4. Video: See Phoneme Manipulation in the Classroom

Substituting Phonemes with Ashley Powell

In this video, Ms. Powell uses the Touch-and-Say strategy with her students. Notice how they touch the manipulatives (felt squares here) that represent sounds and say the phonemes together. 

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Ashley Powell: All right, first graders. Today we are going to practice listening for individual sounds in words, okay? And we are going to use each one of these squares to represent each sound in every word. So listen to me. Tap out the sounds in the word big What's my word?

Students: Big.

Ashley Powell: Big. So I've got the word big: /b/, / ǐ /, /g/. Big. My first sound, /b/, middle, / ǐ /, last, /g/. Sound good? Each one represents its own sound. Okay? So now I want you to try it. Let's do the word bag, like “I put my groceries in a bag.” What's the word?

Students: Bag.

Ashley Powell: Okay, you're going to tap this one with me. Are you ready? Hands up. What's my word, Manuel?

Manuel: Bag.

Ashley Powell: Bag. All right, ready? Starting from the left, go.

Students and Ms. Powell: /b/, / ă /, /g/ ...

Ashley Powell: … and blend it.

Students: Bag.

Ashley Powell: Good job. All right, so now we're going to practice changing some of these sounds in our word. Okay. Instead of bag. What was this first sound, Manuel?

Manuel: /b/

Ashley Powell: Say /b/. Watch me. /b/.

Manuel: /b/.

Ashley Powell: Good. All right. So instead of bag, we're going to change it to tag, like, ”I like to play tag at recess,” so watch me. I'm going to change /b/ to /t/. Now you do it. Now what's my first sound? Molly?

Molly: /t/

Ashley Powell: /t/. All right, let's tap that one out. Are you ready? Starting at the beginning. My word is tag. What's my word?

Students: Tag.

Ashley Powell: All right, ready? Here we go.

Students and Ms. Powell: /t/, / ă /, /g/

Ashley Powell: Blend it.

Students: Tag.

Ashley Powell: Let's do a completely different word. All right, so our word is pig. Like you see a pig on a farm, right? What's my word?

Students: Pig.

Ashley Powell: All right, let's tap it out. I'm going to listen to you guys this time. Are you ready? Go ahead and starting on the left. Ready go.

Students: /p/, /i/, g/. Pig.

Ashley Powell: Good job. Now, let's say I want to change pig to wig. Like I can wear a wig for hair, right? Molly, to change, pig to wig what sound needs to change?

Molly: /p/ to /w/.

Ashley Powell: Can you say, /w/?

Molly: /w/.

Ashley Powell: Good. Can we all say /w/?

Students: /w/.

Ashley Powell: All right, so good job. Can we change /p/ to /w/? Now we're going to tap it. Are you ready? Set, go.

Students: /w/, /i/, /g/. Wig.

Ashley Powell: Wig. That was so good. Good job. Let's change wig to fig. Have you ever had a fig?

Students: No.

Ashley Powell: It's a fruit! If I want to change wig to fig, what do I want to change? Zenaya?

Zenaya: I want to change /w/ ...

Ashley Powell: Good.

Zenaya: ... to /f/.

Ashley Powell: All right, let's do that. Change /w/ to /f/, okay? Are we ready to tap?

Students and Ms. Powell: /f/, / ǐ /, /g/. Fig.

Ashley Powell: Let's change the word big to the word dig. Like, “I'm going to dig a hole.” What's my word?

Students and Ms. Powell: Dig.

Ashley Powell: Dig. Good. Now, Zenaya, to change fig to dig, what do I need to change? What sound needs to change?

Zenaya: I need to change /f/ to /d/.

Ashley Powell: That's right … to /d/. Can you show me how you're going to do that? Good. Can we all change to /d/? All right. What's my new word?

Students: Dig.

Ashley Powell: Dig. What's my new word?

Zenaya: Dig.

Ashley Powell: Dig. All right. Are you ready to tap? Set, go.

Students and Ms. Powell: /d/, /i/, /g/. Dig.

Ashley Powell: Good job. You guys did such a good job. High fives. High fives.

Announcer: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Eisenhower Elementary School, Enid Public Schools, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Ashley Powell: This is Reading Universe.

Remember, when demonstrating foundational skills with manipulatives, position and move manipulatives so that children see a left-to-right direction. This will be upside-down and right-to-left movements from your perspective.