Phonics Part 5: Manipulating Phonemes and Letters

by C. Elkins, OK Math and Reading Lady

Add beginning letter(s)

Manipulating phonemes refers to the abilty to add, delete, or substitute them orally. This is a prerequisite skill to visually manipulating letters in order to read and write (the phonics part). First grade programs should include both of these routines on a daily basis – and at other grade levels with struggling students. Skill with manipulating letters relates to a child’s ability to use a known word (or word part) to read and write new words. Stay tuned for 10 ways to work on manipulating letters (whole class or small group) as well as some free resources to accomplish your goals. Phonemic awareness falls under the Phonological Awareness umbrella.

Add phonemes – phonemic awareness (examples — letters inside / / represent the sound):

  • “Say /at/.  Now add /k/ before /at/. What do you hear?”
  • “Say /un/. Now add /f/ before /un/. What do you hear?”

Add letters – phonics (examples):

  • “Write at.  Now add the letter c before at.  What word did you make?”
  • “What other letters can you add before at to make new words?” (suggest b, f, h, m, p, r, s)
  • “Write un. Now add the letter f before un.  What word did you make?”
  • “What other letters can you add before un to make new words?” (suggest b, g, n, r, s)

Delete phonemes – phonemic awareness (examples):

Manipulate ending letter.

  • “Say fat. Take off the /f/ sound.  What part is left?”  (at)
  • “Say run. Take off the /r/ sound. What part is left?” (un)

Delete letters – phonics (examples):

  • “Write track. Take off the letters tr. What part is left?”
  • “What other words can you write with the letters -ack?” (suggest back, smack, lack, tack)
  • “Write sting. Take off the letters st. What part is left?”
  • “What other words can you write with the letters -ing?” (suggest sing, ring, fling, thing)

Substitute phonemes – phonemic awareness (examples):

  • “Say like. Take off the /l/ sound and trade it for the /b/ sound. What word do you hear now?” (bike)
  • “Say hop. Take off the /p/ sound and trade it for the /g/ sound. What word do you hear now?” (hog)

Substitute letters – phonics (examples):

Manipulate middle letter(s).

  • “Write like. Change the letter l to a b. What word did you write?” (bike)
  • “Write like. Change the letter i to the letter a. What word did you write?” (lake)
  • “Write like. Change the letter to the letter f.  What word did you write?” (life)

You will notice that manipulating letters also links directly to identification of onsets and rimes.

  • With onsets and rimes, we want students to be able to identify the rimes. This means they have to separate it from the beginning of the word.  Example:  sh + op
  • We also want students to be able to recognize and produce the rimes or common “chunks”  in other words. This involves deleting and substituting letters. Examples:  hop, mop, drop, helicopter. If they can’t hear it, they most likely can’t read it or write it.

Here are 10 ways to work on letter manipulation in the classroom or with small groups:

  1. Utilize some of the above examples as part of your daily word work routine.
  2. Use sound boxes and magnetic letters or letter tiles to model manipulation of the letters.
  3. Use post-its to practice manipulating words.
  4. Provide word family practice like these rimes -op, -and, -it, – un, -et, eet, -oat, -ine, and so on.
  5. Give students letter cards to hold and arrange to make / change words.
  6. Break words apart (and put back together).
    • Break apart letter by letter.
    • Break apart onsets and rimes
    • Break apart beginning / middle / ending
  7. Explore words by making a word chain. Write it or use letter tiles to help. How long can you make the chain go on?

    Word chain starting with cat.

    • Start with one word such as cat.
    • Change just one letter at a time to make a new word (this can be the beginning letter, middle letter, or ending letter):  hat
    • Change it again (just one letter): hit
    • Change it again: bit
    • Change it again: big
    • Change it again: dig
    • Change it again: dog
    • Change it again: dot
    • Change it again: hot
    • Change it again:  pot
    • Change it again: pet
    • Can you keep going???
  8. Use spelling words to make changes. After all, the purpose of spelling is not to just spell the words on the list, but to apply the generalization to other words.  Spelling word is wide? Try these: slide, hide, bride . . .  Spelling word is eat?  Try these:  meat, seat, treat . . .
  9. Give pairs of students word family lists to partner read (-ake:  bake, cake, lake, take, make, rake, snake, shake, wake . . .)
  10. Check out some of these FREE resources from TPT:

As always, please share your favorite manipulating phonemes or letters activities!!

 

 

 

 

Reading Routines Part 4: Phonemic Awareness

by C. Elkins, OK Math and Reading Lady

This is Part 4 of a series about daily reading routines I recommend. Previously we have looked at read alouds, independent reading, and phonological awareness. Today’s focus is Phonemic Awareness. Some videos and freebies via TPT are linked below.

See link #3 below for FREE task cards from TPT

Phonemic Awareness is under the umbrella of phonological awareness. This encompasses pre-reading skills associated with the sounds of language. Phonemic awareness is the part dealing with individual phonemes and how they can be identified, segmented, blended, and manipulated to create recognizable units or words . . . . the auditory portion. Students need a firm foundation with this aspect before they can adequately apply it to phonics and reading (which is where the visual aspects of the letters that make these sounds appears). So here are some basics about phonemic awareness:

  • Phonemes are the basic sound units. In the English language there are 44 of them (the consonants, the vowels, digraphs, etc.). Here is a good, short list from Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002).: 44 Phonemes However, if you want to go more in depth, then this link should satisfy your curiosity (or make you want to quit teaching spelling) from The Reading Well44 Phonemes in Detail
  • Onsets/rimes:  The onset is the part of the word before the vowel. The rime is the part of the word including and after the vowel. Examples: In the word shop, /sh/ is the onset and /op/ is the rime. In the word bed, /b/ is the onset and /ed/ is the rime.
  • Identifying: When presented with a word orally, can a student identify the beginning sound or ending sound? Example: What is the beginning sound in the word moon? /m/.  What is the last sound in the word jump? /p/. The brackets are used to represent the sound – the child is not asked to name the letter.
  • Segmenting: When presented with these words, can a student take the parts or individual sounds apart orally (segment)? Examples: bed = /b/ + /ed/ or /b/ + /e/ + /d/.  Students would NOT be asked at this point to identify the letters that make those sounds, just the sounds.
  • Blending: When presented with these sounds, can a student put them together orally (blend) to form a word?  Examples:  /k/ + /at/ = cat; or /sh/ + /o/ + /p/ = shop
  • Manipulating:  This involves adding, deleting, or substituting sounds. Example:  What is /ap/ with /m/ added to the beginning? (map). What is /land/ without the /l/ sound? (and).  Change the /b/ in bed to /r/. . . (red).

Daily teaching routine for Phonemic Awareness:

  1. If using a reading series, check to see if there is a daily practice with words (like the examples above). Just a few minutes with the whole class is a good introduction and chance for you to observe / listen to who is or is not grasping these tasks.
  2. Use simple pictures (such as fox): Ask students to do some of the following when you feel they are ready:
    • Name the picture and tell the onset and rime. /f/ + /ox/
    • Orally say all of the separate sounds /f/ + /o/ + /ks/.  Use the length of your arm for these cvc words: tap shoulder and say /f/; tap inside elbow and say /o/; tap the wrist and say /ks/.  Then run your hand along the whole arm to blend them back together.
    • Use an Elkonin sound box to show the distinct sounds. For fox, use a 3-part box. Push a chip into each box as each sound is being made (no letters yet, just chips, beans, cubes, pennies, etc.). Then blend all the sounds together. (I like to put an arrow at the bottom of the boxes and run my finger along it to remind students with a visual that the last step is to blend the sounds together.)
    • Change the /f/ to /b/. What word does that sound like? /b/ + /o/ + /ks/ = /box/
    • Change the /ks/ to /g/. What word does that sound like? /f/ + /o/ + /g/ = /fog/
    • Change the /o/ to /i/. What word does that sound like? /f/ + /i/ + /ks/ = /fix/
    • If you remove the /f/ sound, what is left? /oks/ or /ox/
    • Be sure to use short and long vowel words, digraphs, etc. because it’s all about hearing the separate parts – not about matching up the letters that make those sounds.
  3. Follow up these same routines during guided reading and work station time. Here are 2 links from TPT (FREE) with some great sound box practice opportunities:

Here is a great short video I recommend regarding the Elkonin sound boxes: Sound boxes

When you are ready to progress from sound boxes to letter boxes, these two videos should be very helpful.

These routines will be very important once you feel they are ready to associate the letter(s) that make these sounds (via phonics, spelling, and writing). A phonics routine will be the next topic. So stay tuned!

Reading Routines Part 3: Phonological Awareness

by C. Elkins, OK Math and Reading Lady

Daily explicit routines regarding phonological awareness and phonics are important, especially for KG-2nd grade levels (and beyond for those who are in need of extra intervention). Whether you are utilizing the textbook’s recommended lesson plan or seeking out on your own, I’d like to advocate for a daily routine to teach and/or practice these skills. In this post, I will focus mostly on teaching early phonological awareness routines and how they are connected to later reading, spelling, and writing success.

Phonological Awareness encompasses pre-reading skills associated with the sounds of language. If you have assessed this at the PreK-2nd grade levels, you know part of the assessment involves identifying spoken words, rhymes, syllables, onsets/rimes, and identifying, segmenting, blending, and substituting phonemes. Phonemic awareness is under the umbrella of phonological awareness with more of a focus on the latter part (onsets/rimes, and identifying, segmenting, blending, and manipulating phonemes). All of this, regardless, is based on SOUNDS only. This awareness is AUDITORY and not print related.

My opinion regarding this daily routine, is for a whole class explicit 10-15 minute lesson. During the whole class daily routine, keep mental tabs or quick notes on who has difficulty so you can follow up during small group and learning station opportunities throughout the week. Try video taping your routine for those “extra eyes.” See a link to some FREE research-based activities at the end of this post.

Spoken Words: 

I have observed frequently that young students do not always know the difference between letters, words, and sentences. I usually discover this via writing lessons. Wonder why students don’t space between words? Or spread letters within a word far apart? I think it may go back to a misunderstanding about this very basic phonological awareness concept.

The assessment for this involves the teacher stating a sentence and the child pushes chips or pennies to indicate how many words were heard. Usually this isn’t too difficult until the teacher utters a 2-syllable word. Does the child understand this to be one or two words?

Believe it or not, this is a huge key concept later when the child is reading text. You may discover errors with 1-to-1 correspondence. When reading this sentence: “The apple is good.” does the child keep their finger on apple until the word is finished, or do they move their finger for each syllable? And then, as mentioned previously, it also becomes a hindrance when writing.

As you can see then, concept of spoken word is closely tied to the understanding of syllables. The number of syllables per word is determined by the number of vowel sounds heard. Friend = 1 syllable. Funny = 2 syllables. There are several ways to count them:

  • Clap or snap each syllable
  • Count with fingers
  • Feel the jaw move

Why is knowledge about hearing syllables important to later reading skills?

  • Breaking apart words by syllables is an important reading strategy. Can the child visually see the syllable and then pronounce each part as if it was a little word (example: yes-ter-day).
  • Breaking apart words by syllables is an important spelling and writing strategy.  Hearing the sounds of the word is just as important as the visual aspects of the word. Trying to spell the word important? Can I hear the parts /im/ + /por/ + /tant/? If I can hear them, I can come closer to spelling them.

Daily teaching routine for Spoken Word and Syllables:

  1. Present a sentence orally. Step 1:  Students repeat the sentence. Step 2: Have them do one of the following to indicate # of spoken words:  clap, stomp, use magnetic chips on a the board, unifix cubes, count with fingers, or select a # of students to match the # of words and they each stand to say one of the words in the sentence – they become the sentence.
  2. State a word and have students clap, snap, or count # of syllables.
  3. Hand out picture cards and have students group together by # of syllables.

Rhyme: Continue reading

Literacy Stations

by Cindy Elkins, OK Math and Reading Lady

What is the purpose of having literacy work stations in your classroom? If you answered, “To provide meaningful, engaging, rigorous, differentiated opportunities for students to learn” then you are on the right track!! Aside from the task of deciding on the literacy station procedures and routines you want for your classroom is the problem of actually providing and organizing those quality activities.

Literacy Station Activity

Literacy Station Activity

I know most of you regularly visit the TPT store and Pinterest for ideas.  There are a TON of great things out there. However, not everyone has a color printer or has the means to drain their bank account to pay for these items.

So, here is a resource I think you will like which is FREE, does not require a color printer, and addresses pretty much every literacy skill you need to teach and/or provide practice for (KG-5th grade). It is the Florida Center for Reading Research (www.fcrr.org). Click on this link: Student center activities which takes you directly to the K-5 reading center activities page.  The following are available — all for FREE!!

  • Sections clearly labeled Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension — with multiple activities for each sub-skill
  • One page overview for each activity (objective, materials list, and directions with illustration showing the activity in use)
  • Flexibility options to use materials as a teaching tool and/or as a practice or review activity

These are some of the types of activities:

  • Tons of letter and picture cards for sorting, matching, pocket charts, concentration, rhyming, word work, etc.
  • Game boards
  • Recording sheets – to record results of activities when appropriate
  • Graphic organizers – especially for grades 3 and up. These can be used with any book.

A teacher’s guide is also available with more detailed directions, background information, and literacy station organizational ideas.

I also bookmarked this site in my Resources section (top of the blog in the black band) should you need to refer to this site often. Enjoy!!! Let us know about your favorite FCRR activity or how you are using them in your classroom! Just click on the comment speech bubble.