A child's success as a reader is largely dependent upon his ability to identify and manipulate sounds, before he begins to read, through a variety of phonemic awareness activities. As children develop phonemic awareness, it is time to introduce them to other readiness activities, as well as phonics. Taking the time to build a foundation of phonemic awareness and phonics will pay great dividends when learning to read.
What is Phonics?
While phonemic awareness is understanding that words are made up of sounds (phonemes) and that the sounds can be manipulated to make words, phonics activities add printed letters into the mix and connect sounds with letters.
Phonics is the understanding that letters are the symbols that represent the sounds. Mastering the alphabetical principals of phonics will enable children to become readers.
Early Phonics Activities
As children learn the name of each letter, they should also learn the sounds associated with the letter. One activity to introduce children to sound letter relationships is fridge phonics. In this game, the child gathers a few letters, learns the corresponding sound, and then searches for items that begin with each letter.
Children also enjoy playing a variation of I Spy, where they draw a letter and then pick an object that begins with the letter. For example, I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the letter b. After learning beginning sounds, children can play I spy with ending and middle letters as well.
Another early phonics activity, which is great to play while traveling, is I am going to ____________. The child and adult can take turns and use each letter of the alphabet to name something that starts with their letters. For example, I am going to Alabama and I am going to take an alligator. For this version, there is no need for children to repeat prior items. Rather, they just need to focus on the sound letter relationships.
Alphabet Books
Reading to children is a vital step in preparing them to learn to read. To assist children with beginning sounds, there are a variety of alphabet books that they will enjoy. Two such books that are especially entertaining are Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. [Simon and Schuster, 2000] and A to Z Beastly Jamboree by Robert Bender [Lodestar, 1996].
It is also important for children to understand exactly what a printed word is. An adult should have them count words in written phrases and sentences. Using M&M's or Goldfish as counters will encourage them in this activity.
More Phonics Instruction
After working with individual letters, children are ready to move on to blends. To practice blends, they can name people and foods with blends at the beginning, end or even the middle. For example, for sh they might name Sherry, Trish or Ashley.
Teaching a child all the sounds, necessary to read, may sound like a daunting task, but in reality there are only 48 sounds that occur frequently in the English language. Mastering one of these sounds each week will provide a strong foundation of phonics in under a year. Systematic practice with the sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of words is important. Two websites that are helpful in this endeavor are Starfall and A-Z Reading.
Teach Word Discrimination
Children should be given pairs of words, and then should determine whether the two words are alike or different. Although this sounds simple, it is an important step in learning to read.
Next, children should listen to words and determine how many sounds are in the words. Visual representation of sound letter correspondence is also beneficial. Elkonin boxes are an easy way to show this relationship. The adult draws connected boxes to represent each sound in a word and then fills each box with the letters that produce the sound. For the word show, the adult draws two boxes, placing the letters sh in the first box and the letter o in the second box.
With additional practice and a little assistance, the child can learn to segment words into boxes on their own. Also, if preferred, dotted boxes can be added to represent silent letters.
Reading Writing Connection
There is a strong connection between writing and reading. To help children learn to read, they should be allowed to explore writing words, phrases, and sentences on their own. To do this, they will need to use invented spellings. To assist, the adult can encourage them to use beginning, middle, and end sounds to represent words.
In this activity, spelling words correctly is not the goal. Rather, the child needs to practice writing letters that correctly represent sounds in words. After the child learns to sound spell words on their own, the adult can introduce correct spelling a little at a time.
Memorization of Words and Letter Sounds
In learning to read, rote memorization plays a dual role with phonics. While listening to their favorite books, children will begin to memorize the words. After many repetitions, the child will be able to read the book on their own. As the child reads, the adult should point to the corresponding words.
At this point, children can also be challenged to learn a word or two each day. Making word cards and playing Concentration or a version of Old Maids will make this more entertaining. To achieve a match, the child should read the word orally.
While learning words of their own choosing, children should also be learning the first one hundred words, which make up over half of the words in most reading material. At one word a day, the child will soon be able to participate in shared reading with an adult and even be able to begin reading on their own.
After developing phonemic awareness, children can learn to read by mastering the 48 sound letter correspondences that make up most of the English language. At the same time, the child should be memorizing favorite words, as well as the first 100 words that make up the majority of reading material.
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