Isolating Phonemes with Susan Robison

Susan Robison: Okay, my friends. Today we are going to practice finding ending sounds and words. I know you've done a lot of work on finding beginning sounds, right, but today we are going to focus on ending sounds. Why do you think that would be important? It's so important for us to listen to all the sounds and words, so we will be able to repeat them, but then eventually be able to read them and write them, right? So we need to hear all the sounds and words. Alright, so what we're going to do today is I have some special pictures for us to name. We're going to name the picture, and then we're going to take our hand and repeat the name of the picture and find the ending sound and tap on it. So for example, if I showed you a picture of a dog, I would say /d/, /og/. And then tap on it again and say /g/. All right. Are you ready?

Students Yes.

Susan Robison: Yes. Okay. Our first word, my friends, and our first picture is, everyone say it together ...

Students: Toothbrush.

Susan Robison: Now, what I'd like you to do is trace your rollercoaster and end at that ending sound and we'll say it twice. Let's go on our rollercoaster ride ...

Students: Toothbrush.

Susan Robison: And what's at the end? Everyone point to that stop sign and say ...

Students: /ssssh/.

Susan Robison: Very good. Who would like to tell me what this is? [Teacher points to a picture.] Yes, Olivia.

Olivia: An instrument.

Susan Robison: It is an instrument. Very good. More specifically, this instrument ... the name of it. Listen very carefully. It rhymes with "larp," but it starts with, /h/. What could it be? Everybody?

Students: A harp.

Susan Robison: Yes. Let's all say that together.

Ms. Robison and Students: Harp.

Susan Robison: Now let's rollercoaster it.

Susan Robison and Students: /H/, /ar/, /p/.

Susan Robison: What's at the end?

Students: /p/.

Susan Robison: Oh, my friends, you did a great job producing your ending sounds today, and it's so important to listen to those ending sounds because it will help us with our reading and our writing.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Literacy How, Stillmeadow Elementary School, and Stanford Public Schools in Stanford, 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, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Susan Robison: This is Reading Universe.