Phonemic Awareness

         Reading out loud to your child or your students is very important and helps their process of learning to read.  There is different aspects to learning how to read but phonemic awareness was something brought up more than once in this week’s readings. What is phonemic awareness?  According the article, Begin to Read, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds, which are phonemes, in spoken words. Before children learn to read write, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work. Kids must be aware that words are made up of different speech sounds.

·      Why is phonemics important?

o   It helps kids learn to spell

o   It improves their word reading and comprehension

Research tells us that it’s essential to focus on phonemic awareness in the classroom before reading can begin. Bevin, a teacher from Virginia Beach said that we want to ensure that children have a solid understanding of the sounds of speech before we start phonics instruction.

Questions that I considered during this and that you might consider as well:

·      Can direct instruction in phonological awareness help children learn

to read more easily?

·      Why is phonological awareness important in learning to read?

Children can practice phonemic awareness as they determine the beginning sounds of words in this fun game. 

To play, the children simply take turns spinning the spinner, stating the name of the picture to which the spinner points, and determining the sound/letter with which the object begins. If needed, children may use a key to help them determine the correct letter. Each child will then look for that letter on their bingo card and will cover the letter with a marker. You may choose to have the children continue playing until a child has covered 3 letters in a row or until they have covered all of the letters on their bingo card.