Ideas for Phonics Instruction and Application



Ideas for Phonics Instruction and Application



Phonological and Phonemic Awareness - What is it? 

I can hardly even say it - let alone know what it means!

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* Phonological Awareness - is a broad concept that not only includes phonemic awareness (see below) but also encompasses awareness of things like words, rhyme, and syllables.

* Phonemic Awareness - is the ability to hear, say and manipulate sounds in words and is a sub-skill of phonological awareness.

* Phonics - involves making the connection between the single sounds (phonemes) and their related letter patterns (graphemes) when reading and writing.

Sounds Graphemes (spelling patterns)

long o oa, o_e, _oe,

It is easier to view Phonological Awareness and related Literacy Skills in 4 basic stages of awareness and development:

Stage 1: Babies - approximately 0-1 years

Welcome to the World! - sounds which come out of my parents' mouths mean something - I might give making sounds a try!

Stage 2: Infants/Toddlers - approximately 1-4 years

Wow, Rhyming is Fun! - making up silly rhymes and songs - I can listen for and hear similar rhyming sounds!

• This begins with the increased ability to distinguish between different sounds in our environment and continues to develop as we listen to and play around with sounds through rhymes, songs, poems and loads of 'being read to...'

East Elementary

Stage 3: Preschoolers, Kinder - 1st Grades ( approx. 3-7 years)

Amazing - Sounds can be Written Down! - the sounds I hear when I talk can be written down so others can read them....

• This is where REGULAR Alphabet Letter Sounds begins playing a part...

• The sounds we make when we talk can be written down using letter combinations from our alphabet.

• Our alphabet consists of 26 letters - 5 vowels, and 21consonants.

• Every word needs at least one vowel sound to 'hold' the consonants together. (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO TEACH EARLY)

• Each alphabet letter has A NAME and a regular single sound that it represents on its own.

• These regular single sounds can be at the beginning of a word, the middle of a word, or at the end of a word.

• We can put these alphabet letters and their regular single sounds together to make simple words (consonant/vowel/consonant CVC words).

• 2 or more regular consonant sounds and letters can combine to form 'consonant blends' to help with writing words - These 'consonant blends' are still 2 or more regular single sounds combined such as 'br' not one sound as represented in the grapheme - 'ch' -

North Elementary 2nd -3rd AND South Elementary 4th-6th

Stage 4: School Age 8- Adults - approximately 7 years and onwards (never ends.....)

Incredible - Sounds can be written down in more than one way!

• The introduction of more ADVANCED Letter Combinations and Phonic Sounds.

• Regular single alphabet sounds can also be represented by other1 or more letter combinations. eg. baby bubble, right and write

• When we speak we also use more than just the regular alphabet sounds.

• Many other advanced single sounds are also used when we speak.

• These advanced single phonics sounds can also be divided into 'vowel' sounds and 'consonant' sounds

• These advanced single sounds are also written using 1 or more letter combinations.

• Words can be 'broken' into syllables - each syllable has 1 vowel sound.(EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO TEACH EARLY)

PHONOLOGICAL /PHONEMIC AWARENESS TERMS TO HELP US REMAIN CONSISTENT, DISTRICT WIDE.

• Phonemes - single sounds produced by a speaker.

• Graphemes - written representation of those single sounds using letter combinations - includes Vowel Graphemes / Consonant Graphemes. (a=ai, ay)

• Consonant Blends - 2 or more single consonants which blend together STILL making 2 OR MORE SOUNDS (not one sound as with above graphemes eg: bl, str, nd, ld)

• Regular Alphabet Letters and Sounds - the phonemes and graphemes related to regular alphabet sounds and individual alphabet letters (see charts below).

• Advanced Letters and Sounds - the phonemes and graphemes related to more advanced phonics sounds and alphabet letter patterns (see chart below)

• Short Vowel Sounds - The vowel sounds as follows: a as in 'dad', e as in 'bed', i as in 'sit', o as in 'dog', u as in 'bug' - these are regular alphabet letters and sounds.

Confusion??? Do you code the short vowel with a “brieve” or call it a

“smile”? cat – leads to teaching of spelling pattern

cvc = consonant, vowel, consonant

• Long Vowel Sounds - The long vowel sounds are the sounds the vowels make when you say their name.

Confusion??? Do you call the “e” on the end of a word SNEAKY E ?

(OR) SILENT E ?

Do you “code” these words with a macron and a line through

the “e” to show it is silent? hope

Are you able to take it a step further and show them the SPELLING PATTERN associated with the word?

consonant, vowel, consonant, “sneaky” OR “silent” e: cVce

• Please Note: The terms digraph and dipthong, and there are many others 'floating' out there, in my opinion, are 'thrown' around too much and the true meanings have been 'lost' so I have tended to steer away from using them. They can be misleading and I really don't think there is a need to use these terms -phonemes (the sounds), graphemes (the written patterns), and consonant blends says it all (in my opinion).

• What about uncommon letter patterns (graphemes) which are not on the charts?

The charts highlight the most common graphemes (it would go on forever if every possible grapheme was listed, and be way too overwhelming for littlies - we all know what the English language can be like!!). 

For words such as 'course' the vowel phoneme /or/ is represented by the grapheme 'our' - not on the /or/ sound chart. Sue explains that she tells her students this is another way to spell the phoneme /or/ and it is added to a class 'uncommon' graphemes list...

Tips for IMMERSING Your Children In WORDS....

• Never put away your flashcards....

there are just SO many ways they can be utilized. They do not have to be just sight word cards flashed up, parroted off, then put away - cut them up into syllable puzzles, put them into sentences, circle all the phonics patterns using whiteboard markers, go for a word walk and find them, cut the pictures off and match with word....soooo many ways to utilize - SEE MORE BELOW...

• I would have piles of them in the classroom...

all sorted into themed containers or pockets, on word walls, inword groups etc. They definitely do not have to sit in the corner.

• A flashcard activity every day....

Each and every literacy session would involve some sort of printable flashcards activity. I would usually choose an activity from the '101 Fun and Educational Flashcard Activities'. These would be something like...... choose 3 words from the dolch sight words bucket and make those words up from cut out magazine letters....use whiteboard markers to trace over the 'Space' theme flashcards ......put the 'Pets' theme flashcards into alphabetical order etc etc....depending on the main learning focus at the time.

• Refer to them often throughout the day... 

If children needed to know a word I would send them to find it in the appropriate bucket or pocket. Eventually, they know that if they need the word 'cricket' it will probably be in the 'Sports' theme bucket.

Also a great way for children to self-check the spelling when editing their writing.

• *Easily accessible to children.... 

I have stored them in labeled buckets, hanging pockets and made mini word booklets very successfully. 

They would come out onto themed display walls, word walls, when we were doing a concept book and needed to see certain words, when we were brainstorming and writing with a certain theme, etc. 

I have also recently seen them cut out and laminated underneath each other, and hung at the front of the classroom like a ladder.

Examples of Printable Flashcards available from our site...

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|Theme Words |Dolch Nouns |Sight Words |Adjectives, Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs |

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