How to Help Your
Struggling Reader:
Phonological Awareness
Activities
Part 1: Sentences
Teaching
Phonological Awareness is simple and fun!
All you need is a bit of language understanding and some creativity…then
the sky will be the limit for you and your Struggling Reader.
Phonological
Awareness is nothing more than the understanding of sounds in words without
letters. Many Struggling Readers have a
difficult time separating our language into individual parts and this
complicates learning to read and spell.
Blending
(the ability to put together sounds) and segmenting (the ability to pull sounds
apart) is the foundation to all Phonological Awareness (PA) activates.
I
have broken each PA activity into 4 levels for ease of teaching. For this blog, I will cover activities for
blending and segmenting sentences.
Level
1 – Sentences
Concept – Understanding words in
sentences.
Question - Can your child pull-apart
sentences into separate words and put them back together?
Activity Materials - Use counters (beans,
pennies or other small objects) and a bowl or
bag. Your child will place one counter into the bag for
each word.
Segmenting Sample
Sentences:
The parent says, “The dog can run.” Your child repeats the sentence and places one
counter in the bag as they say each word.
“The” (one counter), “dog” (one counter), “can” (one counter), “run”
(one counter).
The parent says, “That flower is pretty.” Your
child repeats the sentence and places counter in the bag for each word. “That” (one counter), “flower” (one counter),
“is” (one counter), “pretty” (one counter).
Insight: Many Struggling Readers will not understand
that some words are made up of syllables and that “flower” is not two words,
but one. The second sentence example
should have 4 counters placed in the bag…many Struggling Readers will place 6
counters.
This
activity also practices listening skills and memory development. The student must listen to the sentence,
remember the sentence and repeat the sentence, then remember the words to “segment”
the sentence. As the sentences become
longer and more complex, the skills are challenged.
Practice examples:
·
“My
mom made a cake.” (5 counters)
·
“The
blue truck is in the mud.” (7 counters)
·
“His
sweater is in the closet.” (6 counters)
·
“We
went to the mountains yesterday.” (6
counters)
·
“Grandma
is coming for spaghetti dinner tonight.”
(7 counters)
Activity variations:
Instead
of using counters and a bag try…
·
Marching
around the room – each step represents a word.
·
Clapping
hands (as seen in the picture) – each clap represents a word.
·
Jumping
rope – each jump represents a word.
·
Moving
army men or horses (any toy) across the floor or table to represent a word.
·
Your
own creative way of teaching sentence segmentation.
Blending
Sample Sentences:
Now try the opposite!
The parent says, “His………dog……….is………….lost.”
The child then blends the sentence together into, “His dog is lost.”
Insight:
This
activity may seem very simple, however many Struggling Readers have a difficult
time holding the words in their memory and blending them together into an understandable sentence. The longer the
pauses between words…the more challenging this activity become and the more
skills are required to be successful. So….stretch
those sentences out!
Practice examples:
·
The…bird…is…singing.
·
My…mom…is…very…helpful!
·
Can…you…play…with…the…truck?
·
On…the…table…is…a…blue…plate.
·
I…have…a…friend…at…school...named…Tim.
Have
fun with your child…it is the most important part of learning!
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