8. Phoneme Manipulation Resource Hub
Phoneme Manipulation Skill Explainer
Erin Kosteva, M.Ed.Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
Assessment
The process of measuring students' progress and providing information to help guide instruction
(active)
Word Recognition
The ability to see a word and know how to pronounce it without consciously thinking about it
(active)
Phonological Awareness
A group of skills that enable you to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words
Articulation
The production of speech sounds.
Articulation Skill Explainer
Syllables
Part of a word organized around a single vowel sound
Onset-Rime
Two parts of a word: onset is the initial sound; rime is the vowel and any consonant sounds that follow it.
(active)Phonemic Awareness
The ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds within a spoken word
Phoneme Segmentation and Blending
- Overview of Phoneme Segmentation and Blending
- When to Teach Phoneme Segmentation and Blending
- How to Teach Segmentation and Blending
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for Phoneme Segmentation and Blending
- Assessing Your Students
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Phoneme Segmentation & Blending
Phonics
A method for teaching children the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters so they can learn to decode and encode
Sound-Letter Correspondence
The relationship between a phoneme and the grapheme that spells it
Letter Names and Sounds Skill Explainer
- Overview of Letter Names and Sounds
- When to Teach Letter Names and Sounds
- How to Teach Letter Names and Sounds
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for Letter Names and Sounds
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- For Students Who Need Additional Support
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Phonics Patterns
Common letter combinations found in words.
Short Vowels Skill Explainer
- Overview of Short Vowel Sounds
- When to Teach Short Vowel Sounds
- How to Teach Short Vowel Sounds
- Videos: See it in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for Teaching Short Vowels
- Student Practice Activities with Short Vowels
- Assessing Your Students
- For Students Who Need Additional Support
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Closed Syllables Skill Explainer
- Overview of Closed Syllables
- When to Teach Closed Syllables
- How to Teach Closed Syllables
- Lesson Plans for Teaching Closed Syllables
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- For Students Who Need Additional Support
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Glued Sounds Skill Explainer
Open Syllables Skill Explainer
Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer
- Overview of Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k'
- When to Teach Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k'
- How to Teach Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k'
- Lesson Plans for Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k'
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- Students Who Need Additional Support
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Consonant Digraphs Skill Explainer
‘-ck’ Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
- Overview of the '-ck' Spelling Rule
- When to Teach the '-ck' Spelling Rule
- How to Teach the '-ck' Spelling Rule
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for the '-ck' Spelling Rule
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- Students Who Need Additional Support
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
- Overview of the FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule
- When to Teach the FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule
- How to Teach the FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for the FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- Students Who Need Additional Support
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
R-Controlled Vowels Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Vowel Teams and Dipthongs Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
'-tch' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
- Overview of '-tch' Spelling Rule
- When to Teach '-tch' Spelling Rule
- How to Teach '-tch' Spelling Rule
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for '-tch' Spelling Rule
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- Students Who Need Additional Support
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
'-dge' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
- Overview of '-dge' Spelling Rule
- When to Teach '-dge' Spelling Rule
- How to Teach '-dge' Spelling Rule
- Videos: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plans for '-dge' Spelling Rule
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- Students Who Need Additional Support
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Consonant '-le' Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Schwa Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words
High-frequency words that have a part of their spelling that has to be memorized
Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words
Multisyllable Words
Words that have more than one word part
Prefixes
How to add meaningful beginnings to words
Suffixes
How to add meaningful endings to words
Language Comprehension
The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words
Reading Comprehension
The ability to understand the meaning of printed text
Text Considerations
Characteristics of a text that impact the ease or difficulty of comprehension.
Strategies and Activities
How a reader approaches a specific text, depending on their purpose for reading
Reader’s Skill and Knowledge
The skills and knowledge a reader brings to the reading task that are necessary for comprehension
Sociocultural Context
Elements in a classroom that affect how well a child learns to read
Fluency
The ability to read accurately with automaticity and expression
Fluency: Accuracy, then Automaticity
Reading or decoding words correctly (accuracy) and reading at an appropriate rate (automaticity)
Accuracy, then Automaticity Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Fluency: Expressive Text Reading
Reading characterized by accuracy with automaticity and expression
Expressive Text Reading Skill Explainer
Coming soon.
Writing
The act of putting thoughts into print using transcription and composition skills
Handwriting, Spelling, and Typing
Methods for translating speech into written words
Handwriting and Letter Formation Skill Explainer
Sentence Writing
Composing a complete statement, question, exclamation, or idea with proper grammar and punctuation
Writing a Simple Sentence Skill Explainer
Sentence Expansion Skill Explainer
- Overview of Sentence Expansion
- When to Teach Sentence Expansion
- How to Teach Sentence Expansion
- Video: See It in the Classroom
- Lesson Plan for Sentence Expansion
- Student Practice Activities
- Assessing Your Students
- For Students Who Need Additional Support
- What the Research Says
- Resource Hub: Videos, Lessons, Activities
Features of Structured Literacy
A systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading based on research
Printable Activities, Videos, and Lesson Plans
Here are quick links to all of the teaching resources in this phoneme manipulation skill explainer. Please use them freely and share them with your colleagues.
Videos
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Ashley Powell: 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 and every word. So, listen to me tap out the sounds in the word big. What's my word?
Students: Big.
Ashley Powell: So, I've got the word big. /b/, /ĭ/,/g/. Big. My first, sound, /b/, my middle, /ĭ/, last sound, /g/. Sound good? Each one represents its own sound. Okay. So now we're going to practice changing some of these sounds in our word. Okay? If I want to change wig to fig, what do I want to change? Zanaya?
Zanaya: I want to change /w/ ...
Ashley Powell: Good ...
Zanaya: ... to /f/.
Ashley Powell: All right, let's do that. Change /w/ to /f/. Okay? Are we ready to tap?
Ms. Powell and students: /f/, ĭ/,/g/, fig.
Ashley Powell: Good job.
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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.
Student Practice Activities
Use the following activities to provide students with practice in deleting, adding, and substituting phonemes.
Student Practice Activity: Spot the New Phoneme
In this free printable practice activity, students will work on phoneme addition skills.
More engaging activities for independent practice:
- Student Practice Activity: Phoneme Detective (opens in new window)
- Student Practice Activity: Changing Phonemes (opens in new window)
- Let's Make a Change: Phoneme Substitution (opens in new window), a Move to Learn Video
Lesson Plans & Materials
The following materials can help with your phoneme manipulation instruction and assessment. The sample lesson plans for deleting, adding, and substituting phonemes, include all of the support resources you’ll need for whole group or small group instruction.
- Phoneme Awareness Word List (opens in new window)
- Reading Universe Picture Cards for Instruction (opens in new window)
- Reading Universe Picture Cards for Student Practice (opens in new window)
- Deleting Phonemes Lesson Plan (opens in new window)
- Adding Phonemes Lesson Plan (opens in new window)
- Substituting Phonemes Lesson Plan (opens in new window)
- Phonological Awareness Teaching Strategies (opens in new window)
- Phoneme Manipulation Assessments for Mastery (opens in new window)
