Phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness is commonly defined as the understanding that spoken words are made up of separate units of sound that are blended together when words are pronounced. However, it can also be thought of as skill at hearing and producing the separate sounds in words, dividing or segmenting words into their component sounds, blending separate sounds into words, and recognizing words that sound alike or different. It is defined by reading experts as the ability to “focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words” (NICHD, 2000). For example, hearing and saying that the word cat has three sounds, or phonemes /k/ /a/ /t/ is an example of phonemic awareness skill.
Resources
- UFLI Resource Hub
- Reading Rockets Phonological Awareness (Scroll down and choose "Strategy focus, phonological awareness")
- Phonological Awareness Tools - VDOE
- PALS - Assessment and Resource Library
Library resources
Each book below is available from our T/TAC lending library:
- Heggerty, M., & VanHekken, A. (2015). Phonemic awareness: The skills that they need to help them succeed! Kindergarten Curriculum. River Forest, Illinois Literacy Resources, Inc
- Heggerty, M., & VanHekken, A. (2017). Phonemic awareness: The skills that they need to help them succeed! Primary Curriculum. River Forest, Illinois Literacy Resources, Inc
- Dodson, J. (2008). 50 Nifty Activities for 5 Components and 3 Tiers of Reading Instruction - LETRS. Longmont, CO Sopris West Educational Services - A Cambium Learning Co.
- Kilpatrick, D. (2018). Equipped for Reading Success. Casey & Kirsch Publishers