Literacy Training (all resources)

Context:

The ability to understand that words are made up of sounds is an important beginning reading skill. Language and word games can help children develop the ability to listen for sounds in spoken words. This skill, phonemic awareness, is completely oral, as it involves working with sounds rather than print. This simple listening game helps children develop their ability to listen for and identify initial and final sounds.

Goals:

• To learn about phonemic awareness
• To understand how to develop children's ability to identify and discriminate between sounds

Materials/Preparation:

Tutors will need to collect or draw pictures of objects whose names begin with clear consonant sounds. Pictures should represent objects children will be able to recognize and name, such as bat/bird, cat/corn, dog/door, fan/fish, goat/gum, and so on. Tutors can glue pictures to index cards to make them more durable.

Activity:

Review with tutors the concept that words are made up of a series of sounds. Explain that the word bat contains three sounds, /b/, /a/, /t/. Continue to explain that helping children hear the beginning sounds in words will later help them understand how to associate sounds with letters and to manipulate sounds to create words.

Lead tutors to this understanding by asking them to listen as you say three words and tell you which words begin with the same sound. For example, bat, fall, big. Slowly say each word, emphasizing the beginning sound. Bat and big begin with /b/ while fall begins with /f/.

Have tutors work in pairs to match beginning sounds using their picture cards. (Two pictures should begin with the same sound while the third begins with a different sound.) Invite one tutor to play the role of the child. After a few rounds of play, tutors should switch roles.

Key Questions and Points to Remember:

This same game can be played using ending sounds. Whether listening for beginning or ending sounds, children will need plenty of time and word play to master the ability to identify sounds in words. Talk with tutors about what they noticed as they played the game. Make sure tutors remember the following:

• Don't make the game feel like a test.
• Pay close attention to how you pronounce words when talking with and reading to children.
• Pronounce each picture name correctly, and don't drop the ending sounds in words.