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Understanding that words are made up of sequences
of individual sounds, or phonemes, is a building block for learning
to decode, or sound out, individual words. Two important abilities
that students must develop are blending and segmenting.
Blending involves pulling together individual
sounds or syllables within words; segmenting involves breaking
words down into individual sounds or syllables. Both processes
require a student to hold the individual elements in mind as the
word is created or taken apart. This ability to hold sounds or
syllables on a ‘thinking counter space’ is facilitated
by a student’s active working memory.
Here are some strategies to help students
develop their ability to decode words by focusing on blending
and segmenting.
Helpful Hints
| > | Use pictures to develop students’ blending and segmenting
skills. Provide students with a picture (e.g. a cat) and have
them sound out the name while placing marbles, drawing marks,
or tapping their fingers for each of the individual sounds in
the word (e.g., /c/.../a/.../t/ is composed of 3 sounds,
thus the child would use 3 marbles, marks, or taps.) (This approach
is known as the Elkonin technique.)
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| > | Let students practice counting syllables by clapping or using
their fingers to tap out the number of different sounds, or
phonemes, in a word.
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| > | Follow a systematic sequence for teaching blending and segmenting
activities to students. Use modeling to introduce the skills
and guided practice as students develop mastery.
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Begin with compound words (e.g., /snow/ -- /ball/).
First have students repeat the components of a compound
word slowly, and then put them together to form one word;
As a next step, ask students to quickly repeat a compound
word, and then to break the word into its component parts
by repeating it slowly.
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Next, move to syllables (e.g., /ev/ -- /er/ -- /green/).
Following the above model, have students first put together
syllables to create words, and then break words into syllables.
Move from two syllable words to three, four, etc.
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Finally, move to phonemes (e.g., /s/ -- /a/ -- /t/).
Have students put together phonemes to create words and
break down words into phonemes. Move from consonant-vowel-consonant
words (e.g., fat), to consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant
words (e.g., flat).
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Give students various opportunities throughout the day to
practice blending sounds to create words, and segmenting words
into sounds or syllables. For example, sound games can be played
while driving in the car, shopping in the grocery store, etc.
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Provide reinforcement for learning consonant blends that are particularly challenging to students. For example,
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Students can play blend bingo where students match words
chosen from a deck of picture cards or called out to them
with the blends written on their bingo cards, e.g. sl, sm,
sn, sp, etc.
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Play a How Many Words Can You Make? game: Students make
words by combining consonant blends and digraphs (consonant
combinations that make a single sound, such as /sh/ and
/th/) with a variety of word endings.
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| | > | Students who are skilled at blending and segmenting words
can benefit from additional practice manipulating sounds and
syllables within words. For example, students may enjoy sound
omission games where they remove sounds from words in order
to create new words. For example, removing /sun/ from suntan
leaves /tan/, while subtracting the /t/ from tray leaves ray.
Begin by asking students to take out initial sounds or syllables,
then have them remove ending sounds/syllables, and finally,
ask students to pull out middle sounds/syllables. |
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