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http://www.jstor.org Hallie Kay Yopp _ Ruth Helen Yopp

Supporting phonemic Playfuland appealing activities oWiil CllCSS thatfocus on thesound structure J tlt5~_^1 s^n^ri^^i fI 111\\\ of languagesupport VvlOpilltJIl development, the classroom

Although it is widely acknowledged can blend together to form words that phonemic awareness is important (/h/-/o/-/p/ is hop). They have the ability to no in learning to read, considerable con tice, mentally grab ahold of, and manipulate fusion remains about what phonemic awareness these smallest chunks of speech. is, the role it plays in reading development, and Phonemic awareness may be better under how it should be addressed in classrooms. stood when placed in the context of two super Some educators confuse the term phonemic ordinate constructs: and awareness with the terms auditory discrimina metalinguistics. Phonemic awareness is a type tion, phonetics, or and believe that a of phonological awareness, that is, the aware new label has been invented for an old idea. This ness of the sound structure of in gen is not true. The term phonemic awareness refers eral. Phonological awareness refers to a to a construct relatively new in our understand sensitivity to any size unit of sound. Thus, the ing of how children become readers. Although ability to generate and recognize rhyming related, phonemic awareness is different from words, to count syllables, to separate the begin auditory discrimination, phonetics, and phon ning of a word from its ending (e.g., as in the st ics. The definitions of each of these terms can be and op in the word stop), and to identify each of found in Figure 1. (See also Harris & Hodges, the phonemes in a word may each be an indica 1995; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998.) The defin tion of phonological awareness. Phonemic ition of phonemic awareness, also in Figure 1, awareness?a subset of phonological aware is elaborated upon here. ness?refers to a sensitivity to and control over Phonemic awareness is the awareness that the phonemes. the speech stream consists of a sequence of Phonological awareness can, in turn, be sounds?specifically phonemes, the smallest placed into the larger context of metalinguistic unit of sound that makes a difference in com awareness. Like metacognition, which entails munication. It is a that determines the thinking about one's thinking (or cognition), difference between the words dog and hog, for metalinguistic awareness entails thinking about instance, and between look and lick. These dif one's language. It refers to one's awareness of ferences influence meaning. Place these words and control over one's language in general; it is in sentences ("You dog!" vs. "You hog!" and the ability to focus attention on language in and "Take a look" vs. "Take a lick"), and the power of itself, independent of meaning (seeHodges & of the phoneme becomes obvious. Individuals Harris, 1995; Tunmer, Herriman, & Nesdale, who are phonemically aware recognize that the 1988;Yaden & Templeton, 1986). speech stream is a sequence of these small Thus, phonemic awareness is one aspect of sounds. They can identify the three sounds in the phonological awareness which is one compo spoken word fish (/f/-/i/-/sh/), for example, and nent of metalinguistic awareness.

The130 Reading Teacher Vol. 54, No. 2 October 2000 ?2000 international ReadingAssociation (PP. 130-143) Figure 1 Definition of terms

Term Definition Example

Auditory discrimination The ability to hear likenesses and Say these sounds: M differences in phonemes and words /p/. Are they the same or different?

Phonetics The study of the speech sounds that occur in The first sound in , including the way these sounds are pie ?sa bilabial?it is articulated made with the two lips.

Phonics A way of teaching reading and that The symbol m is stresses symbol-sound relationships used to represent the (in alphabetic ) italicized sounds in the following words: ha/77, jump, my.

Phoneme The smallest unit of speech sounds that makes The spoken word a difference incommunication fly consists of three phonemes: /f/-/l/-/T/. Itdiffers from the word flea by one phoneme.

Phonemic awareness The awareness that spoken language consists of How many sounds in a sequence of phonemes the spoken word, dog? Say all the sounds you hear.

is The task of Phonemic awareness and reading symbol system arbitrary. dealing with the symbol system, then, can quickly be The awareness that the speech stream is come It is, in short, to one's ad made up of a sequence of small units of sound overwhelming. vantage to be aware of the level of sounds that and the ability tomanipulate those small units? the written system encodes. phonemic awareness?appears to be critical for Much has been said about phonemic aware readers of an alphabetic . Why? ness in the literature in recent years, and many Because an alphabetic orthography maps speech states in the U.S. are addressing phonemic to print at the level of the phoneme. In other awareness in standards documents and even in words, users of an alphabetic written system legislation the of record the smallest units of sound of their spoken governing funding professional language in print. (Although not a pure alpha betic orthography, English is considered funda mentally alphabetic.) The young child whose Figure2 is shown in Figure 2 clearly is attending A kindergartner's inventive spelling of "I like my cousin" to the sounds in her speech stream as she records her ideas. The temporary or inventive seen in Figure 2 reveal much about how the child is thinking about the written system. This child has made the empowering discovery that users of English write down the smallest pieces of the language. In order for a beginning reader to cap ture the logic of this written system, it appears that he or she must notice that running speech is made up of a sequence of small sounds. Without fz.n. this insight?without phonemic awareness?the 6

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 13 I awareness for development activities and the content of teacher argued that phonemic instruction training programs. Professional organizations young children should be playful and engaging, such as the International Reading Association are interactive and social, and should stimulate cu publishing position statements on phonemic riosity and experimentation with language. awareness and its role in the teaching of reading Second, phonemic awareness instruction (International Reading Association, 1998). should be deliberate and purposeful. Although Influential documents such as the report of the some teachers have engaged their students in Committee on the Prevention of Reading playful language activities for years, they may Difficulties inYoung Children (Snow et al., 1998) have done so without knowing the full value of recommend that kindergartners have some basic these activities. Any phonemic awareness de was phonemic awareness by the end of their kinder velopment that resulted was incidental; it en garten year. Moreover, the report asserts that an unrecognized byproduct of the activities. Yet, hancing children's abilities to attend to the sound Adams and Br?ck (1995) emphasized that play structure of spoken language should be apriority ful language activities will be most effective in goal in kindergarten classrooms. Every Child developing phonemic awareness if they are used Reading: An Action Plan of the Learning First with that goal inmind. Thus, in addition to being awareness Alliance (1998) identifies phonemic child appropriate, phonemic awareness instruc as one of the most important foundations of read tion should be intentional, not incidental (even ing success and recommends that its development accidental), in classrooms. be addressed in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Third, phonemic awareness instruction must School administrators and teachers of young be viewed by educators as only one part of a children are anxious to apply recent research much broader literacy program. Phonemic are findings to practice and looking for guidance. awareness development is not meaningful in and awareness look What does phonemic instruction of itself. It is important only in the context of should be devot like, they ask. How much time comprehensive reading instruction. Indeed, ed to it? The purpose of this article is to provide Griffith and Olson (1992) argued thatphonemic aware some guidelines for planning phonemic awareness activities will not be helpful unless ness to share 14 activities that are instruction and they can be placed in a context of real reading of instruction representative of the type appro and writing. Furthermore, teachers must recog in priate for children preschool, kindergarten, nize that while sensitivity to the sound basis of and first-grade classrooms. language supports literacy development, it is also an outcome of literacy experiences. There Phonemic awareness instruction fore, to overemphasize this component of litera instruction in the initial of is What does phonemic awareness instruction cy years schooling to for more com look like in the classroom? First, most experts limit children's opportunities call for phonemic awareness activities that are prehensive literacy development. In addition to these child appropriate (International Reading Assoc general guidelines, iation & the National Association for the Edu teachers should consider various dimensions of awareness instruction when cation of Young Children, 1998). Adams and phonemic planning These include Br?ck (1995), for instance, submitted that songs, and designing learning activities. to be of chants, and word-sound games are ideally suit the unit of sound emphasized, the type to be on those and ed toward developing young children's sensitiv operation performed units, whether the activities are to be oral or ity to the sound structure of language. Beck and strictly Juel (1995) posited that time spent on word play, include concrete cues such as chips and letters. As teachers nursery or Dr. Seuss rhymes, and general expo Units of sound. plan phonemic awareness it will be to con sure to storybooks contribute to phonemic instruction, helpful in 3. Child awareness. Mattingly (1984) encouraged class sider the sequence displayed Figure ren to to and room teachers to provide their students with lin appear be better able capture gain over units of sound before smaller guistic stimulation in the form of storytelling, control larger word games, rhymes, and riddles in order to fa units of sound (Stahl& Murray, 1994;Treiman & cilitate phonemic awareness. Yopp (1992), de Zukowski, 1991). Thus, with younger children, as or who have scribing developmentally appropriate activities, such preschoolers, older children

132 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 Figure3 A sequence for phonemic awareness instruction

Instruction Example

Activities that focus on rhyme Let's think of something that rhymes with cow. (now)

Activities that focus on syllable units Clap twice for Harry's name. Har (clap)?ry (clap)

Activities that focus on onset and rime Say just the first part of brown, (/br/)

Activities that focus on phonemes Let's put these sounds together, /ch/?/?/?/n/ (chain)

very little sensitivity to the sound structure of lan Adams, 1990; Smith, Simmons, & Kameenui, guage, teachers initially may wish to focus pre 1998; Yopp, 1988). For example, matching dominantly on rhyme (see Bishop, Yopp, & sounds (especially initial sounds) is one of the Yopp, 2000). Then, teachers may engage students easier tasks, and more difficult may be the abili in activities that focus on the units of sound with ty to blend sounds together to form words. The in words, the largest unit of which is the sylla ability to segment spoken words into their con ble. In the word hopscotch, for example, there are stituent parts may be more difficult still. two syllables: hop and scotch. Next, instruction However, the difficulty of the task depends in might focus on the largest subsyllabic units?the part upon the number of sounds (fewer sounds onset and rime. The onset is the part of the sylla are easier than more), which sounds they are ble that precedes the vowel; the rime is the vow (liquids are typically easier than nasals or stops), el and any consonants that follow it. The onset and their location in the word (middle sounds are in hop is /h/ and the rime in hop is /op/; the onset more difficult to attend to than initial or final in scotch is /sk/; the rime in scotch is /och/. Some sounds). (See McBride-Chang, 1995, for a dis syllables such as it, un, and on have no onset. cussion.) Therefore, it is much too simplistic to Finally, attention can be directed to the phoneme. identify a hard-and-fast order in which opera Thus, when planning phonemic awareness in tions should be presented. Nevertheless, we pro struction the size of the unit of sound to be ad vide a possible order of what appears to be easier dressed should be considered, with a general plan to more difficult operations for many children, to move from larger to smaller units of sound. given that the same types of sounds, the same Tasks or operations. Another dimension of number, and the same location are the focus of phonemic awareness instruction is the task or attention. This information is offered only to operation the students must perform with support the teacher in making thoughtful deci sounds. For instance, children may be asked to sions about potential sound manipulation activi match sounds, as when they indicate whether ties and is not intended to be prescriptive. two words begin the same (e.g., Do these words Use of cues. A third dimension of phonemic begin the same?fish fight). They may be asked awareness instruction to consider is the use of to isolate sounds (e.g., What is the first/ cues. Some activities may be strictly oral. These middle/last sound in run!) They may be asked to include games, activities, poetry, stories, or songs blend sounds together to form a word (e.g., What that demand attention strictly to the spoken lan word would we have if we put these sounds to guage itself. Other activities may make use of gether? /j/-/u/-/m/-/p/). They may be asked to some sort of cue or concrete manipulative. Many segment words into their constituent parts (e.g., successful training studies include concrete repre Tell all the sounds you hear in the word dog). sentations of sounds in order to make mental ma A sampling of tasks is presented in Figure nipulations more overt (e.g., Ball & Blachman, 4, with examples for syllable, onset-rime, and 1991). For instance, auditory cues are in play phoneme units. There is evidence to suggest that when children are asked to clap the number of syl some tasks may be easier than others (see lables they hear in a spoken word. Visual cues are

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 133 Figure4 Types of soundmanipulation with examples using different linguisticunits

Syllable Onset-rime Phoneme

Matching Do these start the same? Do these start the same? Do these start the same? sandwich sandbag start stand cat kite (yes) (yes) (yes)

Isolation What do you hear at the What do you hear at the What do you hear at the beginning of under? beginning of black!? beginning of bug? (/un/) (/bl/) (/b/)

Substitution What word would you What word would you What word would you have ifyou changed the have ifyou changed the have ifyou changed the /b?/ inbaby to /bl/ inblack to /cr/? /ch/in chain to /rI? /may/? (crack) (rain) {maybe)

Blending What word would you What word would you What word would you have ifyou put these have ifyou put these have ifyou put these sounds together: sounds together: sounds together: /pup/-/py/ /pl/-/ane/ /p/-/l/-/?/-/n/ (puppy) (plane) (plane)

Segmentation Tell the parts you Tell the sounds you Tell the sounds you hear in this word: hear in this word: you hear in this word: table spoon dog (A?/?/ble/) (/sp/~/oon/) (/d/-/o/-/g/)

Deletion Say napkin without Say grin without Say meat without the /kin/. the /gr/. the /m/. (nap) (in) (eat)

used when blocks or chips represent sounds. grams described in the research literature sug Kinesthetic cues are used when children jump as gest that relatively modest amounts of time they repeat sounds. Finally, some activities may result in increases in phonemic awareness per incorporate the use of letters as children manipu formance (Brady & Moats, 1998; Yopp, 1997). late and reflect on sounds in speech. In fact, the The duration of instruction was anywhere from combination of phonemic awareness activities 10 minutes to 30 minutes per session; in some to and letter-sound instruction has been found be studies, instruction occurred daily; in other stud un particularly supportive of children's emerging ies the instruction was less frequent, occuring derstanding of the alphabeticprinciple (Bradley& two or three times a week. Training occurred Bryant, 1983; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1993; over the course of a minimum of 3 weeks up to Hohn & Ehri, 1983), although the optimal timing 2 years. of these of instruction combining aspects literacy We will not recommend a particular amount remains unclear. that once letters are at (Note of time be devoted to phonemic awareness in tached to the sound in manipulation phonemic struction in this article, although we have seen awareness the also becomes instruction, activity time allocation requirements implemented in a a phonics activity. This overlap explains some of number of school districts across the U.S. the confusion between the terms phonemic Unfortunately, time allocations do not take into awareness and phonics.) account individual differences among learners. It is the quality of instruction and the responsive Time ness of the instruction to the individuals in the How much time should be devoted to classroom that should have greater consideration phonemic awareness instruction? Training pro than the amount of time.

134 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 We believe that phonemic awareness can be As you read this book aloud, encourage the stimulated in many students in large part by pro children to make predictions. The Hungry Thing viding them with linguistically rich environ wants feetloaf. What can that be? Pause before ments?ones in which they are exposed to rich the little boy in the story concludes that , syntactic complexity, and decontextu "Feetloaf sounds like beetloaf sounds like alized language as well as ones in which language (pause) meatloaf to me!" Allow the children to itself is explored and experimented with deliber make guesses before you read "meatloaf." ately. In linguistically rich classrooms, phonemic After reading the book, pull out a lunchbag awareness activities will be incorporated inten and announce how hungry you are. Look into the tionally into literature sharing experiences, music bag and tell the childrenwhat you have for lunch experiences, movement experiences, and other today. "Ah! Mogurt! I love mogurt!" Encourage experiences throughout the day. the children to guess what mogurt is. Once they have figured out that mogurt is yogurt, take it out Activities forbuilding sensitivity to of the bag to show them and ask them how they sounds of knew. Repeat this with three or four other food speech items have in the The activities we share here adhere to the you lunchbag. Next, provide the children with paperbags, general guidelines discussed above: They are paper, and markers (or magazines with pho playful, they are deliberate in focusing on the tographs of food) so they can create their own sound structure of spoken language, and they lunchbags full of food. After they draw or select can readily be included in a comprehensive read and cut out their favorite foods and put them in ing program. The activities are organized by size the bag, have each child sit with a partner and of linguistic unit emphasized?rhyme, syllables, provide "clues" about what his or her bag con onset-rime units, or phonemes. They demand a tains. "I have a of nizza." The of such as substi piece partner's variety operations, matching, task is to determine what "nizza" is. tuting, or segmenting sounds. Some activities are You may also create a center with plastic strictly oral; some make use of auditory, visual, foods and lunchbags. Children will play with or kinesthetic cues to help children attend to these items, retelling the story and creating sound units; and some include the of relationship as have their what letters to the sounds. rhymes they peers guess they have in their bags. A copy of the book should be available at the center. Activitiesthat focus on rhyme We read this book to a group of 4- and 5 1. TheHungry Thing (oral) year-olds and discovered how quickly they par The Hungry Thing, by Jan Slepian andAnn ticipate in the story.After reading theHungry Seidler, is the story of a creature that asks towns Thing's first request for food, the young audi people for food by pointing to a sign on his chest ence began to predict each of the other requests that says FEED ME. When the townspeople ask upon hearing the nonsense rhyme. When the sto what he would like to eat, he responds, ry was finished, they begged to see what was in "Schmancakes!" The townspeople are flustered side a paperbag that was nearby. When we said and attempt to determine what schmancakes are. that we brought some food and wondered if they After wise men and a cook offer ideas, a little could figure out what we had, they grinned with boy declares that "Schmancakes sound like fan delight. "We have some napes in our lunch to cakes sound like pancakes to me!" and the day." "Grapes! Grapes!" the children exclaimed. townspeople feed him some. The Hungry Thing We pulled the grapes from the sack and con asks for more and more food and each time the firmed their response. Then we said, "Oh, we people try to identify what he wants. also have a kanana." "Banana! Banana!" Then The charm of this book is the play with lan we showed the children a stack of paper bags guage. Nonsense rhyming words are clues to and a tray of plastic foods. We encouraged them what the Hungry Thing wishes to eat. The to make their own lunches if they wished and to townspeople?and the listener?must think of see if others could figure out what they had. The rhyming foods in order to make sense of the stuffing of bags began in a fury. Bags loaded, the Hungry Thing's requests. children then moved around the room to seek out

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 135 one another, parent volunteers, and the teacher. books by the authors that follow the same pat "Look! Look! I have cherries?no, Imean ter tern. Read these at a later time and include "I a ries!" have pamburger." Children shared menus and food trays at a center so children may their own "lunch" items and one anoth guessed engage in play with these items, too. (See Bishop er's lunch items. Photo The and (See 1.) bags et al., 2000, and Yopp, 1995, for children's books foods remained on the table for the plastic day, that draw attention to sounds.) alongside the book, and children made frequent 2. Kids Have Hats visits to the center. The book is often requested Twenty (oral) The book Ten Cats Have Hats Jean during story time. by Marzollo is a book of "One You may also wish to follow a reading of the counting rhymes: bear has a but I have a hat. story with placing a FEED ME sign around your chair, Two ducks have a neck. Distribute cards with pictures of foods and trucks, but I have hat." Read the book aloud to begin making requests using nonsense rhymes: the children, and invite predictions. "Five pigs "Feed me the nandwich." The child who holds have..." The children may respond with wigs or the picture of the food you request (in this case, twigs or figs. (Picture clues will allow them to the it to sandwich) brings you whereupon you predict the author's rhyme. Because you want to it Give volunteers the pretend gobble up. op the students to attend to the sound clues, you to be the as well. portunity Hungry Thing may wish to hide the pictures on the first read The Returns and The Hungry Thing Hungry ing.) Ask the children how they made their Goes to a Restaurant are two additional Things guesses. "Why did you guess wigs/twigs/figs?" Children who have not discovered the author's rhyming pattern will hear their peers Photo 1 pointing out the rhyme element. Prompt the children to listen for rhymes as you read further. Continue to encourage predictions. After sharing the book, create a class big book about students who have hats. Each child selects a number, dictates to an adult a rhyme that follows the pattern in the book, and then il lustrates the rhyme. For example, Fatima may be responsible for "one," Kevin may be responsible for "two," and Phyllis may be responsible for "three." Fatima might say, "One dog has a frog, but I have a hat" and paint or otherwise illus trate one dog with a frog. Then each child paints a picture of himself or herself wearing a hat. Compile the book from one to however many children you have. Teacher Bev Maeda had 20 kindergartners in her multiage class one year. Her students made the book pictured in Photo 2: Twenty Kids Have Hats. After each child's rhyme, insert the author's painting of himself or herself wearing a hat. This student-created book becomes part of the classroom library.

3. "The Ants Go Marching" (oral) Many songs make use of rhyme. The song "The Ants Go Marching" is an excellent exam After toThe use foodsand listening HungryThing, preschoolers plastic paperbags ple. Once children catch on to the pattern, they located at a literacycenter to create theirown lunches. Spontaneous retellings may create their own verses. While marching in and languageplay often occur at this time.Photo by Haiiie Kay Yopp a line, children sing the following:

136 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 Photo 2

W bot IJb sJ:^

Twopages from one group of kindergartners' version o/Ten Cats Have Hats. Photo by Haiiie Kay Yopp

The ants go marchingone by one, and everyone mimed the action. Then they all Hurrah!Hurrah! marched lower and lower, bending over, as they The ants go one one, marching by "go down to the ground...." Hurrah!Hurrah! "Down by the Bay" is another song that of The ants go marchingone by one, fers children the opportunity to create their own The littleone stops to have some fun, After verses such as "Did you And theyall go down to the ground, lyrics. learning ever see a whale with a dot tail?" and "Did To get out of the sun. polka Boom!Boom! Boom! you ever see llamas eating their pajamas?" chil dren create their own verses such as, "Did you ever see a shark in the We The song continues with the ants marching two strolling park?" sing "The Corner Store" with our own by two, three by three, and so on with any ap Grocery children as we to the market. The propriate corresponding rhyme. young go orig were walk We observed kindergartners singing and inal lyrics include, "There peas, peas on at at the store" marching around their classroom to this song. ing their knees the store, and Each time the group sang, "the little one stops similar silly rhymes. We develop rhymes for the as to?" a different child proposed a rhyming lyric food items on our market lists such "There

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 137 was steak, steak, going shake shake at the store, -"i" (clap) -"ca" (clap). Richard would be said at the store." See Yopp and Yopp (1996) for a with two claps. Further develop the activity by collection of songs that draw attention to sounds. placing colored pieces of paper in a pocket chart as you say each syllable in a particular child's Activitieswith syllablemanipulation name. Point to each piece of paper as you say each syllable. Later, let children work at tables to 1. "Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands" (cues) glue the appropriate number of colored pieces on This popular traditional song is sung in a piece of drawing paper to represent the number many classrooms across the U.S. Like many of syllables in their names. Encourage them to songs, it may readily be adapted for language draw pictures of themselves. Erica, for exam manipulation (Yopp, 1992). In this example, we ple, takes three pieces of colored paper from a modify "Clap, clap, clap your hands" to encour pile in the center of the table and glues them side age blending syllables. The first two verses be by side at the top of a piece of drawing paper. low are traditional (there are many more); these (See Photo 3.) She then draws a picture of her are followed by an adaptation. self. Afterwards, children move around the room Clap, clap, clap your hands, with their papers in hand and group themselves hands Clap your together. with others who have the same number of col Clap, clap, clap your hands, ored pieces glued on the drawing paper. Erica Clap your hands together. will stand by others who have three colored Snap, snap, snap your fingers. pieces glued on their papers. As the others in the Snap your fingerstogether. class listen, ask each child in a group to say his Snap, snap, snap your fingers. or her name. Encourage all students to say the Snap your fingerstogether. syllables as each name is slowly said. Comment Say, say, say these parts. that they do, indeed, each have the target number these Say parts together. of syllables. ("Yes! Jean, Bill, Juan, and Li each these Say, say, say parts, have one beat! Let's go to our next group. Let's Say these parts together: say their names: Terry, Jos?, Peter, Danny. Do Teacher:moun (pause) tain (childrenrespond, "mountain!") they each have two beats? Yes!" and so on.) Teacher: love (pause) ly (childrenrespond, "lovely!") Develop a bar graph reflecting the number of Teacher:un (pause)der (childrenrespond, "under!") students that have a number of Teacher:tea (pause)cher (childrenrespond, "teacher!") given syllables in their names. As a you may wish to use This example suggests two-syllable words. follow-up activity, when attendance for several However, once children are comfortable with the clapping taking the number of as call activity, you may include words with three or days, clapping syllables you each child's name. And at dismissal time four syllables. you may clap once and anyone with a one-syllable 2. How in a Name? (cues) Many Syllables name may leave. Clap twice and students with Read the Tikki Tikki Tembo Arlene story by two-syllable names may leave, and so on. Mosel about a of Chinese brothers, one of pair Later share the story Tingo Tango Mango whom has a very long name ("Tikki Tikki Tree by Marcia Vaughan in which an iguana is Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Peri Pip named Sombala B?mbala Rombala Roh, a Pembo") and the other of whom has a very short flamingo is named Kokio Lokio Mokio Koh, a name ("Chang"). After reading and discussing parrot is named Dillaby Dallaby Doh, a turtle is the students to say the two story, encourage your named Nanaba Panaba Ta?aba Goh, and a bat is names. them and this time boys' Say again clap named Bitteo Biteo. with each syllable that is said. Tikki Tikki Tembo's name will have 21 claps. Chang's name 3. "Humpty Dumpty" (cues) This in will receive one clap. familiar nursery rhyme may be used Then have your students try clapping the a syllable blending activity. Each child should syllables in their own names. As a group, say have about five separate cubes of the type that each child's name and clap as you separate the can be snapped together. Recite the nursery syllables. Erica would be said "Er" (with a clap) rhyme. Tell the children that Humpty Dumpty

138 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 Photo 3

Childrenshare their work after representing the number of syllablesin theirnames with pieces ofpaper and drawing self portraits. Photo by Haiiie Kay Yopp

broke and that you have some broken words, too. vary the types of movement the students may Ask them if they can help to put the words back make (e.g., take small steps, take giant steps, or a together again. Say the parts of word (e.g., skip). The first student to reach you may give pop-si-cle) and ask the children to repeat the directions on the next round. parts by picking up a cube for each part they say. one In this example, they pick up three cubes, at Activities with onset-rime manipulation a time. Then they snap the cubes together, saying 1.Mail a each part and then the entire word. Are they able Package (oral) Use a box or container with a lid to to help Humpty Dumpty? Repeat the process, large serve as a mailbox. Cut a slit in the lid reciting the poem and then asking the children to through which cards can be into the box or put together a new "broken word." deposited container. Give each child a picture card of an 4. Teacher, May We? (cues) object. To ensure familiarity with the objects, ask As in the game Mother I? have your May each child to show his or her card to the class and students line up some distance away and face name the object. The objects should be single you. Give directions that require children to syllable words such as the following: cup, ring, count the number of syllables in a word such as flag, street, rug, dog, cat, plum, brick. In this ac "You may jump the number of times as there are the teacher says the name of an object by syllables (some teachers say "beats" or "chunks" tivity, it into its onset and rime for syllables) in the word bunny. Students re segmenting components str-eet, and so The child spond, "Teacher, may we?" With your affirma (c-up, r-ing, fl-ag, on). who has the of the named holds tive response, the children say "Bun?ny!" and picture object the card in the blends the sounds to the each child moves two jumps forward. Alter the air, say the card forward to mail. You number of syllables in the cue words you pro word, and brings to vide (e.g., from one syllable as in good up to may wish to recite the following chant prior four?or more?syllables as in motorcycle) and each turn.

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 139 A package!A package! 3. Make aWord (letters) can What itbe? Select rime units such as at to focus upon. A package!A package! Have a card with the letters at written on it. In a Ihope it'sfor me! bag have letter cards that may serve as the onset for this family. A child draws a card from the 2. Going on aWord Hunt (cues) bag. The class says the sound of the letter drawn, Read We're on a Bear Hunt Going by blends it with the at and determines whether or Michael Rosen. Then propose to the children not a real word is made. Students give a thumbs that you go on a word hunt. Have children sit on up or thumbs down. For instance, a student the floor with their feet and their knees together draws the card b. Students say /b/ and blend it bent up. Everyone slaps their toes, then slaps with /at/, /b/?/at/: bat. Everyone indicates their knees with the beat of the chant. Keep the thumbs up because this is a real word. Someone rhythm going throughout the chant. The teacher else draws the letter g. Students say /g/?/at/: begins and the students echo. gat! Thumbs down for this one. Teacher: Going on a word hunt! I I I I Activitieswith phonememanipulation Slap toes slap knees slap toes slap knees 1. Cock-a-doodle-moo! (oral) on a Students: Going word hunt! In the book Cock-a-doodle-moo! by Bernard I I I I Most, a rooster wakes up one morning to discov toes slap knees slap toes slap knees Slap er that he cannot crow above a whisper. So the farm animals on. snore the Teacher: What's this word? sleep "Z-z-z-cheep," I I I I chicks. "Z-z-z-quack," snore the ducks. The roost er tries to teach the cow to "cock-a Slap toes slap knees slap toes slap knees desperately doodle-doo" so that she can awaken the farm Students:What's this word? animals. The cow struggles with this task, substi I I I I tuting phonemes inmany ways. She says, "Mock Slap toes slap knees slap toes slap knees a-moodle-moo!" and "Rock-a-poodle-moo!" but she cannot "cock-a-doodle-doo." When Teacher:/m/ (pause) /ap/ (pause) just say I I she gets close enough?with "Cock-a-doodle rooster slap toes slap knees moo!"?the encourages her to awaken the farm animals. The animals awaken with a laugh: Students:An/ (pause) /ap/ (pause) "Oink-ha!" "Quack-ha!" "Meow-ha!" and so on. I I In this book, the author engages in phoneme slap toes slap knees addition and phoneme substitution. As the story is read aloud, children will in with the Together:mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmap map! join I I I phoneme addition, anticipating the "z-z-z" and slide hands fromtoes to knee slap knees the "ha" added to the animal sounds. They will enjoy listening to the cow's manipulation of as sounds. As talk about what the author Again, use single-syllable words such you read, is in this to make it so light, six, man, van, no, zoo, fist. We also rec doing story entertaining. think about farm ommend that you use words that begin with After reading the story, are not in the book. continuant sounds so that they may be elongat animals that mentioned a snore? A ed as hands are sliding from the toes to the How would the author have goat an knees for the final part of the chant (as in mm sheep snore? How would awakening horse cow mmmmap, above). Continuant sounds include sound? Reread each of the ways that the crow. l?l, IV, Im/, In/, M, /s/, NI, /w/, lyl, Izl, /th/, /sh/ tried to Have your students think of other and vowel sounds. (If you select words that be ways to say "cock-a-doodle-doo." Encourage as no to as gin with a vowel, such as it, there is onset to many children share possible. (You may some on separate from the rime. This activity would be wish to write of their ideas chart paper used to segment and blend phoneme level units, or an erasable board, adding letters to the in that case.) phonemic awareness activity. Write cock-a-doo

140 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 dle-doo, erase the initial letters, and replace with each child has one. Be sure that each card can be letters suggested by the children. Say the new matched with another that begins or ends with the wake-up cry.) Then, think about other sound same sound or has the same sound in the medial on manipulations. For instance, what if the situa position. For example, if you choose to focus tion were altered and the pig tried to teach the ending sounds you should select cards such as cow to oink? What might the cow's attempts at dog and flag, and hat and nut. Then tell the chil oinking sound like? dren that once you give the signal they are each to Place plastic farm animals at a center. Leave circulate and find a classmate whose card shares the book at the center, too. The children will the same sound in the targeted position. retell the story and play with sounds as they ma 3. Bag Game (cues) nipulate the plastic animals. (See Photo 4.) Have a large grocery bag or box that con One of the authors read this story to a small tains many small plastic bags that can be sealed group of preschoolers at a community nursery so that objects do not fall out. In each of these school. She read through the chicks' snoring, the smaller bags place one object and the number of cows' snoring, and the ducks' snoring. After hear interlocking cubes as there are sounds in the ing /zzzzzzz/ read through these pages, 4-year-old name of the object. For instance, one bag might and shouted, "Zzzzack!" Byron interrupted (drag contain a and two cubes that are connected out the initial sound in the name of a fellow key ging the two sounds in Another was to the sounds of (representing key). student). Byron attending contain a dime and three cubes that and realized that one of the members of his bag might speech are connected for the three sounds in dime. A class had a name that started with the sound very third contain several nails and four that was in the bag might being repeated story. connected cubes for the four sounds in nails. To 2. Find Your Partners (oral) begin the activity, ask a volunteer to draw a Using a set of picture cards with which the small bag from the large grocery bag. The child children are familiar, distribute the cards so that opens the small bag, pulls out the object and the

Photo 4

A seto?'farmanimals placeaata literacycenterwiththe recentlyshared book Cock-a-?oo?\e moo! stimulates further play with sounds and reenactment of the story. Photo by Haiiie Kay Yopp_

Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom 141 or cubes. He she names the object and then says suggested activities and adapt them for various the sounds in the object, breaking apart the cubes purposes. as he or she speaks each sound. If the child Although we shared a possible sequence of draws a bag that contains a little book, he or she instruction in Figure 4, teachers should avoid would say, "This is a book. Book." Then, hold rigid adherence to a sequence. It is not the case that teachers should in ing up the three connected cubes, the child engage exclusively rhyme activities for weeks before in would break the cubes apart one by one while they engage sylla ble activities. we do not believe that saying /b/-/oo/-/k/. Likewise, children must "pass" one type of operation (e.g., 4. Scavenger Hunt (letters) matching) before having experiences with an children into teams of about three. Organize other (e.g., blending). Phonemic awareness de Give each team a or box that has on it a let bag velopment is not a lockstep process. ter and of an that with that picture object begins We urge teachers to be watchful for children letter. For one team receives a with instance, bag who are not catching on?after multiple expo the letter M on it and a of a an picture monkey; sures?to games and activities such as those pre other team receives a with the letter S on it bag sented here. These children may need extra and a of a snake. Children then set off on picture support in phonemic awareness development. It a hunt to find in the classroom scavenger objects may be helpful to increase the use of concrete that begin with their target sound. Children with objects or other cues to represent sounds and to a the B bag may locate baby doll in the house provide more phonemic awareness instruction a a keeping center, block in the building area, that includes familiar letters. Also, by focusing brush in the painting area, and a book from the on sounds that can be elongated, teachers are more library corner. Children with the bag that has the likely to draw students' attention to those letter P written on itmay find a pencil, pen, and sounds. For example, notice that each of the sounds in the word can paper to put in their bag. Give the children safe be stretched and thus enough time and support to be successful, then exaggerated (sssssssss-aaaaaaaaaaa-ffffffffff) whereas the initial and final sounds in cannot bring them together to state their target sound and get be stretched Get is a share their objects. Then they may return their (g-eeeeeeee-t). poor choice, for an item of reflection in a objects, trade bags, and repeat the activity. then, phonemic awareness activity for a child who is struggling. Comments and cautions In addition, using words with fewer phonemes can be helpful; it is easier to manipulate the The suggestions shared here represent the phonemes in words such as cat and up (with type of activities we hope to see young children three and two phonemes, respectively) than in engaging in with their teachers in preschool, words such as lips and sand (each having four kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms. Some phonemes). of them also may be used with older children. Our hope is that phonemic awareness instruc The activities are playful and appealing while tion becomes a thoughtful, conscious component deliberately focusing attention on the sound of early literacy programs. Our concern is that in structure of language. They spring from spoken some classrooms phonemic awareness instruction children's literature, music, or traditional child will replace other crucial areas of instruction. hood games and therefore are easily incorporat Phonemic awareness supports reading develop ed into rich Most of these literacy programs. ment only if it is part of a broader program that in activities can be modified to focus on a differ cludes?among other things?development of ent unit of sound than the one described here. students' vocabulary, syntax, comprehension, For the described here for example, Bag Game, strategic reading abilities, decoding strategies, and can be used for phoneme manipulation, syllable writing across all content areas. Mail a for manipulation. Package, suggested In sum, we encourage teachers to provide can be used with onset-rime level manipulation, their students with linguistically rich environ as rhymes, syllables, and phonemes well. Letters ments in which written and spoken language are easily can be added to most of the activities. used to learn, to communicate, to express ideas, Teachers should be flexible with the use of these to understand the ideas of others and in which

142 The Reading Teacher Vol.54, No. 2 October2000 I. language itself is explored and examined?even Mattingly, (1984). Reading, linguistic awareness, and language In J. & R. Valtin (Eds.), the smallest parts of language. "Look at the way acquisition. Downing Language awareness and learning to read (pp. 9-25). New York: I write this." "Wasn't that an interesting word?" Springer-Verlag. "My, listen to all the sounds in this word!" "Your McBride-Chang, C. (1995).What is phonological awareness? two names start alike." "What a sense of humor Journal of Educational Psychology, 87,179-192. this author has! Notice the he with way plays Smith, S.B., Simmons, D.C., & Kameenui, E.J. (1998). in awareness: words this section." By providing linguistical Phonological Research bases. In D.C. Simmons ly rich programs in which both the content and & E.J. Kameenui (Eds.), What reading research tells us about children with diverse needs: Bases and basics the form of language are examined we are sup learning (pp. 61-127). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. porting literacy development in the fullest sense. Snow, CE., Burns, M.S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing read ingdifficulties inyoung children.Washington, DC: National Academy Press. and in Yopp Yoppteach theDepartment ofElementary, Stahl, S.A., & Murray, B.A. (1994). Defining phonological awareness Bilingual,and Reading Education, California State University and its relationship to early reading. Journal of Educational atFullerton,Fulierton, CA 92834, USA. They may be con Psychology, 86,221-234. Treiman, R., & Zukowski, A. (1991). Levels of phonological tactedat [email protected] [email protected]. awareness. In S.A. Brady & D.P. Shankweiler (Eds.), Phonological processes in literacy (pp. 67-83). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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