How Do I KNOW if My Children have Phonemic Awareness?

• How Do I KNOW if My Children have Phonemic Awareness?

 I will never forget the shocked and amazed face of a 15-year-old I was tutoring who burst out, “Oh my gosh! Cat has 3 sounds in it!!”  

She stopped stone still and stared at me trying to take in this new understanding she had realized for the first time. She hadn’t found the phonemic awareness games at all childish in their simplicity, she found them freeing. They changed her life. It’s a moment she will never forget. Neither will I. 

In my previous posts about phonemic awareness, I shared the reason that phonemic awareness is THE critical first step for every learner. 

I asked you to ask yourself this question: 

“How much do I truly know about phonemic awareness?”

 I shared my own journey from confusion to my giant A-HA as I figured out exactly WHAT is phonemic awareness and WHY it is THE first step a child MUST master in order to read, write and spell. 

I also asked you to ask this question about your students no matter their age, whether you teach at home, tutor or have a classroom: 

“Do my children have phonemic awareness?” 

Now that you know WHY phonemic awareness is THE ALL IMPORTANT, CRITICAL first step for every learner and you’re asking yourself if they have phonemic awareness, I’m suspecting that your next question logically is: 

“How do I know?” 

This is where a good assessment comes in because we can’t just say, “I think so. I think my children have it. They’re 6 (7, or 8, or 9 or 23…) years old. I’m sure they do. Right?” 

Careful assessment is vital. If you don’t know what they know, how do you know what to teach? 

That was part of my journey, too!

 After I truly felt that I understood what phonemic awareness was and why it was so important, I began to ask, “How do I know? How will I find out if each of my 27 students have phonemic awareness?”  

As you know, my journey was to write Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers. 

I had to have an excellent phonemic awareness assessment for Silent Elephant “e”, so after much research, I developed one. 

Part 1 of Silent Elephant “e” is Phonemic Awareness, and it includes a two-part assessment that is easy to individually administer and will leave no doubt in your mind whether each of your students have phonemic awareness or not, whatever their age.  

With that question answered, the 44 lessons in Part 1 guide you to teach the games that develop phonemic awareness in every student.

These games have 4 levels of complexity and the instructions in Part 1 guide you to meet the individual needs of each of your students within a classroom, in individual tutoring or in homeschooling.  

·                 Level 1 has words with short “a” and short “o”. It also has the consonant sounds that you can hold, stretch out or sing for a long time: /f/, /m/, /n/ and /s/. These consonants are called continuants.

·                 Level 2 builds on Level 1 sounds and adds the vowel sound of short “u” and the continuant consonant sounds of /l/, /r/, v/ and /z/.

·                 Level 3 builds on Levels 1 and 2 and adds the vowel sound of short    “e” and the continuant consonant sounds of /k/, /h/, /j/, /p/ and /t/.

·                 Level 4 builds on Levels 1, 2 and 3 and adds the vowel sound of short “i” and the continuant sounds of /b/, /d/, /g/ and /w/. 

When children (or teenagers or adults) have completed Part 1, they HAVE phonemic awareness. There will be no doubt about it! They will be ready to successfully jump into reading words in print.

I have to say, I feel very good about these last four posts. 

I feel that you now have a better understanding of how to meet your children’s needs because you know:

·                 WHAT phonemic awareness is

·                 WHY it is important

·                 WHERE to go for assessments that answer your “How do I know?” question

·                 WHERE to go for THE program that teaches phonemic awareness as no other  

I love helping you be the successful educator you want to be. Together we will strengthen your way along that path. Together we will make sure every child is a successful reader.

If you have further questions about phonemic awareness, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Making Your Life Easier - Tips for Phonemic Awareness

Making Your Life Easier -

Tips for Teaching Phonemic Awareness 

Experience is our greatest teacher, so I want to share a few “extras” about phonemic awareness that I have discovered. 

These “tips” will come in handy: 

Not all languages have the same phonemes! 

Some children learning English as a new language may not have heard some of our English phonemes before. Some examples are: French does not have the aspirated sound of “p” (as at the beginning of ‘pot’) and many languages do not have the soft, unvoiced “th” consonant digraph sound (as in ‘think’).  

In these cases where the phoneme is new to the learner, you will have to slow down and carefully teach them how to pronounce the English phonemes.  

Take your time. Don’t rush them.

 Short “i” and short “e” can be pesky! 

Many children, whether English is their first language or they are English Language Learners, struggle with discriminating between short “i” and short “e”.  

I have found it best initially to separate instruction of short “i” from short “e” by several days to a week or two, because so many children have trouble discerning the difference between the two sounds. Once I think a child has a good grasp of short “e”, then I teach short “i”. In Silent Elephant “e”, Part 1, Phonemic Awareness, I put short “e” in Level 3 and short “i” in Level 4 to avoid confusion.  

Again, don’t hurry your learner.  

Even then I have a few children who have difficulties, so I reteach the lessons and practice with them until they are competent.

Patience is golden! 

Children with the least phonemic awareness skills will need your loving patience.  

Most likely you will need to do every word in a lesson. I have included long word lists so you won’t run out of words.  

You may need to go back over and review part of a lesson or even a whole lesson.  

You may need to exaggerate the sounds, to exaggerate stretching out the sounds, to direct children’s attention to your mouth movements and to direct children’s attention to their partner’s mouth movements.

Have your children feel their lips with their fingers and feel where their tongue is in their mouth when they make the sounds. In Silent Elephant “e” we give each child an individual, handheld mirror so they can look at their own mouth movements.  

This may seem over the top, but a child (or adult) who does not have phonemic awareness may not actually understand how they are forming sounds.  

They will also need to close their eyes and listen carefully to your voice, their neighbor’s voice and their own voice when they make the sounds of the word. 

For some children, you may need to engage the help of a speech therapist. This will be obvious as you are teaching them.  

You cannot rush this MOST important step, so relax and enjoy their journey with them. You will have so much fun watching them become aware of their language and proud of themselves.

Last tip!! They will get there; they really will! 😊 

Never move a child to a new lesson until you are certain the child has mastered the present lesson’s objective. This will pay off in so many ways. One is, you will be able to move through later lessons much more quickly if you build a solid foundation layer by layer in beginning lessons. If that foundation isn’t solid, you will feel the frustration of continually returning to what you thought they should already know.  

Keeping this in mind, I never rush a child. I move at their pace.  

Three of my students with hearing impairments (one who was born deaf) and one ELL/ESL child with speech and language impairments and profound learning differences needed every word in every lesson. We moved through Part 1 carefully and at their pace resulting in all four of them learning phonemic awareness and developing beautiful reading skills.

Another thing to keep in mind is to plan a little extra time for a struggling child, as they will need 5 to 10 minutes of additional individual tutoring a day to quickly reach that wonderful “Oh, I get it!” moment. That little extra time is powerful. 

I hope these tips help smooth out your teaching. 

I love helping you be the successful educator you are.

If you have further questions about phonemic awareness, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

"I Felt Like A Railroad Without Tracks!"

A Railroad Without Tracks! 

Stephen stopped in the middle of our Zoom lesson, and looked me in the eyes, “Mrs. Jones, I’ve been thinking about something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time. Do you know how I felt all of the time before I began tutoring with you?” 

I looked at him thoughtfully as he was so serious. “No,” I replied, “but I’d love for you to tell me.” 

“I felt like a railroad without tracks,” he said slowly and then quickly looked away. I could tell he felt uncomfortable and this had been hard for him to say.  

My brain began to whirl trying to picture what he had experienced and what he meant. “Please tell me more.” 

Slowly Stephen began explaining, “For years and years, I tried so hard to make sense of what my parents, teachers and other tutors were teaching me. I felt my brain was built for learning concepts. I felt capable of learning. I really did. 

“But I also felt dumb. I watched my teachers walk away from my desk – giving up on helping me. It took too much of their time to try to help me. They had so many other children to help. They began to ignore me. I felt so alone.  

“My brain felt so scattered! My brain felt so disorganized! I needed railroad tracks to guide me.” 

I could feel Stephen’s profound pain – it was palpable! 

He continued, “I tried so hard to do what I thought was right, but I was never right!  

“I could see and hear what my friends were doing, but no matter how hard I tried, I could never get it right. I thought I was the stupidest person alive! I felt like giving up!

“I’m so glad my mom didn’t give up on me. She was aware that I was developing numerous coping mechanisms – trying to cope in school with the way teachers and other kids looked at me, trying not to feel embarrassed in front of everyone, trying to learn and always failing, trying to keep on believing in myself. 

“It was the best day of my life when my mom brought me to your house for tutoring. Within just a few minutes of meeting me, you told me that I was smart! You said that I would learn! You said that I just needed to be taught a in different way. You said I needed to be taught to read, write and spell the way MY brain learned! 

“After just 3 weeks of tutoring with you, I suddenly could see and hear individual sounds within words (phonemic awareness). I finally got it! Before we did the caterpillar and train games, I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do when teachers and my parents said, ‘Just sound it out.’ When I began to hear the individual sounds within words, I knew I was going to be able to learn to read! 

“When we started using colors for phonics, I felt relief and joy too! The color that helps me the most is the purple lines between syllables! The purple lines break the words into smaller pieces and then I can use the other colors to help me see the small phonetic parts of words that the letters form.”   

As I listened, I was doing my best not to be too emotional. “Oh, Stephen, I’m so grateful to be your tutor!  

“Hearing your words, I am reminded of just how serious and important a teachers’ job is and I’m reminded of the huge responsibility that I have to all of my students. 

“I’m so thankful I’ve been able to help you learn to read, write and spell so quickly! Do you remember that in just 2 years you went from a primer to a 9th grade reading level between the ages of 8 and 10?” 

“Yes, I do remember,” he said with a big smile, “and my reading continues to grow and become even faster and smoother.”

 “You are an extremely intelligent person! You and your family would never have given up on you!  

“I’m so proud of you! You’re awesome!”  

I could see the relief and pride in his eyes. He had realized his own growth and could feel a bright future ahead. 

With smiles on our faces, we did our computer high five and returned to our lesson.

If you have further questions about phonemic awareness, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

So Precious! Phonemic Awareness Set His Imagination in Full Gear

So Precious! Phonemic Awareness Set His Imagination in Full Gear 

Aren’t these just the most precious pictures of a proud, young boy using his imagination to create his own method to learn phonemic awareness! 

Meet 4-year-old Xander!  

Whenever Xander’s mom Wendy was teaching his sisters, 7-year-old Audrey and 9-year-old Zoya, Xander loved joining in the introductory, fun, whole body activities that went along with each lesson. (Previously, I sent you pictures of all three of these delightful children writing their words in pudding. Smiles fill my face as I reflect on those darling pictures.) 

One day a wonderful idea suddenly popped into Wendy’s brain as she attentively watched the joy Xander was experiencing while participating in a Silent Elephant “e” lesson with his sisters.  

“I should start teaching Xander Part 1, Phonemic Awareness! Ms. Linda says that Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is for preschoolers to adults. We’ll start this afternoon!” 

That very afternoon, Wendy taught Xander the first lesson in phonemic awareness using game board one with the colored squares. Xander loved the game as he began learning to listen to the individual sounds within words. Wendy was delighted with his quick progress! 

Unexpectedly one day, Xander said, “I don’t want to use just the colored squares.” 

Wendy explained patiently. “Xander, remember that Ms. Linda gave us the colored squares to use to play the games. We need to use the colored squares.”  

“I want to use my cars!” exclaimed Xander. 

“Show me how you would use your cars to play the game.” Wendy was puzzled, yet curious. 

Xander eagerly ran to get his tub of cars. He got out gameboard one, put the colored squares on the caterpillar and then proudly placed a matching colored car below the colored square. 

“Xander, you are brilliant! We will have even more fun learning with the colored squares and with your colored cars!” Wendy was bursting with pride at her son’s creativity! 

Now Wendy is loving teaching all three of her children to read, write and spell with Silent Elephant “e”! They are sharing the joy of learning together. 

Zoya and Audrey have just finished Part 6 and are looking forward to beginning Part 7. The girls are so proud of how much they know. They asked Mom to take pictures of them with sentences they wrote for the last lesson in Part 6. They were excited to show me their work. 

Receiving success stories and pictures of parents and teachers teaching and children learning with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” fills my heart with happiness!  

I’d love to hear from you! 

If you have further questions about phonemic awareness, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

She was Born Deaf – But That Only Slows Her Down a Little

She was Born Deaf – But That Only Slows Her Down a Little 

Addie dances in the door every Wednesday afternoon, her deep brown eyes sparking with excitement. She’s been coming to tutoring once a week for five months.

She quickly settles her 6-year-old energy and concentrates on what we are doing. Those brown eyes intently study my mouth as I tell her the next word for the phonemic awareness game we are playing. She needs to show me each individual sound she hears within each word using the colored squares on the caterpillar/train game boards in Silent Elephant “e”, Part 1, Phonemic Awareness. Her eyes analyze my mouth and face to absorb every movement and detail of the word.   

It’s imperative that I thoroughly and meticulously teach Addie in a calm, quiet, loving environment. It’s equally imperative that I follow her lead as I move through the lessons. She must achieve mastery of each lesson before moving to the next in order to develop her strong foundation in phonemic awareness and her knowledge that she CAN read.

Her self-confidence is blossoming.   

In these five months, Addie has mastered about 1/5 of Part 1:
Lesson 1-Two Sounds—Short Vowel First
Lesson 2-Two Sounds—Short Vowel Last
Lesson 2A-Two Sounds—Phoneme Isolation/Phoneme Substitution
Lesson 2B-Two Sounds—Phoneme Manipulation 
Lesson 2C-Two Sounds—Individual Phoneme Blending Assessment
Lesson 3-Three Sounds—CVC—Short Vowel in the Middle
Lesson 4-Three Sounds—CVC—Short Vowel in the Middle-May have 3 Different Sounds or 2 Sounds the Same
Lesson 4A-Three Sounds—CVC—Initial Phoneme Substitution-Introduction to Rhyming
Lesson 4B-Three Sounds—CVC—Final Phoneme Substitution

This is an impressive accomplishment!  

Addie was born deaf.   

It wasn’t until she was 3 months old that she heard her first sound when she received her first hearing aids.            

Her mom has shared her own frustrations, as Addie’s hearing aids were a challenge when she was an infant and toddler. They were more often than not broken or not functioning properly as Addie would often pull them out of her ears and suck on them. This, of course, lead to Addie hearing sporadically, which lead to her language development being sporadic as well.

 
Even now her hearing aids don’t always work properly. Sometimes they don’t quite fit tight enough because she is constantly growing. Once ordered, her new ones may take a month or more to arrive. This process causes continual gaps in her learning. 

Even with this constant struggle to ensure her hearing aids are working, Addie has a great desire to learn to read! Watching her come alive as she gains the understanding that the individual sounds she is now hearing in words will lead her to reading makes my heart sing. We celebrate each minute step forward!  

This April we celebrated a giant step when Addie first saw, and realized that she was seeing, a visual representation of rhyme. This happened on her caterpillar game board during Lesson 4A!

The brightly colored squares guided her to understand that rhyme in a word begins with the vowel sound and includes the ending sound(s). Only the beginning sound(s) change, so only the beginning color(s) changed on her game board. 
 
Her whole body lit up with this understanding. She paused, and then those big, brown eyes shot to mine - she knew she knew! It was the first time Addie actually understood what rhyme sounds like. Her confidence in herself as a learner leapt forward. My eyes filled with joy.   

I know this was the first time she actually grasped the concept of rhyming, because when I asked her mom if they had rhyming books at home, her mom replied, “No. She doesn’t understand rhyme.”

I could hardly contain my excitement! 

“She just learned it!” I told her mom. 

 
“Watch her do three new words on her game board.” Her mom was skeptical, but she watched Addie show the next three rhyming words on her game board.

 
Then Addie confidently answered my question, “How do you know these words rhyme?”  

Mom was head-over-heels amazed that Addie truly had just learned what rhyme looks like and sounds like!   

We had fun taking turns thinking of more rhyming words for the words displayed on her game board.
 
Since that wonderful day, Addie’s mom has purchased rhyming word cards from a teacher supply store, has borrowed rhyming games from Addie’s teachers at school, and has checked out lots of rhyming books from libraries.  

Addie loves rhyme! Her little body wriggles with joy as she creates a rhyming game board and shouts out more rhyming words.

I’m also teaching Addie using the Partner Practice pages in Part 3, Short Vowels of Silent Elephant “e”. In mid-April she mastered all five short vowel sounds! We celebrated! 

Short “e” sound was the most challenging one for her. She had to listen intently for the difference in the sounds of /e/ and /i/. She had to look in the mirror to watch her mouth’s movements. She had to concentrate on pulling down the center of her tongue to move from the /i/ sound to the /e/ sound. This is not unusual for young children or English language learners. 
 
When I asked her what really helped her learn short “e”, she said, “I learned it from singing the Old McDonald song.”  

Addie’s enthusiasm and excitement about learning to read, write and spell just bubbles out of her all of the time now!   

She is solidifying the all-important foundation of reading—phonemic awareness. She is listening for and hearing the individual sounds that make up words. 
 
My heart sings every time she progresses a little further, every time her eyes sparkle with the knowledge of what she has just understood for the first time. 

Her mom says, “She used to just give up trying to read, write and spell, but now she always tries and giggles with happiness while working and bounces up and down when she gets a word right!” 
 
Like Addie—keep a song in your heart! 
 
P. S. Addie has achieved this magnificent success from tutoring only once a week with Silent Elephant “e”. Think of the progress she could be making if she were able to come twice a week. When children are able to come to tutoring twice a week, I see considerably faster progress learning skills and greater retention of skills that I’ve taught.

If you have further questions about phonemic awareness, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson