After a student has learned how to rhyme, she is ready to isolate and match smaller units of sound in a word. When you teach a student to isolate and match phonemes, you should start with the beginning sound, move on to ending sound, and then, finally, focus on middle sounds. O'Connor (2014) writes:
Saying words slowly and blending sounds in recognizable words are both important steps toward phonemic awareness. Another important step is identifying the first sound in a spoken word. This level of awareness is useful for students who are trying to write words as well as to read them because without the ability to pick out a beginning sound and, of course, to represent that sound with an alphabet letter, children have no way to begin capturing the words they want to write with printed letters.[...]
Identifying the first sound in a word is a start toward hearing sounds smaller than syllables; however, by itself, the first sound does not provide the level of phonemic segmentation needed for reading words. In fact, when students cannot proceed beyond hearing the first sound, the only strategies available for reading words are to memorize them or to look at the first sound and guess, which is a very difficult habit to break.[...]
For most students [the medial sound] is the most difficult sound in a word to hear (McCandliss, Beck, Sendak, & Perfetti, 2003).
This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to develop your student's understanding of individual phonemes in a word. These activities are arranged in order of complexity. For the sake of clarity, all of the examples below reference beginning sounds, but the activities can also be used to teach students about ending or middle sounds. As you read, consider which of these interventions best align with your student's strengths and needs in the whole learner domains.
Whether your student is working on beginning, ending, or middle sounds, you should start by teaching the student to isolate that sound in a word. These activities require the student to listen to a word and identify a sound in a particular position in the word.
To support your student's ability to isolate beginning, ending, or middle sounds, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. Here's an example of what it would sound like to teach a student to isolate beginning sounds (the same general format can be used for ending and middle sounds):
Show the student an image. Ask the student to name the item and tell you its beginning sound. Repeat the process with a series of picture cards. "I'm going to show you a picture, I want you to tell me the beginning sound. Say the name of the picture, then the sound." [Show picture] "Piano, /p/."
Identify the Beginning Sound in Action
Watch this clip to see this intervention in action. Implementation note: During reading intervention, it is recommended that the teacher prompt the student to repeat the original word before completing the isolation task.
Have the student repeat a sound. Then show an object. Ask if that object starts with the sound. Repeat with a series of objects. "Say the sound /j/" "/j/" "I'm going to show you an object, I want you to tell me if it starts with /j/. Ready?" [Put a toothbrush on the table.] "Toothbrush." "No." "What does toothbrush start with?" "/t/."
Sound or No Sound in Action
Watch this clip to see this intervention in action. Implementation note: During reading intervention, it is recommended that the teacher prompt the student to repeat the original word before completing the isolation task.
Show the student a set of picture cards. Ask the student to find a picture that starts with a specific sound. "First we are just going to say the names of three picture cards. This is a ______? This is a ________? This is a _________? Which picture starts with /p/? How do you know?"
Find the Sound in Action
Watch this clip to see this intervention in action. Implementation note: During reading intervention, it is recommended that the teacher prompt the student to repeat the original word before completing the isolation task.
Say a sound and have the student repeat it. Ask the student to yell 'buzz!' anytime you say a word that starts with that sound. Tell the student a story. "Say /b/. Anytime you hear me say a word that starts with the sound /b/, say buzz. Once upon a time, there was a family of bears." "Buzz!"
Buzz! The Sound in Action
Watch this clip to see this intervention in action. Implementation note: During reading intervention, it is recommended that the teacher prompt the student to repeat the original word before completing the isolation task.
When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your student will make errors throughout the activity. Here is a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and some students might respond better to different types of feedback than others.
Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught a lesson about how to isolate beginning sounds:
Teacher: "What's the beginning sound in the word cat?"
Student: "/t/ is the beginning sound in cat."
In such a case, what might you do?
Feedback During the Lesson
| Level of Support | Description of Scaffold | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest scaffold | Try Again! You are seeking to discover if the student accidentally mixed up the beginning and ending sounds, or if the student is not hearing the beginning sound. The type of feedback you will give the student depends on the type of error the student is making. Allow multiple opportunities to practice. | "That's the ending sound. See if you can isolate the beginning sound in the word cat." |
| Medium scaffold | Provide resources. Allows the student to use resources or prompts to figure out the answer (including helpful supports such as examples or strategies that allow students to focus on the sounds).
|
"I'm going to say the word cat slowly. Ready? cccaaaaaattttt. What was the beginning sound you heard?" |
| Highest scaffold | Model, Lead, Test, Retest. Model for the student using this gradual release correction procedure adopted from Carnine, D.W., Silbert, J., Kame'enui, E. J. & Tarver, S. G. (2004). Direct instruction reading (4th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. | 1. Teacher says the correct answer. "/k/." 2. Teacher models: "My turn. What is the beginning sound in cat?" (Signal.) "/k/." 3. Teacher leads: "Let's do it together. What is the beginning sound in cat?" (Signal.) "/k/."(Teacher responds with the students.) 4. Teacher tests: "Your turn. What is the beginning sound in cat?" (Signal.) "/k/." |
If your student struggles to meet your objective, there are various techniques that you might try to adjust the activity to your student's needs.
| Activity | Description of Strategy | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Isolating Sounds | Stretch it first. To teach a student to locate and identify the first sound of spoken words, begin by asking him to say a word slowly several times (stretched segmenting). On the third trial, stop the student when he gets to the target sound. Repeat the activity with 5-8 words each day for several days. When a child can stop on the first sound easily and seldom make errors, ask him to identify the first sound without stretching the whole word: mitt. “What is the first sound you hear in mitt?” | “Now say fog slowly and I will stop you.”As they begin to articulate clearly the stretched f sound, stop students and ask them what sound they made. “Stop. What sound was that? Yes, /f/ is the first sound in fog." |
| Stretch it last. To teach a student to locate and identify the last sound of spoken words, begin by asking him to say a word slowly several times. On the third trial, stop the student when he gets to the target sound. Repeat the activity with 5-8 words each day for several days. When a student can stop on the last sound easily and seldom make errors, ask him to identify the last sound without stretching the whole word: Mitt. What's the last sound you hear in mitt? | “Now say rain slowly, and I will stop you.” (Students say “/rrraaainnn/.”) As they clearly articulate the stretched last sound (“/nnn/”), stop them and ask what sound they made: “Stop. What sound was that? Yes, /nnn/ is the last sound in rain.” |