We talk about Orton Gillingham being multi-sensory. Multi-sensory means we want students of OG to hear the language (auditory), see the language (visual) and use the language as kinesthetic (feel/write).
When we combine these three prongs we get a multi-sensory approach, meaning all of these senses are being used by a student to learn.
The auditory portion of the multi-sensory approach often gets put on the back-burner to the “writing it” and “see it” because it is easier to go through the cards or do a worksheet, but “hearing it” is one of the most important parts of Orton Gillingham.
Auditory exercises should be a part of every lesson and there are many ways to incorporate them into your lesson plans. One way is phonemic awareness.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS VS PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
One of the first ways to introduce auditory skills into lessons is phonemic awareness.
A phoneme is the smallest sound in the spoken word that makes a difference in the word. For example: the word cat – if you change the sound /c/ to /m/, you now have the word mat.
Phonemic awareness is a narrow portion of phonics, and is understanding the sounds in spoken language to make words.
Phonetic awareness will add in manipulating words, syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes.
(Onset is the beginning sound of a word, rimes are what’s left of that word. For example, the onset of din is d-, the rime of din is -in.)
Phonemic awareness exercises are tools you can incorporate to help with phonetic awareness and are a great way to incorporate auditory exercises in your lessons. In phonics lessons as a whole, you would incorporate dictation (auditory lessons) of phonemes, syllables types, sentences, words, and more, into lesson plans.
PUTTING PHONEMIC AWARENESS TO USE
Phonemic awareness is divided into categories to be taught. You would not incorporate all of these in one lesson, but choose a couple at a time to work with and use multiple words in that category.
Be sure to tell the student you are working with sounds by saying something like, “I am going to say the sounds in the word and you tell me the word.”
Phoneme isolation
Recognition of individual sounds in a word.
Teacher says, “What is the first sound in van?”
Student(s): “The first sound in van is /v/.”
Practice!
Teacher: What is the first sound in sun?
Student(s): /s/
Teacher: What is the last sound in jam?
Student(s): /m/
Teacher: What is the first sound in pig?
Student(s): /p/
Phoneme identity
Recognition of the same sounds in different words.
Teacher says, “What sound is the same in fix, fall and fun?”
Student(s): “The first sound, /f/, is the same.”
Practice!
Teacher: What is the same sound in mix, mill and man?
Student(s): /m/
Teacher: What is the same sound in pig, big and hip?
Student(s): /i/
Teacher: What is the same sound in ship, shift and sham?
Student(s): /sh/
Phoneme categorization
Recognition of a word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd” sound.
Teacher: “Which word does not belong? Bud, bun, rug.”
Student(s): “Rug does not belong. It does not begin with /b/.”
Practice!
Teacher: Which word does not belong? Sun, sin, bag.
Student(s): bag. It starts with /b/.
Teacher: Which word does not belong? Cram, drag, crimp.
Student(s): drag. It starts with /d/.
Teacher: Which word does not belong? Dip, pig, dop.
Student(s): pig. It starts with /p/.
Phoneme Blending
Students listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the phonemes to form a word. Then they write and read the word.
Teacher: “What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?”
Student(s): “/b/ /i/ /g/ is big.”
Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in big. /b/ write b, /i/ write i, /g/ write g.”
Teacher: (Writes big on the board.). “Now we are going to read the word big.”
Practice!
Teacher: What word is /c/ /a/ /t/?
Student(s): /c/ /a/ /t/ is cat.
Teacher: Now let’s write the sounds in cat. /c/ write c, /a/ write a, /t/ write t.
Teacher: (Writes cat on the board.). Now we are going to read the word cat.
Teacher: What word is /s/ /k/ /i/ /p/?
Student(s): /s/ /k/ /i/ /p/ is skip.
Teacher: Now let’s write the sounds in skip. /s/ write s, /k/ write k, /i/ write i, /p/ write p.
Teacher: (Writes skip on the board.). Now we are going to read the word skip.
Teacher: What word is /p/ /i/ /n/ /ch/?
Student(s): /p/ /i/ /n/ /ch/ is pinch.
Teacher: Now let’s write the sounds in pinch. /p/ write p, /i/ write i, /n/ write n, /ch/ write ch.
Teacher: (Writes pinch on the board.). Now we are going to read the word pinch.
Phoneme segmentation
Break a word into separate sounds, saying each sound and tapping it out or counting it. Then write and read the word.
Teacher: “How many sounds are in grab?”
Student(s): “/g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.”
Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in grab: /g/, write g, /r/, write r, /a/, write a, /b/ write b.
Teacher: (Writes grab on the board.) “Now we are going to read the word grab.”
Practice!
Teacher: How many sounds are in dig?
Student(s): /d/ /i/ /g/. Three sounds.
Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in dig: /d/, write d, /i/, write i, /g/, write g.
Teacher: (Writes dig on the board.) “Now we are going to read the word dig.”
Teacher: How many sounds are in crunch?
Student(s): /c/ /r/ /u/ /n/ /ch/. Five sounds.
Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in crunch: /c/, write c, /r/, write r, /u/, write u, /n/, write n, /ch/, write ch.
Teacher: (Writes crunch on the board.) “Now we are going to read the word crunch.”
Teacher: How many sounds are in shift?
Student(s): /sh/ /i/ /f/ /t/. Four sounds.
Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in shift: /sh/, write sh, /i/, write i, /f/, write f, /t/, write t.
Teacher: (Writes shift on the board.) “Now we are going to read the word shift.”
Phoneme deletion
Recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.
Teacher: “What is smile without the /s/?”
Student(s): “Smile without the /s/ is mile.”
Practice!
Teacher: What is stick without the /s/?
Student(s): stick without the /s/ is tick.
Teacher: What is cramp without the /p/?
Student(s): cramp without the /p/ is cram.
Teacher: What is trace without the /t/?
Student(s): trace without the /t/ is race.
Phoneme addition
Make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.
Teacher: “What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of park?”
Student(s): “Spark.”
Practice!
Teacher: What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of lime?
Student(s): slime.
Teacher: What word do you have if you add /t/ to the beginning of rip?
Student(s): trip.
Teacher: What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of mile?
Student(s): smile.
Phoneme substitution
Substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.
Teacher: “The word is bug. Change the sound /g/ to /n/. What’s the new word?”
Student(s): “Bun.”
Practice!
Teacher: The word is sum. Change the sound /s/ to /h/. What’s the new word?
Student(s): hum
Teacher: The word is lamp. Change the sound /l/ to /c/. What’s the new word?
Student(s): camp
Teacher: The word is lunch. Change the sound /l/ to /h/. What’s the new word?
Student(s): hunch
Final Word
Just a reminder when taking in this information, phonemic awareness is just one, narrow portion of phonetic awareness. The skills presented here are important for the identifying and manipulating the individual sounds of words. Phonetic awareness is broad and will encompass phonemic awareness, but will also use auditory methods of manipulating syllables, words, onsets and rimes, and more.
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Source: National Institute for Literacy, Put Reading First, Kindergarten Through Grade 3, Third Edition.
