Phonemic Awareness
The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and
phonemic awareness. (Adams, 1990)
Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words are made up of individual
sounds, which are called phonemes. A child who is phonemically aware is able to
isolate sounds, manipulate the sounds, blend and segment the sounds into spoken and
written words.
All students in Kindergarten and 1st grade now begin their ELA lesson each day with a
10 minute lesson phonemic awareness. Students participate in letter and sound
recognition, as well as word play—rhyming and making new words by changing sounds
in the initial, medial, and final positions, etc. Teachers are using Heggerty Phonemic
Awareness Curriculum for their daily lessons. Students were recently screened to
determine their current baseline skills. Instruction and interventions will be tailored to
fit the needs of the class and individual students.