Phonemic Awareness/Letter/Word Work Intro
Terms:
- Phonemic Awareness
- Ability to identify and manipulate phonemes, the individual sounds in
words. This refers to ORAL language activities. - Phonics
- Understanding that there is a relationship between phonemes (smallest part of spoken language) and graphemes (smallest part of written language). That is: learning how individual letters and combinations of letters in print represent different sounds in a word. For example, in print both the letter s and the letter c can represent the phoneme (sound) /s/.
Goals of Phonemic awareness, letter and word study include to:
- help students recognize (hear) and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words (e.g., rhyming, changing onsets to make new words, breaking sounds apart orally and blending them together orally)
- learn alphabetic code and common sounds represented by letters in print--and apply these to reading and writing whole texts
- help student learn to use segmenting and blending abilities (phonemic awareness foundation) to break words apart into smaller sounds/ chunks and blend them back together while reading print (applying phonics knowledge)
- help students learn to use their current knowledge of letters and words to strategically solve unknown words in whole texts or to spell new words when writing
- help students learn to recognize increasing numbers of high frequency words automatically in whole texts and to use them in their writing or to communicate
While there are many workbooks and worksheets available for alphabet and phonics practice, most students learn best through varied activities that are interactive and use various materials and approaches (including kinesthetic and musical activities). Routine activities can be integrated into opening, small group rotations (e.g., guided reading with the teacher, then word work with a paraprofessional at a different station); and individual or partner work at centers or computers.
