Week 10: Phonemic Awarness
Phonemic awareness
It is about finding the individual
sounds in a word. This helps students with early reading skills and for
spelling. It is the most important factor in
making a student a more advanced reader.
Having phonemic awareness means that a student would be able to pull
out a word, for example, "bug". They will realize that bug has three different
sounds, also known as phonemes. Knowing these different sounds, the student
then should be able to replace the b with an h, and be able to say the word,
hug. Another way phonemes are used in a
class is having the students stretch out the word while they say it. It lets
the student emphasize each phoneme in the word.
In elementary school, whenever a teacher is reading out
loud to students, it is creating phonemic awareness. I remember my teacher used to
do this when reading and she should have us predict what word was going
to come next. While doing this, it was helping us with our context and making
us look at the words around it. In the article this is also taught, and it lead
students to find the word because of rhyming, which helped with their word
play.
This video gives another definition of phonemic awareness.
Ways to teaching Phonemic Awareness:
1.
Beginning-middle-end
2.
Say-it-And-Move-It
3.
Scaffolded Spelling
4.
Word Mapping
5.
Word Wall boxes
Sound boxes are another popular way to teach phonemes to students. It is a tool that segments words into individual
sounds. Here would be an example of one.
The word is cat. Students would get small chips or tokens and a sheet like
this. They would then put a token in each box to show the different phonemes. For
the rod cat, there are three different phonemes. There is the c sound, a sound,
and t sounds. That means each box below would consist of one token inside of
it.
Questions:
1.
In elementary school, did you ever learn about
phonemes in the classroom. If you did, in what ways?
2.
How is a way that you would incorporate this
into the classroom?
3.
Do you believe the teaching of phonemic awareness
is important?
I remember when I was in elementary school we used the boxes to practice phonemes. We often had them on spelling worksheets to help us understand that each letter had a sound in the word. I think this was a useful tool to use to help us with our phonemes and spelling. I like the idea of turning this into a game because it makes it more fun and engaging than a worksheet does. Students always get more excited and interested about learning when they hear the word "game," so using these tools incorporated into a game makes them more engaging for the students.
ReplyDeleteI like that your teaching would have them with spelling tests. I always hated spelling tests, and quickly forgot the spelling after the quiz was over. I think using the boxes would have made it easier for me to remember them.
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ReplyDeleteIn Put Reading First it talks about Phoneme isolation and Phoneme identity. To answer question 1, these are two phonemes I remember learning in elementary school. The article describes Phoneme isolation as “children recognize individual sounds in a word” and Phoneme identity as “children recognize the same sounds in different words” (pg.4). I remember using both of these because the two phonemes helped me remember certain sounds in order to read. Knowing phoneme isolation was the beginning factor of pronouncing certain words for me. It helped me realize that every word had its own sound, and that was something interesting to me back then.
ReplyDelete"How is a way that you would incorporate this into the classroom?" I like the idea of making a game out of learning words and sounds, but I specifically like the strategy of using sound boxes, especially for English language learners. It helps when you incorporate a picture that represents the word you are going to use to teach sound segmentation; this will help the student get a better grasp on breaking up the word into smaller units of pronunciations.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say the same thing. I totally agree with you on adding pictures to the worksheets or even to the game because we a future teachers will have students who aren't as strong in their word sounding so they need a little bit of extra help and the pictures will definitely help with that. Specially with ELL students as well because that is the way that I was first taught how to pronounce English words.
DeleteI hadn't even thought about this from an ELL perspective, but Dora that's a really good point. I think sometimes pictures are way underrated when we learn words and reading.
DeleteDora,
DeleteI didn't even think about how using the sound boxes would be beneficial for ENL students. I think that is a great idea that I will incorporate into my future classroom!
When we look at the English language the way we pronounce words can be very difficult, using the boxes would be great for ENL students. Instead of just learning how to say a word, it would give them the chance to break it down more for the students.
DeleteI find that when I'm helping students read, I turn to "chunking" or the "sound it out" method. For chunking, usually what I do is break the word into chunks (i.e. "something" chunks into "some", "th-", and "-ing"). Sound it out focuses on the sounds the letters make, but I find this is sometimes hard to do (i.e. "special"). I think phonetic awareness is very important. It really helps students when they are working by themselves. If they come across a hard word and they don't know the sounds the letters make, it's going to be really hard for them to sound it out. But, if they know the sounds that the letters make, they're going to have a lot easier time trying to figure out what the word means. I really like the beginning-middle-end method.
ReplyDeleteI notice that I also lean towards doing "chunking" and "sounding out" methods. Whenever I am reading with younger children, my first response when they do not know what a word is, is to say "sound it out". I realize that without teaching phonics that this would be rather difficult to be able to do for a child.
DeleteI remember teachers telling me to "sound it out"! I think that this is a great way for students to learn pronouncing a word. Instead of just giving them the answer, it lets them to work on it themselves for a bit.
DeleteI remember my elementary teacher would always tell us to sound out the word we couldn't pronouns while read. I struggle every time with a word. I will "sound it out" and it will help sometimes but then with "ph" sounds like a "f" I would pronouns the word wrong or when I wanted to write a word I would confuse using "s" and "c" and my "i" and "e".so I found sounding it out hard for me.
DeleteI do the chunking method while sounding things out as well. I know at the daycare I am always trying to sound out words for the kids as well as some bigger words for the students we have field with. Special is so hard to sound out honestly. There are a handful of words with multiple vowels that makes it hard to hear every letter.
DeleteIn elementary school I don't remember learning about phonemes in the classroom. I believe it was taught in some way by sounding out the words as a whole but never breaking it up and pronouncing the individual parts of it. I do believe teaching phonic awareness is important. I believe it would be beneficial to the children that may have a harder time pronouncing certain words. Teaching phonics wouldn't just be beneficial for English speakers but it would also benefit ELL.
ReplyDeleteHey Samantha! I also no recollection of learning about phonemes when I was younger but I'm sure I have because it is a fundamental skill. I it was very popular when I was in elementary school to sound out words and break them down into parts by their syllables. For children to have an awareness of phonics is important because they can carry this skill with them for life and use it to gain understanding of words.
DeleteLearning phonics in class is great because is such a foundation in language. The article stated that learning phonics is the main difference between someone who is an advanced reader and a non-advanced reader.
DeleteI believe teaching phonemic awareness is extremely important because knowing the sounds of each letter and the sounds of letters together is needed to excel in language. At a school I had an internship at in Evansville, one of their main focuses was phonemic awareness. There was an alphabet in every classroom and all of the alphabets also included the phonemes and graphemes. The room I was specifically in had a letter of the week that they would specifically work on.
ReplyDelete-Deja Shelton
That is so cool that those classrooms also include the phonemes with the alphabet. I remember starring at the alphabet constantly during my spelling tests. I might have done better, if it did include the sounds of the letter, so I could sound it out more.
DeleteRegarding your question one, I do not remember learning about specific phonemes in the classroom but I'm sure I was taught in some way. Sadly though, nothing stood out to me when reading this question because I do not remember learning this specific idea in elementary school. I really like the idea of using boxes and a lot of pictures. I would include both ideas in my teachings about phonics. The boxes would let the child break the word in a way that is organized and helpful for them. Finally, to answer the last question, I would say that it is very important to learn phonics because it is the base for reading in the future.
ReplyDeleteI am sure I learned about phonemes in elementary school in some type of way but I can not recall a specific instance when this occurred. I do believe that phonemes are important to know because they are able to help students learn how to read and spell which are extremely important for everyday life skills. I would incorporate phonemes in several ways but the one I am most intrigued by would be the Beginning-Middle-End game. I think this would be a really fun way to teach students because of the music that is involved and the fact that it is a game. Children love games and music so this activity would be a win. It is also a great way to incorporate the arts into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if most of us don't remember being taught phonemes because our teachers maybe didn't make it as interesting as these teaching strategies sound? I mentioned that I liked the sound box strategy, but I agree with you on the beginning-middle-end game being an engaging strategy that might better help students retain information all while having fun.
DeleteSome of the things that I have done well with in school, is due to the fact that teachers made it engaging. I remember my fifth grade teachers would constantly have us playing games, and moving around the classroom. That has been my most influential school year until college. The way topics are taught in a classroom makes an impact on what we remember.
DeleteIn the classroom I do remember learning about phonemes from video clips with songs that is how I remembered it the best. I think the best way to incorporate in the classroom is to introduce it in a way where it can grab their attention like through music or shows. Then from there maybe give them books they are interested in so they can read it and practice it.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember learning about phonemes in the classroom. When I was younger, I was in HOST. HOST was a program that students were put if they were struggling with reading and writing. In there, we sounded out words by chucking them. For example, if I couldn't read the word "bug" they would ask, what does the sound "B" make and so on. With this experience, the sound boxes would be a very interesting/productive way to teach phonemes in the classroom because that is kind of like how I learned different words outside of the classroom. It is also how we help students sound out words while they are reading to us. The sound box would then make it more organized.
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience in elementary I was getting help for my reading and writing. My scores were low for being in second grade. I remember in that class the teacher will read books to us and also let us read and will help us read. The teacher will also say sound it out or get us to use the knowledge we know for example what does the sound "A" make.
DeleteI wanted to respond to your first question " In elementary school, did you ever learn about phonemes in the classroom. If you did, in what ways"? I remember being taught the basic fundamentals of phonics by my first grade teacher. She had made flashcards for us to have for a group activity. Each group would receive one letter that is a constant like "B", "D", "L", "N" etc... Half of the room would get one ending and the other would get a different set like "og" and "ot" . We would try to make words out of the pieces we were given. The goal was the group who had the most words to make would get a special prize at the end of the week. Even though it was kind of a bad way to get to know phonics a little bit I still built a lot of words off of that strategy.
ReplyDeleteI want to answer your question number 2, How is a way that you would incorporate this into the classroom? I think the best ways to teach children is to make a game out of it and make it engaging, otherwise they will get bored or distracted. A way that I would do it, maybe make a syllable game. The game could be simply clapping out names for each syllable they hear. For my experience of remembering working on this, I really don't seem to remember. I guess it wasn't vivid part of my life that made me remember.
ReplyDeleteI think that the game your teacher has created for when you were learning sounds of words is awesome! I bet the kids and yourself as well were very engaged and actually having fun. To answer your question 3, I think the teaching of phonemic is very important. It’s the basic of teaching kids to learn how to read which is very most important in life. Phonemics also helps kids learn syllables in words, helps them critically think about the word they are reading or trying to say, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think that a good way to teach phonics is by using the sound boxes. I work with students at the after school care program that I manage and the teachers use this method. I believe that it is an easy way for students to learn. It breaks the word apart so they can sound out each letter and show its place on paper. Students are taught how to sound out each letter and they do this out loud when they see a word. Having students write down where they need to sound out and say syllables will help them to learn the word. I personally don't remember learning it this way but I do remember being taught syllables by clapping our hands.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I really don't remember the reading method in the classroom that I was taught. I believe that is because I started reading and writing at the age of three. I do vaguely remember my mother helping me sound out words by pointing to the letters and making the sound of the letter. This seemed similar to the beginning-middle-end method. She also ended up eventually ordering a learning program called Hooked On Phonics. Hooked On Phonics was a very popular learning tool in the early to mid 90's, but unfortunately it didn't work as well as my mom hoped it would for neither me or my sister. I do remember at some point in my elementary educational career they try to teach us if the letter had a certain mark above it it made a certain sound. This method made it harder for me to understand because I didn't have a clear understanding the basics.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to add that I really appreciated the video. It helped by breaking down phonemic awareness. Thank you for the video.
DeleteTo answer your first question, I think we did learn about phonemes in the classroom. A way that I remember learning about it was that while we read out loud and we ran into a word that we didn't know, our teacher would make us sound that word out. Starting with the beginning sound and working towards the end. This matches most with the beginning-middle-end method. A method that stood out to me was the sound box since it provides students with a visual of how the word is broken down. Having been in ENL classes, I think this method would be beneficial to ENL students since they are more of visual learners and i think they would grasp the concept better this way.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question one, my school did focus on phonemes a lot. I remember working on this skill a lot in first grade, my teacher would put us in groups and then have stations set up for us to work on this skill. I remember the stations were a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed them.
ReplyDelete