Elements of Reading Success Part 1: Phonemic Awareness

Elements of Reading Success
 
           Whether you are a teacher or parent, understanding the elements of reading success is crucial to supporting your children. Studies indicate that if students don’t read proficiently by the end of third grade, they statistically are more likely to experience continued academic difficulties, may not graduate on time from high school, and are more likely to have economic hardships later in life. A major source for this blog post is the landmark U.S. National Reading Panel report. The authors conducted a meta-analysis on best practices in teaching and learning how to read. Their findings became the basis for state standards, the Common Core State Standards, AND EduTunes music.  According to the report, there are several necessary components for reading success: Phonemic awareness, phonics, knowledge of sight words, reading fluency, and comprehension. This blog series is designed to educate teachers and parents on fundamentals of these elements, and to show how EduTunes music can help meet children's needs.

What Is Phonemic Awareness?
 
            “Phonemic awareness” refers to the awareness of “phonemes,” or the smallest units that make up a language. In English, there are 41 phonemes. Examples are the sound of “b” and the sound of the letters “sh.” The word “mat” has 3 phonemes, /m/, short a, and /t/. The word “sheep” also has three phonemes, /sh/, long e, and /p/.
 
Who Benefits From Phonemic Awareness Instruction?

            The National Reading Panel report found that phonemic awareness is beneficial for all developing readers—and is particularly important for children who are beginning readers at risk for failure. They found that 25-minute lessons benefited many types of learners: Normally developing readers, those at risk for future reading problems, disabled readers, preschoolers, kindergartners, first graders, children in 2nd through 6th grade who were disabled readers, and English language learners.
 
How Can I Teach Phonemic Awareness?

            Children who have good phonemic awareness can manipulate sounds in words. Try these ideas. Incorporate 1-2 activities per lesson:

• Phoneme Isolation: Ask children to isolate phonemes. For example, when given the word “sat,” ask for the beginning sound (/s/).
• Phoneme Identity: Ask children to name the sound that is the same in several words. For instance, “bat,” “ball,” and “band” all have the /b/ sound.
• Blending: Give children individual sounds, and ask them to “blend” the sounds together to make a word. For instance, if you say “/sh/ /e/ /l/” as separated sounds, children should learn to say “shell.”
• Segmenting: Segmenting is the opposite of blending. While blending supports the reading process, segmenting is the precursor for writing. Ask students to break down sounds in words. For instance, if you say “cat,” they should say "/c/ /a/ /t/."
• Phoneme Manipulation: Ask children to change sounds in words. For instance, ask them to change the beginning sound in “cat” to /m/. When they say, “mat,” ask them to change the ending sound to “n.” When they say “man,” ask them to change the middle sound to “short e.” They should learn to say “men.” You can also ask children to remove a sound and name the word. For instance, if you remove the /s/ sound from “stop,” you get “top.” Start by teaching these types of phoneme manipulation individually, and combine them as children improve.

 
Can I Include Letters When I Teach Phonemic Awareness?

            One common misconception is that phonemic awareness is best taught orally, and children should not look at letters as they complete activities. According to the National Reading Panel report,
 
“Teachers should recognize that acquiring phonemic awareness is a means rather than an end. Phonemic awareness is not acquired for its own sake but rather for its value in helping learners understand and use the alphabetic system to read and write. This is why it is important to include letters when teaching children to manipulate phonemes and why it is important to teach children explicitly how to apply phonemic awareness skills in reading and writing tasks (p. 2-43).
           
How Does All This Relate to the Story of EduTunes?

            I wrote many of my phonemic awareness and phonics songs when I taught near the border of California and Mexico, I had a lot of students who struggled in learning English, and in reading. I still remember a little girl named Darlene, who could not speak any English when she entered my class. I always watched her facial expressions to guage her happiness or frustration levels as I attempted to help her. She used to light up when she would sing. She would happily make the letters and sounds—and at first, most of them were wrong! I used to whisper, “Darlene,” and point to my mouth. As she watched me mouth the letters and sounds, she began to form the sounds of English correctly. The songs were fun and relaxing for Darlene as an English language learner. I taught her in both first and second grade--and she was a proficient speaker and writer by the end of our two years together.
            These materials have helped every single one of my early learning students. I hope they can make a difference for yours!

How Can EduTunes Help to Teach Phonemic Awareness?

            Several of my materials include songs and activities that teach phonemic awareness:

1. I created my Early Phonics program to help kindergarten and other emergent students. The phonemic awareness songs in this program focus on the simplest short vowel words like “cat,” “met,” “sit,” “hot,” and “nut.” This program also includes 10 phonics mini-books and 10 weeks of lessons that incorporate phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, comprehension, and fluency activities. Currently, Early Phonics is available as a music-book set. Click HERE for the complete music-book set. To hear samples of all 50 musical tracks, click HERE. (Note that ONLY the first link to Teachers Pay Teachers includes the book.)

2.  I created Phonics Time for my first grade class that included a wide range of students--from those who needed phonemic awareness (including emergent readers, English language learners, and special education students), to more advanced readers. I then piloted this program with 80 teachers in South Bay Union School District, in San Diego, CA, to make it truly user-friendly and useful as a teaching tool. Phonemic awareness songs on this program introduce early learners to basic sounds in the language. More advanced learners benefit from discussing more advanced spellings included in the songs. Phonics Time is available as a video-music-book set. While songs may be advanced for early learners, videos make harder concepts more fun and comprehensible. Please click HERE for more information. You can hear samples of all songs HERE. (Again, ONLY the first link to Teachers Pay Teachers includes the book.)

This is a breakdown of songs that teach the specific phonemic awareness skills discussed in this blog post:

• Phoneme Isolation
  • Early Phonics: "ABC Practice," "ABC Fun," "Letter Sounds," "Letter Quiz," and "Sound Quiz"
  • Phonics Time:  "ABC Fun," "Letter Sounds" (These are also on Early Phonics)
• Phoneme Identity
  • Early Phonics: "I Know Words: Beginning Sounds," "I Know Words: Ending Sounds"
  • Phonics Time:  "Beginning and Ending Sounds," "I Know Words: Short Vowel Sounds"
• Blending
  • Early Phonics: "I Know Words: Beginning Sounds," "I Know Words: Ending Sounds"
  • Phonics Time:  "Beginning and Ending Sounds," "I Know Words: Short Vowel Sounds"
• Segmenting
  • Early Phonics: "Break Down the Sounds"
  • Phonics Time:  "Break It Down"
• Phoneme Manipulation
  • Early Phonics: "If You Can Read," "Change the Sounds"
  • Phonics Time:  "2 Words in 1 Fun"

3. My "Alphabet Letters and Sounds" 200-page packet goes well with both Early Phonics and Phonics Time. Knowing the sounds of letters goes hand-in-hand with phonemic awareness! Please head HERE!

4. I worked with Deanna Jump, a fellow teacher-author, to develop songs, phonemic awareness activities, and phonics activities that are great for guided reading as well as whole-class lessons. Please head HERE to learn more.

5. I worked with another teacher-author, Deedee Wills, to record nursery rhymes, thematic poems, and poems that teach academic content. Deedee added great phonemic awareness and phonics activities. Note that rhyming is part of a larger umbrella term, "phonological awareness," which refers to more than just they tiniest "phonemes" in words. Rhyming is also a great pre-reading skill--and words in videos connect pre-reading to our ultimate goal: Reading! Please head HERE for a nursery rhyme set; head HERE for the basic pre-K/kindergarten "Poetry 1" set; and head HERE for the more advanced first grade-level "Poetry 2" set.

Please "stay tuned" for future blog posts on more elements of reading success. Thanks!

"Miss Jenny"
          
References

The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2013). Early warning confirmed: A research update on third grade reading. Baltimore, Maryland: Fiester, L. Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/resources/early-warning-confirmed/

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Retrieved from
www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/documents/report.pdf