Teaching Phonemic Awareness:
Critical Phonemic Awareness skills

Example Instruction: Blending
Scaffold Task Difficulty

When children are first learning to blend, use examples with continuous sounds, because the sounds can be stretched and held.

Example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to talk in a broken way. When he says /mmm/ - /ooo/ - /mmm/ he means mom."

Non-example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to talk in a broken way. When he says /b/ - /e/ - /d/ he means bed."

When children are first learning the task, use short words in teaching and practice examples. Use pictures when possible.

Example: Put down 3 pictures of CVC words and say: "My lion puppet wants one of these pictures. Listen to hear which picture he wants, /sss/ - /uuu/ - /nnn/. Which picture?"

Non-example: ".../p/ - /e/ - /n/ - /c/ - /i/ - /l/. Which picture?" (This is a more advanced model that should be used later.)

When children are first learning the task, use materials that reduce memory load and to represent sounds.

Example: Use pictures to help children remember the words and to focus their attention. Use a 3-square strip or blocks to represent sounds in a word.

Non-example: Provide only verbal activities.

As children become successful during initial learning, remove scaffolds by using progressively more difficult examples. As children become successful with more difficult examples, use fewer scaffolds, such as pictures.

Example: Move from syllable or onset-rime blending to blending with all sounds in a word (phoneme blending). Remove scaffolds, such as pictures.
"Listen, /s/ - /t/ - /o/ - /p/. Which picture?"
"Listen, /s/ - /t/ - /o/ - /p/. What word?"

Non-example: Provide instruction and practice at only the easiest levels with all the scaffolds.