Intro to Activity
Segmenting a whole word into phonemes (sounds) is a phonemic awareness task that can initially be practiced with students before they know all, or any, of the associated phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) correspondences. At this stage, students respond to whole-word phoneme segmentation tasks orally by saying each sound in the word, in order, with slight pauses (approximately one-second) between each sound (e.g. the sounds in dog are /d/.../ŏ/.../g/). This activity might be paired with a movement, such as tapping fingers, touching their arms, or moving manipulatives into Elkonin boxes (demonstrated in Classroom Connection, below). Like all phonemic awareness activities, however, phoneme segmentation tasks should incorporate letters once the appropriate correspondences have been introduced.
Practicing phoneme segmentation helps children recognize how words are comprised of individual sounds, which is essential for learning to read and spell.
Students
Discover the types of students who may benefit from this activity.
Most students can segment phonemes of short, two- to three-sound words by six years of age. Therefore, instruction and practice in whole-word phoneme segmentation can typically begin in Kindergarten when students show sensitivity to the sounds in spoken language. About 20% of students need explicit instruction to acquire phonemic awareness skills such as phoneme segmentation.
Younger students (regardless of grade) may not be ready to demonstrate this skill yet, whereas it might be an appropriate skill target for older students who continue to be in the Partial Alphabetic Phase of word reading development. In this phase, students are learning basic letter-sound relationships and might be trying to "read" a word based on its first letter alone. Once students have progressed to the Full Alphabetic Phase (most major letter-sound correspondences are in place), they can segment words by fully analyzing sound sequences, and segmenting practice would continue in the context of spelling, segmenting the sounds to encode the words.
Getting Started
The steps outlined in the tabs below provide a clear and structured approach for teaching this activity to students.
Prepare a word list at the appropriate difficulty level for your students. Start with words that have 2-3 sounds, such as in, eat, and safe.
Keep in mind how the phonemes used in the target words will impact difficulty. Continuant phonemes (those that can be held out, such as /m/) that are present in a student's home language or dialect will be easiest. See also Take Note!, below.
State the purpose of the lesson by explaining you are going to work on a skill that helps them prepare to spell words. State that you are going to say a word, and that they will repeat the word before then saying each sound in the word.
Use a familiar word and segment the word into its individual sounds. You can also model incorporating a movement, such as finger tapping, arm tapping, or using sound boxes.
Example:
"Listen to the word cat. When I say the individual sounds slowly, I hear /k/.../ă/.../t/."
Next, practice this skill with your students. Say the target word aloud and have students repeat it. Then, segment the word in unison with the class. Your chosen movement routine can help model the pace of students' response.
Practice several words with your students before proceeding.
Students can provide responses independently. In whole-class instruction, students can respond chorally or take turns segmenting words with a partner.
Closely monitor student responses throughout the lesson. Provide immediate corrective feedback when students provide an inappropriate response. For example, if a student says the second sound in book is /ŭ/ rather than /oo/, you could say, "Hmm, I don't hear /ŭ/ in book. /b/.../ŭ/.../k/? That would be buck. As in 'Do you have a buck I can borrow? I'm a dollar short.' Listen to my word again: book."
If the student is unable to segment the sounds appropriately on the second attempt, provide the appropriate response.
Take Note!
Here are some special considerations when using this activity:
- Start simple. Begin with two- or three-sound words. Beginning students may need help understanding that diphthongs (e.g., /oi/ as in boy and /ou/ as in house) are one phoneme. Additionally, words that begin with <h> or <w>, or end with <r>, will be especially tricky for students because of how their respective sounds interact with neighboring vowel sounds.
- Some consonant blends are harder than others. The most challenging blends include phonemes that share an articulatory placement. For example, both /m/ and /p/ are produced by closing your lips together. This lack of noticeable mouth movement between production of the sounds will make it harder for some students to perceive two distinct phonemes at the end of the word jump. They might attempt to segment this word as /j/... /ŭ/... /p/.
- 'Sounds' and 'letters' are not synonymous. When asking for sounds, accept sounds as responses—not letters! It is important that students understand the difference between these terms and provide answers such as /b/, not the letter <b>.
- Reinforce left-to-right orientation. For example, if a teacher is using the finger-tapping method (described in detail in the Coaching Corner, below), tapping her fingers to her thumb on her left hand will ensure students facing her will see left-to-right movement. Similarly, teachers should provide corrective feedback if students use manipulatives in a right-to-left orientation.
- Encourage simultaneous learning. Students should not wait to begin learning sound-letter correspondences until they have mastered phoneme segmentation. Once students have learned the sound-letter correspondences for a given phoneme, they can practice writing the appropriate letters after segmenting the sounds. Although this activity can be done without showing letters, pairing the corresponding graphemes to the phonemes will be the next step to bridging this phonemic awareness task to reading and spelling.
- Add letters when students are ready. For more information on supporting students with the next skill in this progression, review Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping.
- Review skill overview. For additional considerations when targeting this skill, see the Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Skill Overview.
Classroom Connection
See this activity in action through a teacher-led demonstration.
Here, a teacher introduces whole-word phoneme segmentation with a small group, and encourages the students to move manipulatives into Elkonin boxes. Note that while the teacher also asks students to identify how many sounds are in each word, the main goal is that students are appropriately segmenting each sound.
Differentiation
Learn how you can enhance instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners.
- Consider that many words have pronunciation variations due to dialect and/or the effect of coarticulation. For example, while some may pronounce the first sound in drum as /d/, many of us articulate a /j/ sound instead. Acknowledge these differences as part of the rich variations of English, rather than a "right" or "wrong" response.
- If a student substitutes sounds in their speech (such as pronouncing write like white), it might not be clear if they are trying to produce the correct phoneme but doing so incorrectly. If so, check if they can discriminate between these sounds with a receptive task. So rather than, "What is the first sound in red?" you provide choices to gain valuable insight. For example, you might say, "Listen to the word red. Is the first sound in the word red a /r/, like rain, or is the first sound in red a /w/, like wet?" Allowing students respond with the word (rain or wet) will help prevent their articulation differences from masking their phonemic awareness, and using several words will help decrease the influence of chance on the student's answers.
- Some students may pronounce most words correctly but have an unexpected amount of difficulty discriminating between similar-sounding phonemes. In these cases, it might be helpful to provide oral and visual cues for mouth placements when articulating the confusing sounds. You might ask the student who confuses /sh/ and /s/ to say the word ship, and continue, "When you say the word ship, do your lips pucker out like a kissy face? Or do your lips spread out in a smile?" Mouth pictures and mirrors may also be helpful.
- If, after continued modeling and corrective feedback, a student continues to struggle with phoneme segmentation, consider regressing to phoneme isolation.
- For additional differentiation when targeting this skill, see the Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Skill Overview.
Coaching Corner
For occasional use: optional ideas to bring energy, engagement, or ease to the activity.
After saying the target word, students tap one finger to their thumb while segmenting each individual phoneme, beginning with the index finger and moving sequentially to the middle and ring fingers (and pinky if needed for longer words).
Resource(s)
Explore the resource(s) to support your implementation of this activity.
Toolkit resources help you implement high-quality instruction. To guarantee student success, these tools must be used in tandem with direct, systematic, mastery-oriented instruction and a high-quality curriculum.