PHONEMIC AWARENESS and PHONICS

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS and PHONICS

• Information from
• Phonics They Use Patricia Cunningham
• Michigan Inquiry Kits (Macomb Intermediate School
  District)
• International Reading Association

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What is the difference?

1. Phonemic awareness The awareness that sounds
   (phonemes) make up spoken words.
2. Phonics The relationship between letters and
   their sounds in written language.

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Both are necessary

• They are part of the word identification process
  of reading
• If a child cannot hear the phonemes when spoken,
  they most likely will struggle relating the
  phonemes to letters when they see them in
  writing.
• (Another case for ELL learning needs above the
  early elementary levels!!)

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Phonemic awareness

• IRA definition
• Phonemic awareness is the ability to segment and
  manipulate the sounds of oral language. It is
  not the same as phonics, which involves knowing
  how written letters relate to spoken sounds.

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MLPP 2001 definition

• Phonemic awareness is the ability to separate
  sounds that comprise spoken words. It involves
  perceiving the relationships between sounds and
  having the ability to alter and rearrange sounds
  to create new words.

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• Phonemic Awareness is the foundation of reading
  and writing instruction. Children cannot
  associate print a sound unless they can hear the
  sound first. Furthermore, children cannot write
  words until they have been taught to hear the
  sounds within the words.

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Phonological Continuum

1. The child becomes aware of gross differences
   between words.
2. The child becomes aware of rhyme.
3. The child can segment words into syllables.
4. The child is aware of initial consonant segments.

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1. The child hears alliteraton, or the awareness of
   2 words beginning with the same sound.
2. The child is aware of onset and rime, single
   phonemes with an end unit.
3. The child is able to break words into segments
   (by syllables, onset/rime and into individual
   phonemes)

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• The child is able to blend sounds/phonemes.
• The child is able to manipulate sounds, but
  additions, deletions, substitutions and
  reversals.
• Adapted from Literacy Assessment and Intervention
  for the Elementary Classroom, B. DeVries,
  Holcolmb Hathaway Publishers, 2004

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PHONICS

• Phonics is the relationship between letters and
  their sounds in WRITTEN language.
• It cannot be effectively taught until phonemic
  awareness is mastered.

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• Phonics is a foundation skill of not only
  decoding and vocabulary development in reading,
  but also the foundation of spelling and writing.
• Solid understanding of phonics unlocks the basics
  of English language usage.

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Phonics Continuum

• The child can identify the letters of the
  alphabet.
• The child is able to chunk groups of letters
  together to read fluently.
• The child is able to re-create the letter/sound
  relationship in writing.
• The child is able to use knowledge of
  letter/sound patterns to expand decoding and
  vocabulary.

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Phonics to Word Study

• By the time a reader is transitioning to an
  advanced level, phonics takes on more
  sophisticated characteristics.
• Syllabraic patterns need to be studied
  CVC,CVCe,CVVC,CVCC,etc.
• Morphemic units need to be studied
• (prefixes, suffixes, base words)
• Antonyms, Synonyms, Homophones need to be
  studied.

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Advanced Word Study

• By middle school and beyond, word study should be
  replacing phonics to become a study in how words
  are derived.
• Etymology or the study of word origins (mostly
  Greek/Latin word elements) need to be addressed.
• Spelling patterns as a way to derive meaning
  should be taught.

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Whenever PHONICS/WORD STUDY is taught, it

• needs to develop alphabetic principle
• needs to develop phonological awareness
• needs to provide a thorough grounding in letters

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• should lead to automatic word recognition
• should be ONE part of reading instruction
• should not teach just rules, or use only
  worksheets
• should give practice in reading words

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At the Intermediate to HS levels

• Should study commonly misspelled words
• Should include word patterns
• Should include affix and syllable study
• Should include Greek/Latin roots
• Should not shy away from the commonly confused
  words of the English language system (homophones,
  synonyms, antonyms, homographs)

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Advanced Word study

• Is a direct evolution from phonemic awareness and
  phonics. The goal remains the same
• To increase reading for meaning by dissecting
  words at their simplest levels.