Some researches are now saying we don’t need to do
phonological awareness tasks (syllables, rhymes, etc.) and
can go straight to phonemic awareness
• Once students know a few sounds, go into segmenting and
blending. They don’t need to know all the sounds before
starting.
• Get students reading decodables as soon as possible.
• Handwriting is also important.
Handouts from Dr. Susan Brady
• Handout-+Brady+Talk+Summary+[Link] ([Link]-ea
[Link])
Handouts from Dr. Susan Brady
• Handout-+Brady+Talk+Summary+[Link] ([Link]-ea
[Link])
How Does PA Develop by
Dr. Susan Brady
• Handout-+Brady+Talk+Su
mmary+[Link] (rsop
[Link]
[Link])
How Does PA Develop by
Dr. Susan Brady
• Handout-+Brady+Talk+Su
mmary+[Link] (rsop
[Link]
[Link])
• If a speech sound is not represented in the spelling
of a word, that student may not be aware of the
phoneme in the spoken word.
clap - cap
short - shrt
Phonemic Awareness Activities
• Segmenting and Blending phonemes
• Deleting and Substituting phonemes
• Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
• Word Chains
• Phonemic Awareness drills
• Sound Wall
Segmenting and Blending
Segmenting and Blending
Segmenting and Blending
Segmenting and Blending
Segmenting and Blending
Deleting and Substituting
Deleting and Substituting
Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
Phoneme awareness is critical to developing spelling
skills. If students cannot hear each individual sound
in a word then they can’t spell the word.
Phoneme grapheme mapping activities match letters
(graphemes) to their sounds (phonemes). Students
must split words into their phonemes then spell
each phoneme, which is exactly what you want to
focus on in spelling. By working on this, students
develop phoneme awareness and in turn, their
spelling and reading improve.
Learn more about phoneme grapheme mapping
here: [Link]
activities-thatdevelop-orthographic-mapping
Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
Word Chains
PA Drills
PA Drills
Use A Sound Wall
Using a sound wall integrates speech sounds with letters so this is an amazing
tool to have in your classroom. A sound wall displays the 44 phonemes along
with the spelling options for each one.
Use A Sound Wall
How Much
Repetition?
As teachers, we often underestimate the amount of practice our
students need, especially struggling readers.
The number of repetition needed when readers are learning
foundational reading skills:
• 1 – 4 for gifted learners
• 4 – 14 for average learners
• 14 – 40 for struggling learners
• 40 – 200 for learners with dyslexia or other learning disabilities
* NOTE that repetitions only count as correct responses.
Quick Recap
01 – Start early and focus teaching 1-2 phoneme
level tasks each day
02 – Spend most of your time on segmenting and
blending.
03 – Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping, Word Chains, PA
Drills, and Sound Walls are ideal tools & activities
04 – Provide an abundance of practice opportunities.
Reference:
Phonemic Awareness
Deep Dive
THANK YOU
Rizalina Labanda
