Phonemic Awareness
Welcome to Module 2 Grades 2/3
As a reminder, phonemic awareness is a child's ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
• Review the resources below.
• Choose 1 activity to complete with your child in phonemic awareness and 1 activity in phonics.
• Fill out the parent survey to share what you did and its impact.
This article shares 8 ways parents can support a child's skill development in this area.
Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills
The image below shows how kids typically develop their phonological skills, based on where your child is at developmentally, you can practice asking your children some of the types of questions in the example column on the skill sequence chart below. One great time to do this is when you are riding in the car with your child or taking a walk. You can even use the things you see around you to guide what you ask. For example, while taking a walk, you take turns asking questions like: "I see some children riding on a sled. Can you say sled without the /s/ sound?" or "I hope we see some frogs today when we walk by the pond. Can you say frog without the /r/ sound?"
Sound Pronunciation
Being intentional about how you pronounce sounds with your child is important. Have you ever heard of the terms "stop sound" or "continuous" sound"? This blog describes the difference between the two and why it is important to pay attention to this when children learn to read. The video below is also useful. Watch as this teacher models how to correctly pronounce consonant sounds.
Phonics
Decoding
Decoding involves sounding out words and blending words together. However, as stated on understood.org, not all words are decodable. "Early readers must know how to tackle and instantly recognize two types of words to read fluently. One is decodable words; the other is non-decodable words. For kids with reading issues, including dyslexia, learning to read both types of words can be a challenge." This chart will help you to understand both and know what to do to help your child.
Though not all words follow the rules of phonics, many do, and it is important to help your child to practice and understand these rules. Here is a great resource to review the rules of phonics.
This video from GreatSchools.org shows how you can help your child figure out challenging longer words while reading a book.
- The ultimate goal for parents and teachers is to help our children develop a love of reading, but when a child has difficulty decoding (figuring out how to read printed words) it can be challenging to know what to do to help them. This is why some basic knowledge of phonics is so important. This blog tells the story of a child who was having difficulty reading and this parents "a-ha" moment. It also provides some great tools, pictured below to both pick out good fit books for your child and to figure out what to do when your child gets stuck on a word.
These activities suggested on greatschools.org are fun games you can play to develop decoding skills:
- Write On: Practicing writing is a good way for kids to build reading skills, as it helps them sound out words and shows them how letters form words. In fact, new brain research has shown that writing may be a more natural first learning step than reading. Ask your child to write a grocery list as you both figure out what you need at the store. (Add a couple of challenge words like "yogurt", "spinach," or "peppermint tea" to see if she can sound them out.) At the store, have your child read out loud and check off your purchases as you toss items into your shopping cart.
- Word Attack: Teach your child to attack new words with a vengeance! Create a “killer word bookmark” out of card stock paper and have your child decorate one side of it with something he associates with power — a shark, a dinosaur, or himself as a super hero. As you read with your child and come across a word that is hard to sound out, write that word down on the bookmark. Then as you read each day, review the words on the bookmark. Add a couple of words a day, and choose examples that require him to use decoding strategies, like breaking the words into chunks and recognizing common suffixes.
Word Play
Linked below is a web-based game that can help your child practice phonics and phonological awareness skills: