Phonemes in Use: Multiple Activities for a Critical Process

Abstract

Several decades of research have established the critical role of phonemic awareness in the development of beginning reading. In particular, phonemic awareness makes early phonics instruction useful for children and facilitates their ability to blend letter sounds while decoding words, to learn sight words reliably, and to spell phonetically.A key finding in phonemic awareness research is that instruction involving segmenting and blending phonemes combined with a focus on the letters that represent those phonemes contributes greatly to success in beginning reading and spelling. The author found that students benefit greatly from a variety of activities combining phoneme segmenting and blending with letter—sound instruction. This variety allows children to develop a robust ability to apply phonemic awareness to tasks of reading and writing and supports students who may struggle with this critical process. In this article, the author describes five “phonemes‐in‐use” activities and practical ideas for implementing them in the classroom.