Hello! Great question and we know that phonemic awareness is a means to an end--the reason for teaching kids to analyze phonemes in words is so they are able to connect letters to phonemes when they read and write words (Ehri and Roberts, 2006). I believe an excerpt from the CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook answers it well: "Although plentiful evidence exists to support the inclusion of letters of phonemic awareness instruction, the appropriate time to begin incorporating letters is less clear (Ehri and Roberts, 2006). Some students become confused when they try to learn letter sounds and the processes for blending and segmenting them at the same time (Stahl, 1992). To make the transition to letters smooth, ensure that students can successfully blend and segment consonant-vowel-consonant words without letters first. Also, check to see that students know most of the letter names and many of the sounds that go with the letters before including letters in the phonemic awareness instruction. That is, alphabet instruction and phonemic awareness instruction should remain separate until a clear trajectory toward mastery of both is established. At that point, including letters can accelerate progress (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998)" (p. 125).
Fantastic! Very well explained and excellent strategies to try out.
so where does print come in when doing all this ??
Hello! Great question and we know that phonemic awareness is a means to an end--the reason for teaching kids to analyze phonemes in words is so they are able to connect letters to phonemes when they read and write words (Ehri and Roberts, 2006). I believe an excerpt from the CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook answers it well:
"Although plentiful evidence exists to support the inclusion of letters of phonemic awareness instruction, the appropriate time to begin incorporating letters is less clear (Ehri and Roberts, 2006). Some students become confused when they try to learn letter sounds and the processes for blending and segmenting them at the same time (Stahl, 1992). To make the transition to letters smooth, ensure that students can successfully blend and segment consonant-vowel-consonant words without letters first. Also, check to see that students know most of the letter names and many of the sounds that go with the letters before including letters in the phonemic awareness instruction. That is, alphabet instruction and phonemic awareness instruction should remain separate until a clear trajectory toward mastery of both is established. At that point, including letters can accelerate progress (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 1998)" (p. 125).
@@carriecole2561 thank you for this reply.