Foundations of Literacy Digital Reference Tool

Phonemic awareness is PART of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is the highest level - where we distinguish the smallest units of sound - or phonemes.

Notice that the little girl is blindfolded? That's because she doesn't need to see anything to engage in the work of phonemic awareness! Phonological and phonemic awareness, in their purest forms, do not involve print. So, students don't need letter tiles, flash cards of words, or reading passages to manipulate sounds. They just need to be able to listen, hear, and do!

MANIPULATING involves isolating, blending, stretching, segmenting, substituting, and deleting sounds. 

To best help our students with phonemic awareness, we need to be good models for producing the sounds ourselves.

Do you need more practice with articulating each of the sounds (phonemes) in English? This video of the 44 phonemes can be your guide.

According to NRP findings:

• Strong phonemic awareness is a predictor of later reading success.
• Children who struggle with reading often also have trouble with phonemic awareness.
• Instruction in phonemic awareness leads to gains in phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling.
• The most effective phonemic awareness instruction is explicit and systematic.
• Phonological and phonemic awareness are AUDITORY. In their purest forms, they do not involve print.

ALSO:

• Effective phonemic awareness instruction focuses on only 1-2 types of phoneme manipulation at a time.
• Small groups have been shown to be effective for phonemic awareness instruction.
• Teachers often teach phonemic awareness along with letters (graphemes), but letters should not precede sounds (phonemes).