Phonics vs. Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonological Awareness: What's the Difference?

Summary

In this educational video, literacy specialist Alison distinguishes between phonics, phonological awareness, and phonemic awareness, crucial literacy concepts for K2 students. She explains that phonemic awareness involves recognizing individual sounds in words, phonological awareness encompasses phonemic awareness plus other sound-related skills like rhyming and syllable blending, while phonics links letters and letter combinations to sounds. Alison offers a free phonics scope and sequence for kindergarten through second grade to aid educators.

Takeaways

• 📚 Phonics, phonological awareness, and phonemic awareness are distinct literacy concepts.
• 🔊 Phonemic awareness is the understanding of individual sounds in words, or phonemes.
• 👂 Developing phonemic awareness skills allows children to identify and manipulate the initial and final sounds in words.
• 🎶 Phonological awareness is a broader category that encompasses phonemic awareness as well as other sound-related skills.
• 📖 Phonological awareness includes rhyming, identifying words within sentences, and syllable blending or segmenting.
• 🐘 Examples of phonological awareness activities include breaking words into syllables and identifying the onset and rhyme in words.
• 🔤 Phonics is the study of how letters and letter combinations correspond to sounds.
• 👀 Phonics involves understanding that certain letters or groups of letters represent specific sounds.
• 📈 As children advance, they learn to connect letters to sounds, which aids in their reading skills.
• 🔗 A free phonics scope and sequence is available for educators to guide teaching in kindergarten through second grade.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Alison's video?

Alison's video focuses on explaining the differences between phonics, phonological awareness, and phonemic awareness, and provides example activities for each.

What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language, such as 'mm', 'SS', or 'ch'.

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds in words, like identifying the first sound in 'sun' as 's' or changing 'c' to 'mm' in 'cat' to make 'mat'.

How does phonemic awareness relate to phonological awareness?

Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness, which involves working with sounds and word parts without using letters or words.

What are some other phonological awareness skills besides phonemic awareness?

Other phonological awareness skills include rhyming, identifying individual words in sentences, syllable blending or segmenting, and understanding onset and rhyme.

What is phonics?

Phonics is the study of how letters and letter combinations correspond to sounds, such as knowing that 'M' represents the sound 'mm' or 'C H' represents 'ch'.

How does phonics differ from phonemic and phonological awareness?

Phonics involves the connection between letters and sounds, whereas phonemic and phonological awareness focus on sounds in words without reference to letters or written text.

What is an example of a phonemic awareness activity mentioned in the video?

An example of a phonemic awareness activity is taking the word 'cat' and switching out the 'c' for 'mm' to make 'mat'.

What is an example of a phonological awareness activity that involves rhyme?

An example of a phonological awareness activity involving rhyme is recognizing that 'cat' and 'hat' rhyme.

What is an example of a phonological awareness activity that involves syllables?

An example of a phonological awareness activity involving syllables is breaking the word 'elephant' into 'el-e-phant' or blending 'ze-bra' into 'zebra'.

What resource does Alison offer for those interested in teaching phonics?

Alison offers a free complete phonic scope and sequence for teaching skills in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, which can be found in the link provided in the video description.