PHONEMIC AWARENESS and PHONICS

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

What is the difference?

I.

Phonemic awareness: The awareness that sounds (phonemes) make up

spoken

words.

II.

Phonics: The relationship between letters and their sounds in

written

language.

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!!)

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.”

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.

 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.

Phonological Continuum

1.

2.

3.

4.

The child becomes aware of gross differences between words.

The child becomes aware of rhyme.

The child can segment words into syllables.

The child is aware of initial consonant segments.

5.

6.

7.

The child hears alliteraton, or the awareness of 2 words beginning with the same sound.

The child is aware of onset and rime, single phonemes with an end unit.

The child is able to break words into segments (by syllables, onset/rime and into individual phonemes)

8.

9.

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

PHONICS

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

  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.

Phonics Continuum

1.

2.

3.

4.

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.

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.

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.

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

 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

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)

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.