Teaching Phonemic Awareness?

[Guest Elphaba]

Any suggestions? My daughter is having some problems getting this. Do you have any good games or activities to help? She's a very multi-sensory learner.

 

I've Googled some, but I find it's always better to have some ideas from people who have actually used them and dealt with the same issue.

 

Thanks!

[*~Tina~*]

you can find games and activities in the file section of the Heart of Reading Yahoo group.

 

EPS also has a book called Literacy Leaders that is good.

[Lecka]

The book Reading Reflex is a good resource, too, but use some good letter tiles of some kind, not the little pieces of paper. Or, laminate them. I used just the scraps of paper and that does not work well.

 

A book available at my public library that has a lot of game ideas and suggestions is Phonics A -Z by Wiley Blevins. It is -- more a book to check for in the library than to buy. I really like it, though.

 

For segmenting I like having letter tiles or letter manipulatives of some kind (I used the AAS magnetic tiles) and use them for segmenting activities -- oral only gets recommended a lot, but if it is not going well -- letter tiles are a great choice. Some people use colored tiles or colored counters (or coins) instead of using letters -- if they think the kids get hung up on the letters. But I like letters.

 

I used a lot of programs and bits and pieces of programs, b/c my son did really struggle. But I think these are good starting places.

 

I agree about the games from the files on Heart of Reading.

 

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/resources/big_ideas/phonemic_awareness.php

 

I used this website, b/c my son is in public school and was failing this screening. I disagree a little -- rhyming can be skipped. Blending and segmenting are very important. The phoneme deletion activities are not necessary. Blending and segmenting (imo) are the real skills needed for beginning reading, and the other skills can be picked up over time. (Not so much to skip rhyming -- but if it is a hang-up, I think blending and segmenting are much more deserving of focus. My son continues to struggle somewhat with rhyming -- but he can blend and segment.)

Edited April 11, 2012 by Lecka

[Lecka]

http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_skills.php

 

This is not a bad link.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Lecka

[Guest Elphaba]

Thank you so much! This is really hard! I taught myself to read at age 3, my son learned to read about a month before his 4th birthday. My daughter learns the complete opposite way from either of us and so it's such a struggle to figure out how to get to her. It's going pretty well, though, I think.

 

I hit a brick wall with this, though. I put those books on hold at the library and I'll look at that file.

 

Thanks, again!

[ShelleyW]

If it is really a concern rather than something she needs work on, Barton Level 1 does a fantastic job of cementing PA but it is pricey. My son went from not able to do much to completely getting it in about a month.

 

ETA: Earobics is a good computer program to work on this.

Edited April 11, 2012 by ShelleyW

[LizzyBee]

If it is really a concern rather than something she needs work on, Barton Level 1 does a fantastic job of cementing PA but it is pricey. My son went from not able to do much to completely getting it in about a month.

 

ETA: Earobics is a good computer program to work on this.

 

If she can't pass the Barton student screening yet, LiPS (Lindamood Bell Phonemic Sequencing) is an excellent multisensory program for remediating lack of phonemic awareness.

 

If it's just something that needs extra attention but not intervention, reading rhymes and poetry every day helps.

 

The entire first chapter of Literacy Leaders used to be available as a sample of the book. You could check the publisher's website to see if it's still available. It used to be EPS, but I think they were bought by another company.

Edited April 11, 2012 by LizzyBee

[LaughingCat]

My DD never "got" rhyming even after she could blend and segment until I added having her do phonemic additions/deletions/substitutions regularly (not daily but a few times a week). I would have her do a mix of beginning sounds, ending sounds & middle sounds - she could do it, but she was super slow at it. I saw on that oregon site, in the test procedures for testing these, it says - wait 3 seconds and then mark it wrong - but when we started doing these regularly I had to wait up to 30 seconds and then she'd say it correctly. Slowly she got faster, and then one day out of the blue she started telling me "oh! this <word> rhymes with that <other word>!" when I/she was reading out loud. FWIW, we just did them out loud - no tiles/markers and she didn't get to see the word.

 

Note: during this same time we were doing other reading remediation activities (mainly Dancing Bears Fast Track) so she was getting daily practice in blending as well & it certainly could have been due to that instead (or something else not even on my radar ) but it sure appeared to match up with getting to a certain speed at doing the additions/deletions/substitutions.

[peacefully]

.

Edited November 20, 2012 by yllek

[Guest Elphaba]

Thank you so much for the free activities link!! I will take a closer look at them with my daughter. I hope they will work for her.

 

She seems to have absolutely NO sound awareness at all. It's like the word cat is just the sound cat. She can't hear or understand or whatever that the word cat is made of three different sounds. Even if I break it down and say "c-a-t", she has no clue what I'm saying unless I just say cat.

 

Or if I say 'can you hear the sound /o/ in boat?', she seems to not get it at all, *unless* she can see that my mouth makes the /o/ sound.

 

It's all new territory to me!

[cactus flower]

An older book that has a good phonological awareness program is Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulties by Jerome Rosner. You may be able to find it at your library.

 

Computer programs such as HearBuilder and Earobics are designed for practicing phonological awareness.

 

Another good print program is Literacy Leaders.

[Lecka]

I think then start with the smallest things.

 

Does she know the letter sounds?

 

If so -- this is good!

 

I did a lot of modeling for my son to copy. He did not memorize words well at all, so I could use at, am, up, it, if, in, those kinds of words. If your daughter memorizes easily (which is good!) you use pretend words like ut, ik, ag, things like that. Starting with VC (vowel consonant).

 

Pull down the letter and say aaa, pull down the letter m and say mmm. Can she do that?

 

Then say aaaaammmmm and pull down the a while saying aaaa, and the m when switching to mmm. Can she do that?

 

If not -- you can have her feel her chin move. This is a good way to get started It is NOT bad if she can just know "o" in boat from feeling (or seeing with a mirror) her mouth change. This is good, this is multisensory. Seeing and feeling make it multisensory. If that works, that is a start.

 

If she can copy you saying aaaaammmmm, you can point out her mouth closing for mmmm, her chin moving, etc.

 

The Phonics A-Z book has a game where kids make a karate chop when there is the change from aaaa to mmm, saying aaaammmm.

 

Can she do that?

 

(In the book -- some kids practice this way for weeks in Kindergarten, so it is not bad if this is a developing skill.)

 

If she can do that with VC words, you could go to CVC words, or do VC words with letter tiles, and sliding them as the sound changes.

 

Easier consonants to start with can be held: like mmmm, ffff, ssss. Harder consonants are b, t, k, d, g, type consonants, that cannot be held.

 

edit: this is the kind of thing that is good -- just asking for things that are harder skills, oral only, is fine for kids who already can do the basic concept but need more practice, but doesn't teach it. stuff like this teaches it. I think this is the kind of thing to look for -- there are different programs that have this kind of instruction.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Lecka

[Julie of KY]

Both of my children liked the FREE activities at this site:

http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/studentCenterActivities.shtm

 

Scroll down to where it says "Book One—Phonological Awareness and Phonics." Then click the red titles that say "Part One," "Part Two," etc. These are large pdf files, to be aware that they may take time to load.

 

There are also more activities for other grade levels:

http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/SCAindex.shtm

 

 

Thanks for this. It looks really good.

[Lecka]

I looked at the fcrr just now and it looks really good. I have a hard time with their website but I search for the fcrr reports on different reading programs on google (just the program name and fcrr) fairly often.

 

It is a lot things that were done in my son's public school K class, but he couldn't do it. He had trouble with his letter sounds and so everything in school was just a little too hard and fast.

 

Anyway -- my son had a particularly hard time with the letter sounds and with being in speech therapy, and I think he needed the really, really basic and slow approach, even more basic and more slow, if that makes sense.

 

But if the fcrr games will work, I would try them and do them!!!!!

 

I just mean -- if a lot of kids can start with a certain level of games, that is great, if some kids don't need it at all, that is great, but if there is a problem even with those games -- there are still options.

 

There are still kids who have trouble with the regular K phonemic awareness games, even with the really good programs, and they are supposed to be then pulled out for some extra help -- I think that is the group my son would be in.

[momsuz123]

Both of my children liked the FREE activities at this site:

http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/studentCenterActivities.shtm

 

Scroll down to where it says "Book One—Phonological Awareness and Phonics." Then click the red titles that say "Part One," "Part Two," etc. These are large pdf files, so be aware that they may take time to load.

 

There are also more activities for other grade levels:

http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/SCAindex.shtm

 

 

I have been looking at these and love it!! Thanks so much!! I need to get some more printer ink!!