Developing Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Skills

Within the Context of Songs and Rhymes

by Nellie Edge

Phonemic awareness is vital to success in beginning reading, and this knowledge naturally develops through rich experiences in oral language. Phonemic awareness is being able to hear the sounds that make up words and knowing how to "play with sounds" orally including rhyming, blending, segmenting, deleting and substituting. These skills are greatly enhanced by memorizing songs and rhymes and creating new verses to well known song patterns. We must remember that it is the child's familiarity with the spoken word that allows their eventual decoding and reading fluency to be error free. Learning songs and rhymes is the most joyful, brain-friendly way we know to develop the oral language necessary for success in reading.

Early literacy research supports teaching letters and sounds within the context of meaningful language. Children should be taught strategies for integrating the language cueing systems as they read: meaning (semantic), sounds of language (syntactic), and shapes and sounds of letters (graphophonemic) while relying on their background knowledge about that topic (schema theory). The rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of songs and rhymes are ideal for supporting early reading experiences and for providing a context to develop the use of all the cueing systems. The following short, focused mini-lessons on phonics are always embedded in real language that has meaning for the child.

Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™ are intended to be first experienced orally in a joyful, relaxed setting. When the child is joyful and relaxed, their brain is the most receptive to language learning. We encourage children to memorize and "play" with the language of songs and rhymes, allowing phonics and letter recognition instruction to emerge naturally.

For example, while I am leading a shared reading experience the children enjoy hearing, acting out and reciting the Big Book Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear several times. Then I might pause, emphasize and point to the "T" and say:

"Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground. What do you notice about the beginning sounds of those words?"

This is the natural teaching moment to present a brief mini-lesson on "T," inviting the children to make the sound and think of other words that start with the sound of "T". We can write a "T" in the air, make it on the palm of our hand, and make shapes of both the capital and small "t" with our fingers. We return to the Big Book and read it again, always letting the children see how the letters and sounds are a part of reading for meaning. During the next reading of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear invite the children to clap or make a "T" with their fingers each time a word that begins with "T" is read. Children's emotional engagement with the language is a powerful hook for learning phonics.

"My goal is for children to become successful independent readers and writers for a variety of meaningful purposes. . . throughout shared literacy time we are continually focusing on graphemes (the twenty-six letters of the alphabet), and phonemes (the forty-four sounds that make up English words), and phonemic awareness (ability to hear the sounds that make up words), and how to use them strategically within a whole text. During choice time the children practice what they are learning as they read, write and play."

To build joy and confidence in reading and to accelerate children's awareness of how printed words work, I teach four literacy songs early in the year. These songs provide some "elaborative rehearsal" strategies with letters and sounds: I Can Read Colors, I Can Spell Cat, L-O-V-E Spells Love, and M-O-M Spells Mom.

Invite the children to sing and read I Can Read Colors, a Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book^™, on the first day of school. Children can predict what the print says using picture clues and then check their knowledge of letters and sounds. After several repetitions of the song, look at the Big Book color words page by page. (Some teachers transfer the language to a pocket chart so that children can manipulate the print.) Ask the children:

"What do you notice about the word brown? black? yellow? red?"

"I can read. Listen to me!

Make a Walk on Chart of this song using a roll of 36" x 72" white butcher paper with large print and color symbols. Stand behind a child, guiding them as they step on each word while reading the rhyme and moving from left to right, and top to bottom. This is a highly kinesthetic way of teaching one to one correspondence between the spoken and printed word.

Consider making large language charts of the following songs that spell:

Permission granted for teachers to make a language chart of the above songs.

© Nellie Edge, 1988

Children quickly learn these songs and proudly sing them to any appreciative listener. They can point to the letters on the chart and learn to finger spell and print them. (See the video Magic of Signing Songs) Combined with the word "I", the young child can soon read, write and spell some powerful emotional phrases:

"I love you." "I love Mom." "I love Dad."

I believe every child deserves to learn these high-utility vocabulary words very early. Many children will write "To Mom, I love you." on their papers all year. Some highly kinesthetic learners may write these words repeatedly before they recognize them in other contexts.

To develop interest in the sounds and patterns of language, introduce I Can Spell Cat, a Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book^™. As children sing about rhyming words that they can spell - cat, rat, hat - they become aware of, and interested in, word families and will start noticing more rhyming words in their reading. Their "developmental spelling" will reflect this growing awareness.

Our Big Books and Little Books all end with the words: "The End". We want children to confidently anticipate chanting and reading those last two words. To emphasize these words, I teach children to recite: "T-H-E E-N-D, The End!" rhythmically, and children quickly come to recognize the letters and words and many write "The End" independently on their own Little Books which they make.

Focus Children's Attention on the Big Book Titles

Ask "What do you notice about the words in the title?" Children will soon begin noticing words like "I" and "love" in I Love the Mountains as we emphasize these high utility words. They may notice that the words "Miss Mary Mack" all begin with "M". This awareness can lead to a mini-lesson on the sound and shape of the letter "M". Another time focus their attention on all the words that end in "s". Children will soon begin noticing and learning ending sounds. Big Books with repeated words like "cat" and "can" provide natural teaching moments to introduce and reinforce the "a" vowel.

Use Children's Names to Teach Letters and Sounds

One of the most wonderful things for the young child is the sound of his or her own name. Teach children to read and write the letters of their names. Use the children's names printed on cards to develop awareness of letters and sounds. "Whose name begins with "D?" "Who has a name that starts the same as Mary?" Substitute your children's names when singing Mary Wore Her Red Dress (Marissa Wore Her Red Dress). Use the melody and rhythm of our L-O-V-E song as a pattern to allow the children to sing and spell their names. You can stretch the melody and sing R-A-N-D-Y spells Randy or E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H spells Elizabeth. Learning how to read and write their classmates' names helps build community. Encourage children to send letters and pictures to each other. Writing teaches reading! Writing teaches phonics! Authentic daily writing experiences will support children's knowledge of letters and sounds.

Bruno Bettleheim's research shows that how a child perceives himself in the act of learning to read generalizes to his or her whole self-concept.

A joyful, appropriate early literacy program develops belief systems that allow the young child to discover "I can read", "I care about reading and writing" and "I belong to a community of learners." Using Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™, with a focus on the joyful sounds of language, builds success and confidence for children at all levels on the reading continuum. This approach to language and literacy is respectful of the young child's natural ways of knowing and learning.

Celebrate language and celebrate childhood!

References:

The following are Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™:

- Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear - I Can Spell Cat - Mary Wore Her Red Dress - I Can Read Colors

L-O-V-E Spells Love and M-O-M Spells Mom are included on the audio cassette

Music is Magic, with Nellie Edge and Tom Hunter.

The Magic of Signing Songs video, by Nellie Edge and Diane Larson, includes the signed alphabet and favorite Big Book songs.

Nellie Edge Resources, Inc.

P.O. Box 12399

Salem, OR 97309-0399

1-800-523-4594 / FAX (503) 399-0435