Segmenting Phonemes with DeAngela Huggins

Students and DeAngela Huggins: [background noise]

DeAngela Huggins: ... All set and we are ready! Our next listening game, we're going to segment or break the word apart into sounds. So I'm going to give you the entire word, and then you're going to help me tap out the sounds. What are we going to do?

Students and DeAngela Huggins: Tap out the sounds ...

DeAngela Huggins: And then you're going to show me on your fingers how many sounds were in that word. Okay. So let's use my mystery word cat again. If we said /k/, /a/, /t/. Let's tap it.

Students: /k/, /a/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds are in that word?

Students: Three.

DeAngela Huggins: Three. So you're going to just show me so I can see that everyone is hearing all of these sounds okay. So you ready? All right. First word, we're going to segment it. The first word is far.

Students: far

DeAngela Huggins: Tap out the sounds.

Students: /f/, /ar/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? [Students hold up two fingers.] There are two sounds in that word. Next word. Let's listen. Listen, very carefully. Chart.

Students: chart

DeAngela Huggins: Let's tap it.

Students: /ch/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? Three. Very good. The next word ... listen ... has a blend ... start.

Students: start

DeAngela Huggins: start

Students: [students count the phonemes with their fingers] /s/, /t/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds?

Students: Ooh.

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds Felix? [students hold up four fingers] Four. There are four sounds. You guys are doing so good! All right. Next word is block.

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: Say the word block.

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: All right. Let's tap the sounds.

Students and DeAngela Huggins: [Students count the sounds with their fingers.] /b/, /l/, /o/, /ck/

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? Four [students hold up four fingers]. Very good. In our last one, because you guys are so smart, the word's going to be smart. What's the word?

Students: smart

DeAngela Huggins: Let's tap all those sounds.

Students: [Students count out the sounds with their fingers.] /s/, /m/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: Smart. How many sounds? [Students hold up four fingers.] Good job you guys give your brains a big kiss.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Burgess Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. 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 DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First book.

DeAngela Huggins: This is Reading Universe.