Phonemic Awareness
What the experts say about phonemic awareness:
Without phoneme awareness, students may be mystified by the print system and how it represents the spoken word.~ Louis Cook Moats & Carol Tolman
No matter the level of phonemic awareness, to make use of it he or she [the student] must learn to visually identify the individual letters.~ Marilyn Jager Adams
Explicit instruction in sound identification, matching, segmentation, and blending, when linked appropriately to sound-symbol association, reduces the risk of reading failure and accelerates early reading and spelling acquisition for all children.~ Learning First Alliance
Read more about phonemic awareness!
Test your Understanding of Phonemic Awareness
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OVERVIEW of phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness is an oral language ability that students demonstrate when they can play with the sounds in words. For example, they can change a sound in word to make a new word, blend sounds together to make a word, or break words into individual sounds. Phonemic awareness helps students read by sounding out and blending letter sounds together, and to spell by breaking apart the sounds in a word.
TEACHING phonemic awareness
Teachers can use a number of brief and engaging activities such as songs and games to facilitate students’ phonemic awareness. Teachers can model key skills and provide opportunities for review. They can start with simple phonological awareness activities, including rhyming words, and move toward those that involve the identification and/or manipulation of the sounds in words.
ASSESSING phonemic awareness
Teachers can assess phonemic awareness in many ways. They can observe how their students respond to various phonemic awareness tasks and complete informal assessments of important phonemic awareness skills such as blending and segmenting. Gathering this information can aid in lesson planning and the identification of students at risk for reading difficulties.
Featured Videos
Push That Sound:
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Pound and Sound:
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Phonemic Awareness Read Aloud:
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All Phonemic Awareness Recipes
Create a New Song!: Building Phonemic Awareness through Play
Find That Day!: Using Days of the Week to Practice Initial Letter-Sounds
Phonemic Awareness Read Aloud: Using Stories to Develop Phonemic Awareness Skills
Stories, Actions, and Pictures: Introducing New Letter-Sounds with Jolly Phonics in First Grade
The Name Game: Building Awareness of Sounds and Letters
Phonological Awareness Read Aloud: Practicing Phonological Skills
Corner Grocery Store Song: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Take One Thing From the Box: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Introducing the Sound of the Week: Integrated Letter-Sound Instruction
The Hungry Hungry Rhyming Monster: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Silly Sound Attendance: Building Phonemic Awareness
Awesome Alliteration: Building Awareness of Initial Letter-Sounds
What Picture Goes with This Sound?: Listening for Beginning and Ending Sounds
Fishing for Syllables: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Drumming Out Syllables: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Teaching Rhyme Through Songs: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
What Rhymes With This Picture?: Exploring Rhymes Orally and In Writing
Pound and Sound: Helping Students Hear and Blend Phonemes
Spelling from Pictures: Practicing Spelling by Sounding Out
Where's the Sound?: Listening for Beginning, Middle, and End Sounds
The Royal Treasure Chest: Practicing Syllables Using Movements
Hear the Sound, Find the Letter!: Reinforcing Letter-Sound Correspondences
Silly Names Song: Building Phonemic Awareness
Mystery Object Sort: Building Awareness of Initial Sounds and Letters
Consonant Blends Using Blocks: Developing Phonemic Awareness
What's the Mystery Sound?: Building Phonemic Awareness of Beginning, Middle, and End Sounds
Picky Puppet: Promoting Phonemic Awareness
Push the Letter-Sounds: Using Magnetic Letters to Practice Early Decoding
Guess Who?: Introducing Letter-Sound Correspondences
Toss the Letter Cube: Reviewing Letter-Sounds
Climb the Word Ladder: Raising Spelling, Vocabulary and Phonics Skills
The Look and Feel of Phonemes: Multisensory Phonemic Awareness
Sounding Blocks: Building Phonemic Awareness
Match It!: Finding Beginning, Middle, and End Sounds
What's Wrong with This Poem?: Developing Phonemic Awareness
Dash to Your Phoneme: Active Engagement to Build Phonemic Awareness
How Many Beats in Your Name?: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Miming Words with Jolly Phonics: Practicing Letter-Sounds and Strengthening Phonemic Awareness
Drive-Thru Blending: Practicing Early Decoding Skills
Sound Skills Review: Building Up to Phonemic Awareness
Match the Rhyming Objects!: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Word Family Listening Center: Developing Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Keep the Beat: Developing Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Website Word Families: Engaging Students with Starfall (Virtual Tour)
Name Game: Developing Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarten (Virtual Tour)
Sound of the Day Attendance: Developing Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Building Word Families: Making and Breaking Words in the ABC Center (Virtual Tour)
Naming Objects from the Sound Bin: Building Awareness of Initial Phonemes (Virtual Tour)
Starfall at the Computer Center: Mox's Shop Teaches the "Short o" Sound (Virtual Tour)
Poem of the week: Developing Concepts of Print, Word Recognition and Rhyming (Virtual Tour)
Playing with Letters: Learning Letter-Sounds and Creating Words (Virtual Tour)
Treasure Time: Sorting Objects Based on Initial Sounds (Virtual Tour)
Drive-Thru Blending in PreK/K: Building Phonemic Awareness and Letter-Sounds (Virtual Tour)
"Slinky" Phonemic Awareness: Stretching and Blending Words (Virtual Tour)
Dial-a-Story!: Using Classroom Telephones to Support Reading Aloud (Virtual Tour)
Letter-Sound Bins: Sorting Objects to Build Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Alphabet Artwork: Prompting Letter-Sound Associations using Meaningful Materials (Virtual Tour)
Morning Message: Building Motivation for Literacy and Early Reading Skills (Virtual Tour)
Word Stretchercisers: Props to Support Stretching and Blending Sounds in Words (Virtual Tour)
Sound Circles: Sorting Objects to Build Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Starfall: Engaging Website for Learning Letter-Sounds (Virtual Tour)
Blowing in the Wind: Chants to Build Concepts of Print and Sight Words (Virtual Tour)
Jolly Phonics Overview: Developing Letter Sounds & Phonemic Awareness (Virtual Tour)
Bob Books For Beginning Readers: Developing Decoding Skills (Virtual Tour)
Jolly Phonics: Teaching Letter Sounds (Virtual Tour)
Jolly Phonics: Teaching Letter Combinations (Virtual Tour)
Stories, Actions, and Pictures: Introducing New Letter-Sounds with Jolly Phonics in Kindergarten
Empower Reading Program: Building Strategies for Decoding (Virtual Tour)
Word Families: Building Skills in Letter-Sounds (Virtual Tour)
Runaway Robots: Using a Board Game to Teach Reading and Spelling
Teacher-Made Reading and Spelling Game: Constructing an Engaging Teaching Game
Park that Word!: Blending Words with Vowel Digraphs in a Game
Park Those Sounds!: Segmenting CVC Words into Phonemes in a Game
Word Twister: Sounding out One-Syllable Words in a Twister Game
Robot Talk: Segmenting Words into Individual Sounds in a Game
Magic E Words: Decoding CVC Words and Converting them into CVC-E Words in a Game
Trash or Treasure?: Sounding out CVC Nonsense Words and Real Words in a Game
Word Family Wall: Building Literacy Skills using Spelling Patterns in Words (Virtual Tour)
Make a Word: Using Onsets and Rimes
Push That Sound!: Blending Sounds into Words to Build Phonemic Awareness
Three Rhymes: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Blending Mystery Words: Practicing Blending Sounds
Fill in the Missing Rhyme!: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Syllable Suitcase: Foundations for Phonemic Awareness
Shared Book Experiences at Home: Establishing a Foundation for Literacy
Create a New Song!: Building Phonemic Awareness through Play
