Teaching+sounds+and+reading

= Teaching sound and letter relationships =

Before actually learning to read, children learn that there is a connection between letters and sounds; the concept of the **alphabetic principle.** Many children will have already grasped this concept, at least partially, before beginning school. Yet many of these will not know which sound connects with which letter, and others may //not// have been introduced to the alphbetic principle before Grade Prep. "Letter knowledge (knowing the letter names) is the single best predictor of first-year reading achievement, and the ability to discriminate between phonemes a close second."(Hill, 2006, p.209) Knowing the names of the letters in the alphabet, and the letter-sound corespondence for each letter, is absolutely essential for continuing literacy achievement; as is the knowledge of **phonemes**. One strategy for teaching letter names and letter-sound correspondence is to use each individual letter in a short word or picture which helps children to remember the letter phoneme. For instance, C could be Cat, or have cartoon ears like a cat drawn on it, with whiskers. These types of play aide learning as they enable children to more easily learn this letter-sound relationship and move onto a new one.



The 'P' words: Phonemes, phonemic awareness and phonological awareness
Phonemes, according to Hill, are the "smallest speech sounds that can be perceived" (2006, p. 117) An example of a phoneme could be the sound 'da', which is often one of the first sounds babies make. Another is 'ma', which is also learnt early on in talking development. Phonological awareness is defined by Hill as "the general ability to pay attention to the sounds of language as distinct from its meaning, and is a more inclusive term than phonemic awareness", which is a more specific term defined as involving "just the sounds" (Hill, 2006, p. 116-117). To have phonological awareness means that a child can read and at the same time be aware of the intonation, stress and timing involved with the text being read. This awareness can be developed using books with rhyming and word emphasis throughout. Hill uses the example the story "The Three Little Pigs" to demonstrate this point (2006, p. 117). By using the rhyming words //of huffing and puffing//, the reader can emphasise them strongly, even asking the children to read along in a funny voice, or encouraging the class to actually huff and puff whilst they say the words along with the story. This will begin to develop a child's phonological awareness within their own reading. The important part of this point is the fact that usually this will entertain young children and thus increasing their ambition to learn. By reading the page on this wiki called 'the need for literacy', it will be clear that appealing to student's interests is the most effective way to learn.
 * Phonemic awareness** is the term involving simply the sounds we use in talking, reading and writing. This awareness is needed for learning literacy, breaking spoken and written language up into small sounds which are used when learning to sound out words, and beginning to write (Hill, 2006, p. 117).