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Skill Explainer

8. Phoneme Identification Resource Hub for Teachers

Phoneme Identification Skill Explainer

Marion McBride, M.Ed.
Video thumbnail for Quick Look: Isolating Phonemes
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Teacher: Let's all say the name of this picture. What is this, everybody?

Teacher and Students: Horse. Horse.

Teacher: Yes. Now, let's rollercoaster horse. Let me see you ...

Teacher and students: /h/, /or/, /s/.

Teacher: What's the ending sound?

Students: /Ssss/.

Teacher: Very nice job.

Video thumbnail for Categorizing Phonemes with Stephanie Fincher
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Stephanie Fincher: Okay. I have a challenge for you. Are you ready for a challenge?

Students: Yes.

Stephanie Fincher: Okay. Here's the challenge. I'm going to say three words, and I want you to tell me which one doesn't belong. So think … it might be the first sound that you're listening for. It might be the middle or it might be the end. We want the one that doesn't belong to where Mrs. Fincher's pointing. Are you ready? Repeat the words after me. My words are cat, cup, fig.

Students: Cat, cup, fig. Fig!

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Okay. My words are pick, down, dash.

Students: Pick, down, dash. Pick!

Stephanie Fincher: Good. Down and dash have the /d/, but pick doesn't belong. Okay. Now we're going to be listening for the middle sound. This is challenging, but you can do it.

Students: Yes.

Stephanie Fincher: My words are bath, dig, math.

Students: Bath. Dig, math.

Stephanie Fincher: Which one doesn't belong?

Students: Dig.

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Okay, let's try another one. We're still looking for middle sound. Listening. My words are west, best, rug.

Students: Rug!

Stephanie Fincher: Ooh, you're quick. Try, everybody say the, repeat the words after me. West, best, rug.

Students: Rug! Rug!

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. That has the /u/ sound, not the /ĕ/. Good. Okay. Now we're going to listen for the last sound. Tell me which word doesn't belong. Are you ready? My words are mad, kiss, sad.

Students: Mad, kiss, kiss. Sad, sad. Kiss, kiss!

Stephanie Fincher: Yeah, it has th /s/ sound. The other two have the /d/ sound. Okay. Let's try one more. Are you ready? Get those listening ears. Pay attention to the last sound. Repeat the words after me first. The words are leg, wish, mash.

Students: Leg, wish, mash.

Stephanie Fincher: What one doesn't belong?

Students: Leg. Leg.

Stephanie Fincher: Leg. Because it has /g/. And the other two have?

Students: /sh/.

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job. You are becoming pros at isolating sounds, blending sounds, and segmenting 'em. And all of those skills are going to help us become great readers. Let's cheer for reading. Readers!

Students: Readers!

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to La Verne Heights Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District, and the Los Angeles County Office 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.

Stephanie Fincher: This is Reading Universe.

Video thumbnail for Recognizing Phonemes with Susan Robison
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Susan Robison: Now what we're going to do is we are going to actually sort our pictures by ending sound. This is a picture of a mouse.

Students: Mouse.

Susan Robison: A mouse, right? And the ending sound for mouse is /ssss/, so I'm going to have my mouse as my /ssss/ ending sound. Okay. Can you find a picture in your mind, right, that ends with the same sound as mouse. So we have ... [Teacher shows pictures and students point at each and say name of each picture.]

Students: Soap, toothbrush, harp, cactus, horse.

Susan Robison: Who would like to raise their hand and tell me another picture that has the same ending sound.

Student: Horse.

Susan Robison: Horse. What's the ending sound?

Students: /ssss/

Susan Robison: Beautiful job. Here's a picture of soap. What's the ending sound, everybody?

Students: /sss/

Susan Robison: The ending sound for soap ...

Students: /p/

Susan Robison: Yes, /p/, the ending sound for soap. /Soooo/, /p/. There we go. That's going to be another picture for .... hmm, we need to find, find a picture that ends with that same sound. We have [Teacher points to pictures, and teacher and students all recite the words.] toothbrush, harp, cactus. What do you think? What do you think?

Student: Harp.

Susan Robison: Harp. What's the ending sound? The ending sound. So we know it's harp. What's the ending sound? Har- ...

Students: /p/

Susan Robison: Yes. Oh my goodness. You did a beautiful job today producing your ending sounds. And this is going to help you with your reading and your writing, because we always have to hear the final sounds in words. Great job.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Literacy How, Stillmeadow Elementary School, and Stamford Public Schools in Stamford, Connecticut. 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.

Susan Robison: This is Reading Universe.

Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.