4 Activities for Incorporating Letters in Phonemic Awareness Instruction

You might have heard that adding letters to phonemic awareness instruction is more effective than “oral only” phonemic awareness tasks.  If so, this is correct!  However, what does this mean? Today I’m going to share 4 high impact instructional routines that bridge this key research takeaway to the classroom. 

First, if you aren’t familiar with the research on this topic, below are three supporting claims.  The source for these is listed at the end of this post. Or, scroll down to learn the activities!

Key Research Takeaways

“Given the lack of evidence to support oral-only phonemic awareness manipulation activities and because existing research shows those tasks associated with stronger effects when integrated with print, incorporating letters in phoneme manipulation tasks is recommended to enhance awareness of phonemes in spoken words and to support memory of letter-sound correspondences” (IDA, 2022).

 “Manipulating letters during phonemic awareness instruction is much more powerful for improving reading outcomes than instruction that is strictly oral” (NICHD, 2000).

“Whenever phoneme manipulation tasks are used to build awareness, provide letter tiles or written letters in some form to represent the spellings of the phonemes in the word and the phoneme being manipulated. Asking students to do such manipulation without letters can strain working memory, putting a counterproductive, unnecessary burden on beginners and struggling readers. (IDA, 2022)”

The 4 Activities

1. Connecting Early Phonemic Awareness with Alphabet Knowledge Instruction

If you teach Kindergarten, this is for you.  Phonics in Kindergarten should include instruction for the following:

• Letter names

• Letter sounds

• Letter formation

• Identifying the first, medial, and final sound in spoken words

• Blend and segment sounds in VC words (vowel consonant, i.e it) and CVC words  (consonant, vowel, consonant, i.e map) 

• Read and spell VC and CVC words

All of these skills should be taught together, not apart.  Here are some examples: 

• When you teach the key word for letter A, such as “apple”, teach students to identify the first sound in the word apple.  I use alphabet charts to help automatize letter names, sounds, and practice identifying first sounds.  I print a version that includes pictures only and cut the letter only pages into letter tiles. Then, like bingo, I call out a sound and ask students to find the picture with the same first sound. Ex) I say /j/ and the student should point to the jam. Then I say, find the letter that spells the sound /j/, and the student should find the j and place it on top of the jam. This is nice for small group so that you can give immediate corrective feedback.

• When you teach identifying first sounds, have students identify the first sound and then write or identify the letter that spells that sound.  In addition to alphabet charts, I use my phonemic awareness slides to help students identify the first sound in a word.  These are great for whole group practice. I display a picture and ask students to identify the first sound. I then ask them tell me the letter or write the letter on a whiteboard that that spells that sound. Then I get them excited and tell them I’m going to reveal the secret letter and show them the letter on the slide. 

• Finally, I use my beginning sound activities for students to practice. Students can match pictures to the corresponding first sound, or, look at the picture, say the first sound, and write the corresponding letter while saying the sound. This activity integrates early phonemic awareness, letter sound correspondences, and letter formation, all essential early literacy skills students need to become proficient readers.

2. Blending with letters

Blending should be taught starting in Kindergarten, once students are proficient in identifying individual sounds in words.  Here are some ways to teach blending with letters:

• Use letter tiles so that students can hold or slide letters together as they say the sounds.  This will create a link between the phonological and orthographic processors rather than only activating the phonological processor if you weren’t using letters.

• Use continuous or successive blending to scaffold blending with letters.
  

3. Segmenting with letters

Segmenting should also be taught starting in Kindergarten, beginning with words with 2 sounds such as it, or at, then moving to 3+ sounds when students are ready. Here are some ways to teach segmenting with letters: 

• Phoneme-grapheme mapping automatically integrates segmenting with spelling.  Students should say the word, say the sounds, count the sounds, write the sounds in sound boxes (one sound per box), and finally, spell the word.  For an extra dose of fluency students should go back and read the words they spelled.

4. Addition, deletion, and substitution with letters

The practice that integrates advanced phonemic awareness skills with phonics is called “Word Chains”.  Word chains are highly effective in remediating phonological and orthographic deficits simultaneously.  They also improve word recognition because spelling words accurately helps to create an accurate image of the word in the brain- meaning when seeing the word in print in the future the student will read it more automatically without having to sound it out.  I use my word chain lists in my phonics review packs.  For word chains, the teacher says the word, the students spell it in writing or with letter tiles.  Then, ask them to change one sound to spell the next word.  Continue on until you reach the end of the list. An example of word chain lists is below.  

Final Thoughts

Can you think of some places where you’re already doing this work?  Is there a part of your instruction where you could integrate these activities more seamlessly? Remember that the purpose of all phonemic awareness tasks is to facilitate reading and spelling words.  Once students are reading and spelling single syllable words automatically, there is no reason to continue teaching phonemic awareness.  For example, if a student can automatically spell the word “stand”, you don’t need to do something like phoneme-grapheme mapping which asks them to say each sound before spelling. Likewise, if a student can automatically read the word “crush”, you no longer need to do blending routines such as successive blending.  Remember, phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for reading and spelling words, but that doesn’t mean it should be separate from phonics instruction.  Always integrate where you can, and watch your reading scores rise! 

Sources

https://dyslexiaida.org/building-phoneme-awareness-know-what-matters/