{"id":7,"date":"2017-08-22T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T11:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/elementary-education\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2017-09-18T14:14:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:14:13","slug":"alphabetics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/elementary-education\/alphabetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphabetics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workshop Index<\/a>\u00a0Next Lesson \u27a1<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Alphabetics<\/h1>\n

Objective<\/h4>\n

In the upcoming pages, we\u2019ll examine basic ideas about phonological and phonemic awareness. We\u2019ll review the basic terminology of the discipline (morphology, graphemes, orthography, etc.) and touch on some ideas about how to instruct students in phonics.<\/p>\n

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Alphabetic Basics: Phonemic Awareness<\/h3>\n

At the most basic level of alphabetic basics is the Alphabetic Principle<\/abbr>\u2014the idea that sounds can be represented by symbols. We\u2019ll explore this root concept here, as well as how it applies to teaching young students to read with fluency<\/abbr> and comprehension.<\/p>\n

Words About Words<\/h4>\n

As a discipline, phonology may have more than its fair share of jargon. Let\u2019s review some of the key words.<\/p>\n

Phonological Terms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Term<\/th>\nDefinition<\/th>\nExample<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Phonological<\/td>\nRecognition of the distinct segments of spoken sound: words, syllables, and phonemes<\/td>\nLet’s take the word kitty<\/em>. Students should be able to recognize that the word is composed of four distinct sounds, or phonemes: \/k\/ \/i\/ \/t\/ and \/e\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phonemic Awareness<\/td>\nRecognition of phonemes, ability to segment words into constituent phonemes, ability to blend phonemes and substitute phonemes to make new words<\/td>\nStudents should be able to recognize and recombine phonemes to make new words. For example, a student exhibits phonemic awareness by recognizing that the \/k\/ in kitty<\/em> can also be used to begin the word call<\/em> or can’t<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phoneme<\/td>\nSmallest unit of sound<\/td>\n\/s\/, \/ch\/, \/f\/, \/e\/, \/sh\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Syllable<\/td>\nA word or distinct segment of a word that is naturally pronounced in a single, uninterrupted vocalization<\/td>\ncant
\ncan\u2022ti\u2022le\u2022ver
\nchalk
\nchalk\u2022i\u2022er
\ne\u2022ryth\u2022ro\u2022my\u2022cin
\ngrid\u2022dle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Voiced (and unvoiced) consonants<\/td>\nVoiced consonants make your vocal cords vibrate; unvoiced do not<\/td>\nVoiced: b, d, g
\nUnvoiced: p, t, k<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Morpheme<\/td>\nSmallest unit having meaning: base words, prefixes, and suffixes<\/td>\nbiology<\/em>
\n{bio-}=”life” {-logy}=”science”
\nbiologist<\/em>
\n{-ist}=”one who practices”
\nchokers<\/em>
\n{choke}=”obstruct the trachea”
\n{-er}=”one who [chokes]”
\n{-s}=”more than one<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phonics<\/td>\nStudy of relationships between sounds and their written form<\/td>\nIn the word rock, the first letter, the r, makes the \/r\/ sound. The o sounds like ahh, and the ck sounds like \/k\/. You\u2019ll see the ck after short vowel sounds, like in rock, sick, tack, luck, neck, and chick, but not after long vowel sounds, like in lake, nuke, poke, hike, and cheek. Note too that in words that end with a \u201cvowel + consonant + e\u201d combination (VCE), the vowel is long, which means that it sounds like its name: ay, ee, eye, oh, you.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

You\u2019ll be able to link back to this table down the line, but for now let\u2019s look more closely at some of the key terms.<\/p>\n

Phonemes<\/h3>\n

If we smile and press the tongue to the back of the roof of the mouth and force a burst of air over the stubborn tongue, we\u2019d have the phoneme<\/abbr> \/ch\/. (The slashes tell you that we\u2019re referring to a single phoneme.) You can\u2019t break \/ch\/ down any further if you still want the sound \/ch\/, as in the word choke. Phonemes, then, are the smallest elements of spoken language.<\/p>\n

The fact that \/ch\/ contains two letters is a little frustrating for most of us, but it just happens to be a limitation of the English alphabet that we don\u2019t have a single, unified symbol\u2014a letter, or grapheme<\/abbr>\u2014to represent the single, unified phoneme we hear at the beginning of the word choke. So \u201cch\u201d is also a grapheme, even though it\u2019s two letters. And since these two letters form a single phoneme, we call it a digraph<\/abbr>. The digraph that represents the \u201cch\u201d sound is \/ch\/.<\/p>\n

Here’s how this information may be presented in a test question:<\/p>\n

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Question<\/h4>\n

Which of the following represents the smallest element of spoken language?<\/p>\n

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  1. Grapheme<\/li>\n
  2. Morpheme<\/li>\n
  3. Digraph<\/li>\n
  4. Phoneme<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Reveal Answer <\/a><\/p>\n

    The correct answer is D. If it can be uttered, it\u2019s composed of one or more phonemes, plain and simple. Choice A, grapheme, is the written representation of a phoneme, and is usually the letter (or letters) that make that sound. If the grapheme contains two letters, then it is a diagraph\u2014choice C. Choice B, morpheme, is the smallest unit of a word that has meaning. You\u2019ll find out more about morphemes in a minute.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

    Every little sound of every word ever spoken in any language is a phoneme, though each language makes use of a different number of phonemes in order to say what they need to say. For instance, native Spanish speakers have no problem trilling their \u201cr\u201ds, as the trilled \u201cr\u201d is an important Spanish-language phoneme. Many English speakers, however, find it difficult to produce a trilled \u201cr,\u201d as evidenced by our one-time fascination with repeating a declaration that such-and-such national brand of potato chips has \u201crrrridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

    While it may seem clear that graphemes match up perfectly with their respective phonemes, English is a weird language. Consider this group of graphemes:<\/p>\n

    ghoti<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Of course, this is an extreme example, and goes against all our spelling conventions, but this group of graphemes could represent the animal in this picture:<\/p>\n

    \"Line<\/center>Here’s how:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    gh<\/em> represents the phoneme \/f\/, as in the word enough<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

    o<\/em> represents the phoneme \/i\/, as in the word wo<\/u>men<\/em><\/p>\n

    ti<\/em> represents the phoneme \/sh\/, as in the word nati<\/u>on<\/em><\/p>\n

    Why spend so much time and effort on phonemes when most people haven\u2019t even heard of them?<\/h3>\n

    Keep in mind that we\u2019re talking about \u201cphonemic awareness.\u201d The \u201cawareness\u201d part is key because our short-term goal is to make students conscious of the fact that language is made up of a finite number of phonemes. They can recognize these phonemes, distinguish one from the next, break them apart, and make new words by switching one or more phonemes for others. Once kids have mastered the complexities of onset and rime<\/abbr>, syllabication, and phoneme segmentation<\/abbr>, they\u2019re ready to match those familiar sounds to the letters that represent them; and, of course, that will determine whether they\u2019ll be successful readers and, consequently, successful students.<\/p>\n

    Review<\/h3>\n