Activities for phonemic awareness and phonics often include directions that indicate that the teacher or children should produce the sound of the letter or grapheme by placing the letter in slashes—for example, /s/ for the consonant s sound. Vowel sounds also may have a diacritical mark to indicate the variation of the vowel sound—for example, /ē/ to represent the long e. Below is a chart of the sounds of standard English with accompanying example words.
The 44 Sounds of Standard English
| Consonants | Vowels | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. /b/ | boy | 26. /ā/ | cake |
| 2. /d/ | dog | 27. /ē/ | feet |
| 3. /f/ | fan | 28. / ī/ | ice |
| 4. /g/ | gate | 29. /ō/ | oat |
| 5. /h/ | hat | 30. /ū/ | use |
| 6. /j/ | jump | 31. /a/ | apple |
| 7. /k/ | kite | 32. /e/ | bed |
| 8. /l/ | leaf | 33. /i/ | it |
| 9. /m/ | mop | 34. /o/ | block |
| 10. /n/ | nest | 35. /u/ | duck |
| 11. /p/ | pig | 36. /or/ | for |
| 12. /r/ | rabbit | 37. /ir/ur/er/ | bird |
| 13. /s/ | sun | 38. /ar/ | car |
| 14. /t/ | toe | 39. /aw/ | saw |
| 15. /v/ | vase | 40. /oi/ | boy |
| 16. /w/ | wagon | 41. /ou/ | house |
| 17. /y/ | yellow | 42. /ōō/ | boot |
| 18. /z/ | zebra | 43. /oo/ | foot |
| 19. /ch/ | cheese | ||
| 20. /sh/ | shell | ||
| 21. /zh/ | treasure | ||
| 22. /th/ | thumb | ||
| 23. /th/ | this | ||
| 24. /hw/ | wheel | ||
| 25. /ng/ | ring | ||
When working with phonological awareness and phonics, it is crucial that teachers know the correct pronunciation of the sounds in English. Your speech and language pathologist (SLP) is a great source of information about the correct pronunciation of sounds in English. The SLP can also help with information about correct lip and tongue position and how a sound should feel.
Phonemic Awareness Instruction
Phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness instruction, should be taught using a well-designed program developed from scientifically based reading research. The link below outlines some of these reading programs.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.sbri.pdf
While a teacher should be using well-designed programs developed from scientifically based reading research, it is important to know how to use additional strategies to enhance and differentiate instruction.
The following two links offer classroom activities for developing phonemic awareness.
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-now-brown-cow-phoneme-awareness-activities
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom
Another strategy is the use of Elkonin sound boxes, which help students learn to isolate and segment individual phonemes in words.
- Have students draw three boxes on a sheet of paper or dry-erase board.
- Distribute counters to children.
- Have them place counters above the boxes.
- The teacher models how to "say it and move it."
- For each phoneme, children move a counter to each box in a left-to-right progression.
For example, when you say the word hat, children move the counters that represent sounds they hear in the word: /h/ /a/ /t/ Children say the word again, sliding their finger below the boxes from left to right: hat .
For more information on Elkonin sound boxes, see the below link.
https://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/Phonics-Sound-Elkonin-Boxes.pdf
The Florida Center for Reading Research provides learning center activities that can reinforce instruction. These activities include ideas for phonemic awareness instruction as well as instruction in other areas of reading. The link below includes activities for prekindergarten through fifth grade (find the menu to the left of a brief explanation of the FCRR's Student Center activities).
