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Phonological Awareness
Defining Phonological Awareness
To become proficient readers and spellers, students need to develop phonological awareness , which includes the ability to identify, think about, and manipulate the sounds in oral/spoken language^1. Phonological awareness includes two types of skills: (1) phonological sensitivity and (2) phonemic awareness (See Figure 1 ). 1, 2, 3^ Phonological sensitivity includes larger units of language such as words, syllables, onsets, and rimes, and phonemic awareness involves the smallest, individual sounds in spoken speech.
Figure 1. Key Phonological Awareness Concepts1,2,
To teach phonological awareness skills, teachers must have a strong understanding of phonology – the speech sounds in oral/spoken language and the rules for sequencing, combining, and pronouncing those sounds1,3^. Teachers who have greater knowledge of the components of language are better equipped to teach reading and spelling to young children and to individuals with and at-risk for dyslexia 5. The units of language important for teaching phonological awareness are described in Table 1.
Table 1. Phonological Units of Language 3, Unit Description Examples
Word whole words bat, farm, swim, top compound words sandbox, baseball, campground Syllable a word or word part that contains one vowel sound
party = part + y; it has two syllables because it has two vowel sounds: /ar/ and /ē/
Onset
the part of a word that comes before the vowel sound; some words do not have an onset
the onset in tap is [t]; the onset in swim is [sw]; there is no onset in the word at and the rime is [at]
Phonological Awareness: identifying, thinking about, and manipulating the sounds in oral/spoken language
Phonological Sensitivity: awareness of units of language larger than phonemes
Larger Units of Language: words, syllables, onsets, & rimes
Phonemic Awareness: awareness of individual phonemes
Phonemes: speech sounds used in spoken language (e.g., /k/, /ch/, /ă/)
Unit Description Examples
Rime
the vowel sound and everything that follows the vowel sound in a word
the rime in tap is [ap]; the rime in swim is [im]; the rime in at is [at]
Phoneme
the smallest unit of sound in a word; it is what makes one word different from another
/b/ in the word bat; /h/ in the word hat; bat and hat differ by their first phoneme (/b/ versus /h/) Note. Adapted from Honig et al. (2018)4 and Moats et al. (2020) 3.
Development of Phonological Awareness Skills
Children’s phonological awareness skills develop gradually over time, and they typically acquire phonological sensitivity of the larger units of language before they become aware of the individual sounds in speech (Figure 2). For example, it will be easier for a child to orally blend together the syllables in a word (e.g., base + ball = baseball), than to orally blend individual speech sounds (e.g., /k/ /ă/ /t/ = cat).
Figure 2. Development of Phonological Skills
Phonemes – The Smallest Unit of Sound
There are approximately 43 phonemes or speech sounds in the English language and these phonemes are categorized by how the sounds are produced in the mouth. 3 Most materials and programs for teaching reading and spelling use phonics symbols for these 43 phonemes (such as /k/ for the first sound in the word cat or /ă/ for the first sound in word at ) and phonics symbols will be used throughout this toolkit.
There are 25 consonant phonemes and they are spoken with the mouth partially closed and the teeth, lips, or tongue interrupt the airflow.
Words Syllables Onsets &Rimes Phonemes
Phonological Sensitivity Phonemic Awareness
● Diphthong: vowel sounds that glide together ● R-Controlled: when an r immediately follows a vowel, it changes its sound
Table 3. Vowel Phonemes and Phonic Symbols
Vowel Phonemes Phonic Symbol (Example) speech sounds in which the mouth is open and the flow of air is not blocked by the teeth, lips, or tongue
Short Vowel Phonemes: /ă/ (at), /ĕ/ (bet), /ĭ/ (it), /ŏ/ (hot), /ŭ/ (up), /au/ or /aw/ (sauce), /𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜/ (book) Long Vowel Phonemes: /ā/ (lay), /ē/ (event), /ī/ (ice), /ō/ (open), /ū/ (unit), /𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜/ (moon) R-Controlled Vowel Phonemes: /ar/ (car), /or/ (for), /er/ or /ir/ or /ur/ (her) Diphthongs: /ou/ or /ow/ (drown), /oi/ or /oy/ (boil)
Note. Consonant and vowel phonemes are categorized by their sounds, not the letters used to represent those sounds; */au/ or /aw/ and /𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜/ are considered ‘short’ vowel phonemes by linguists.^3
The consonant and vowel phonemes can be combined to create two different spoken syllable types ( simple and complex ), which are different from the six types of written syllables ( Table 4 ). Teachers should teach blending and segmenting with simple syllables before complex syllables. 3
Table 4. Spoken Syllable Types
Syllable Type Definition Examples
Simple Syllable
syllables where there is a single consonant phoneme before and/or after a vowel phoneme
be = /b/ /ē/ map = /m/ /ă/ /p/ bike = /b/ /ī/ /k/ at = /ă/ /t/
Complex Syllable
syllables where two or more consonant phonemes come before and/or after the vowel phoneme in the syllable
jump = /j/ /ŭ/ /m/ /p/ swim = /s/ /w/ /ĭ/ /m/ ant = /ă/ /n/ /t/
Phonological Awareness Skills
Phonological awareness can be taught at each level (i.e., word, syllable, onset and rime, and phoneme) and includes skills such as counting, categorizing, rhyming, blending, segmenting, and manipulating (adding, deleting, and substituting). The most important skills to teach are blending, segmenting, and manipulating at the phoneme-
level (i.e., phonemic awareness). 3,4^ Table 5 describes each skill and provides examples at various levels.
Table 5. Phonological Awareness Skills
Skill Description Examples ( Unit of Language )
counting
counting the words in a sentence or phrase, the syllables in a word, or the phonemes in a word
How many words are in this sentence: He went to the store. ( WL – S ) How many syllables are in the word bagel? ( SL ) How many sounds are in the word tap? ( PL )
categorizing identifying which words belong or do not belong
Which word does not rhyme with the other words: cat , top , hat , or bat? ( OR ) Which word does not start with the same sound: cup, cap, hat, or cat? ( PL )
rhyming
recognizing: determining when two words or more words rhyme
Which of the following words rhyme: tap , cup , swim , cap? (OR)
generating: producing a word that rhymes with a given word
Tell me a word that rhymes with fan. ( OR )
blending
putting units of language together to say a whole word
birth + day = birthday ( WL – C ) teach + ing = teaching ( SL ) sw + im = swim = ( OR ) /t/ /ă/ /p/ = tap ( PL )
segmenting
separating units of language and saying each unit individually
Clap each word in the sentence: “I went swimming” ( WL – S ) campground = camp + ground ( WL – C ) teaching = teach + ing ( SL ) swim = sw + im ( OR ) tap = /t/ /ă/ /p/ ( PL )
manipulating
adding: adding a unit of language to say a new word
Add ground after camp. ( WL – C ) Add - ing after run ( SL ) Add /t/ to beginning of rim. ( PL ) deleting: removing a unit of language to say a new word
Remove day from birthday. ( WL – C ) Remove - ing from swimming ( SL ) Remove /t/ from the word trim. ( PL ) Change base in baseball to foot. ( WL – C )
Suggested Scope and Sequence for Phonological Awareness Instruction and Intervention
There is no one agreed upon scope and sequence for phonological awareness instruction and intervention, but teachers should emphasize the most important phonological awareness skills that are related to later reading success: blending, segmenting, and manipulating (adding, deleting, or substituting). 3,
Tier 1/General Education/Core Instruction ● Kindergarten : Approximately 10-15 minutes of the daily reading block should be spent on phonological awareness instruction. Teachers should begin by teaching phonological sensitivity with larger units of language (i.e., words, syllables, and onsets and rimes), but the majority of instructional time should be spent on activities that develop phonemic awareness. ● First Grade : Teachers should plan for 10 minutes of phonemic awareness instruction daily for the first three months of school. 3 Teachers should focus exclusively on phonemic awareness, and only provide instruction to develop phonological sensitivity as needed.
Sample 90-minute Core Reading Block Schedules:
- Sample Literacy Blocks for grades K-
- Sample Literacy Center Activities by Component
Tiers 2-3/Intervention Students who have been identified through the screening process as needing additional reading intervention (through multi-tiered systems of support [MTSS], response to intervention [RTI], or dyslexia screening [SEA 217^14 ]) should be provided with supplemental intervention to address their needs. Supplemental interventions (often described as Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions) should be provided during the school day and should be in addition to the mandated 90-minute core reading block. Supplemental reading intervention lessons typically include several different lesson segments that address multiple components of reading (e.g., phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding, spelling). Phonological awareness instruction should be one of those segments and Table 6 below provides guidelines for incorporating phonological awareness into supplemental reading lessons.
Table 6. Phonological Awareness Guidelines for Supplemental Reading Intervention*
**Grade Length Frequency Focus**** Kindergarten
minutes 3-5 times weekly Phonological Sensitivity & Phonemic Awareness 1 st^ Grade & Above 5-10 minutes 3-5 times weekly Phonemic Awareness Note. *Main focus of phonological awareness instruction. Once students have been introduced to the names and shapes of letters, letters can be incorporated into phonemic awareness activities.
To determine a starting point for instruction/intervention in phonological awareness skills, we recommend that schools analyze data from screening assessments. Universal screening assessments in reading provide basic information about which students are performing on-grade level and which students might be at-risk for reading difficulties and disabilities such as dyslexia; however, screening assessments often do not provide enough information to plan individualized instruction/intervention. Level I and Level II dyslexia screeners approved for use by Indiana’s Dyslexia Screening and Intervention Act (IC 20-35.5) 14 can provide educators with additional data to help plan instruction/intervention. We recommend that schools: ● Administer assessments (universal, Level I, and Level II 14 ) that measure phonemic awareness skills such as blending, segmenting, and identifying initial sounds because these provide the most useful information to plan instruction/intervention that meets the individual needs of students. ● Do not use results from assessments that measure phonological sensitivity skills (e.g., rhyming, sentence segmentation) or broad phonological processing skills (e.g., rapid naming of pictures, objects, colors, etc.) 1 to plan instruction/intervention because these types of assessments do not always provide information necessary for educators to determine specific phonological skills students have and have not mastered.
Schools/educators that do not already have a pre-existing program that adequately covers phonological awareness skills or those that want to supplement their pre-existing programs can use the suggested scope and sequence in Table 7 to guide phonological awareness instruction/intervention.
Grades Sequence (Aspect of Phonological Awareness)*
IN ELA
Standards
1 st^ Grade and Above (Basic & Advanced PA Skills)
Segment the First Sound in One-Syllable Words with Simple and Complex Syllables ( PA-PL )
K.RF.3.
1.RF.3.
Blend Simple One-Syllable Words with 2-3 Phonemes ( PA-PL )
- Blend words that begin with continuous sounds
- Blend words that begin with stop sounds
K.RF.3.
Segment Simple One-Syllable Words with 2- Phonemes ( PA-PL )
- Count the number of phonemes
- Say each phoneme
- Identify a phoneme’s position
K.RF.3.
1.RF.3.
1.RF.3.
Blend Complex One-Syllable Words with 3-5 phonemes ( PA-PL )
1.RF.3.
Segment Complex One-Syllable Words with 3- phonemes ( PA-PL )
1.RF.3.
Manipulate (Add, Delete, Substitute) Phonemes in One- Syllable Words ( PA-PL )
1.RF.3.
Note. *These are sequenced by approximate level of difficulty, from easiest to most difficult; WL = Word- Level; SL = Syllable-Level; OR = Onset and Rime Level; PL = Phoneme Level; PS = Phonological Sensitivity; PA = Phonemic Awareness
Explicit Instruction in Phonological Awareness
This section provides a routine/approach that teachers can use to explicitly and systematically teach phonological awareness skills without a pre-existing program or curriculum. It also addresses how to incorporate adequate practice, cumulative review, and multisensory approaches to maximize student engagement during phonological awareness instruction. The explicit instructional routine in Table 8 can be used to introduce new phonological awareness skills to students. This routine can be adapted for word, syllable, onset and rime, and phoneme-level skills. Additional examples of explicit phonological awareness instructional routines and lessons plans are available in the Phonological Awareness Resources section of this toolkit.
Table 8. Sample Explicit Phonological Awareness Lesson Segment for New Skill
Phonological Awareness Lesson Segment: New Skill Introduction and Practice
Skill Blending simple one-syllable words with 2 phonemes
Prerequisite Skills
blending compound words, syllables, and onsets & rimes (provide short review/warm-up if necessary)
Materials
2 counters for each student and the teacher ( multisensory element ), list of one-syllable words (simple syllables) with two phonemes (see IDOE Phonological Awareness Word List)
Introduction & Purpose
Today, we’re going to be working on putting together the sounds we hear in words. We’ve already worked on putting together bigger parts of words, but now we’re going to focus on each individual sound in the words we hear. This is going to help us become better readers and spellers.
Explicit Instruction
Step 1: Modeling (I Do)
I’m going to say the individual sounds in a word and then put them together to make a whole word. As I say each sound, I am going to touch a counter. Then, I’m going to move the counters together and say the whole word. Listen and watch. /ă/. The teacher touches the first counter. /t/. The teacher touches the second counter. When I put /ă/ and /t/ together, the word is ‘at’. The teacher moves the counters together to ‘show’ sounds blending to make a word.
Step 2: Guided Practice (We Do)
The teacher places two counters in front of each student. Let’s try it all together. Touch each counter as I say the sounds. /ă/. Teacher and students touch the first counter. /t/. Teacher and students touch the second counter. Put the sounds together. What word? Teacher and students push the two counters together and say, ‘ at.’
Lesson Segment Notes
● During guided and independent practice, provide immediate corrective feedback when students make an error. Return to modeling (step 1) and then have students practice again: o Let’s try that again. My turn. Listen to me say each sound and put them together. /b/. /ē/. The teacher touches a counter for each sound. What word? The teacher moves the two counters together and says, ‘ be. ’ Now, let’s do it all together. Listen to me say the sounds. /b/. /ē/. The teacher and students touch a counter for each sound. What word? The teacher and students move the two counters together and say, ‘ be’ together. Your turn. /b/. /ē/. The students touch a counter for each sound. What word? The students move the two counters together and say, ‘ be .’ ● Lessons can be adapted to include any kind of multisensory movement, such as chips, counters, clapping, tapping, snapping, etc. It is important to clearly explain and demonstrate how to use the multisensory procedure before expecting students to use it independently. ● Through the entire lesson segment, all students should have frequent and multiple opportunities to respond. Teachers should use procedures that engage all students, such as choral responses, and should limit calling on individual students.
Practice Activities for Phonological Awareness
Practice is an important component of all explicit, instructional approaches. Without appropriate guided and independent practice, students will not be able to acquire skills to mastery-level and they will not be able to retain those skills over time. 15 Practice (guided and independent) should be provided AFTER a skill has been modeled/demonstrated (I Do) and teachers should provide affirmative or corrective feedback during practice activities. Additional practice activities are available in the Phonological Awareness Resources section of this toolkit. Remember: ● These practice activities are useful for warm-up, cumulative review, or during student centers. ● These activities do NOT explicitly model phonological awareness skills. ● Teachers may have to model/demonstrate how to complete these activities, before allowing students to use them during guided or independent practice.
Video Examples of Phonological Awareness Instruction and Practice
Video examples of phonological awareness instruction and practice are available in the Phonological Awareness Resources section of this toolkit. As a reminder, video clips of instructional practices that are publicly available online do not always demonstrate all of the recommended instructional approaches. These videos only provide a sample of what phonological awareness instruction might look like at different grade levels.
General Teaching Tips for Phonological Awareness
● Phonological awareness skills are oral language skills that do not involve connecting units of language (e.g., words, syllables, onsets, phonemes) to the printed alphabet or letters. 1,3, o Once students learn the names and shapes of letters, letters can be incorporated into phonemic awareness lessons; however, this technically makes the lesson focus on sound-symbol relationships, decoding (sounding out), or encoding (spelling). ● Always begin with larger units of language (words, syllables, and onsets and rimes) then move to activities with individual phonemes. 3,4, ● Spend the majority of instructional time teaching phonemic awareness because it is most closely related to reading and spelling achievement. ● Teach only one phonological awareness skill per lesson. 4 ● Pronounce phonemes/sounds correctly. Do not pronounce stop sounds with an /uh/ or vowel sound after them. For example, do not say /buh/ for /b/. 3 ● Carefully select words for phonological awareness instruction, depending on the skill being taught 4 : o Words that begin with continuous phonemes are easier for students to blend than those that begin with stop phonemes. o Simple syllables are easier to blend and segment than complex syllables.
IDOE Resources for Teaching Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
- IDOE Phonological Awareness Word List
Additional Resources for Phonological Awareness
Additional phonological awareness resources are available in the Phonological Awareness Resources section of this toolkit.
References
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- Brady, S. (2019). The 2003 IDA definition of dyslexia changes. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 45 (1), 15-21. http://www.onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?m=13959&i=572951&p=15&pp=
- Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers (3rd^ ed.). Brookes.
- Honig, B., Diamond, L., Gutlohn, L. (2018). Teaching reading sourcebook (3rd ed.). Consortium on Reading Excellence in Education. Arena.
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- Bridges, M. S., & Catts, H. W. (2011) The use of a dynamic screening of phonological awareness to predict risk for reading disabilities in kindergarten children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44 (4), 330-338. https://doi.org/10.1177/
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- International Dyslexia Association. (2012). Definition of dyslexia. https://dyslexiaida.org/definition-of-dyslexia/
- Dyslexia Screening and Intervention Act, Ind. Code § 20-35.5-1-7 (2018). http://iga.in.gov/legislative/laws/2019/ic/titles/20/articles/35.5/pdf/IC%2020-35.
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