Promoting Literacy @ Home
An info & activity page for parents of K-1st Grade Students
Introduction
What is Emergent Literacy?
Language Experience Approach (LEA)
Importance of Decoding and Segmentation for Emergent Readers
Decoding is the method of unlocking the meaning of the word.
Segmentation is the recognition of each sound in a word.
Why are these important?
Segmentation is important so that students can isolate each sound in a word, therefore building their phonemic and phonological awareness (don't fret, we will address these terms in the next text cube). Without students being able to segment words into sounds they loose the concept of reading and they will struggle to write. Having the ability to hear each sound in a word will later on help students pair those sounds with the letter of the alphabet they represent.
Decoding follows along the same lines as segmentation. Think of it like this - decoding is just segmenting on a larger scale. Decoding is the act of deriving meaning from words. Without the ability to derive what words mean students will loose the value of the text and reading will become extremely difficult for them.
So how do you help with decoding and segmenting at home? Glad you asked...
A simple segmenting activity is to say an English word to your child, such as bat, and ask them to tell you each sound in that word. They should respond with /b/ /a/ /t/. This can be repeated with short words until the pattern of recognition is achieved and then you can use even larger words. This is a great activity for busy days or for running errands.
For decoding you can have your child read aloud a story with you and have them try and sound out as many words as they can on each page. Warning: This might be frustrating at first but don't worry, with every book you read your child will get better and better at decoding and therefore less frustrated. Note: If they are really struggling, you can read most of the words in the book and have them sound out just a few to start.
Orthography
Phonology
Semantics
Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
To put this into a definition that makes sense, we will discuss each one of the components.
Phonemic Awareness - ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. We covered this concept in the text cube above when we talked about segmentation. Segmentation is part of phonemic awareness. Students must have mastered this concept to begin reading and writing. This is why it is so important to do simple activities like the one outlined before - "Say all the sounds in the word bat" "/b/ /a/ /t/". This helps students isolate each sound which will later help them attach those sounds to letters.
Phonological awareness - ability to manipulate phonemes and larger units of sound. The larger units of sound that the definition talks about are onsets, rimes, and syllables. See below to learn about what each of those words mean.
Onset
Rime
Below is the link to a printable onset & rime worksheet:
Syllable
A good way to help your child learn syllables is to clap every time they say a syllable. So for "water" they would clap with the "wa" and then again with the "ter."
English as a Second Language
Note: It is important to explain common meanings of English words before beginning instruction and to use strategies such as LEA. (Nath and Ramsey pg. 23)
Using Oral Expression
Textless Picture Books
List of Textless Picture Books to look for at your Library:
Show-And-Tell
Puppets
Did you Know: There are approximately 44 different sounds in the English Language?
Alphabetic Principle
The alphabetic principle states that there is a one-to-one correspondence between alphabet letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes). (Nath and Ramsey pg. 34).
This means that the letter "A" corresponds to all of the "A" sounds. Think of the words apple, father, cat, ape, & ace. They all use different sounds that the letter A can make. How cool!
How to Help your Children Understand it:
Letter-Sound correspondence is very important for students to understand. This knowledge also must be mastered before the student can learn to read.
Here is a link to a ton of printable activities to use with your child:
Helping your Child Master Letter Recognition
A simple activity to use when helping your child master letter recognition is when in conversation take a pause and focus on one word that was just said, such as "smile." You can then ask your child a series of questions to reinforce past principles as well as this one.
"What is the first sound of that word?"
"What letter makes that sound?"
"What sound does the word end with?"
"What letter makes that sound?"
"How do you think you spell that word?" <-- With this help them sound it out!
And Finally...
A balanced approach includes:
oral and written language, books on tape, read-alouds, reader's theatre, show-and-tell, independent reading time, library access as well as the classroom library, pronunciation and fluency activities, comprehension strategies, learning how to sound out words, and higher-level thinking activities (Nath and Ramsey pg. 39).
Until Next Time!
Links to My Resources
Symbaloo http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/edusmu5327
Next Lesson https://www.nextlesson.org
Reading A-Z https://www.readinga-z.com
Laura Hammann
Elementary Education and using art in the classroom is my passion! I am a "geek" when it comes to anything relating to elementary student learning. I also have a drive to incorporate art and student creativity in every aspect of my teaching.