According to research estimates, a significant portion of children may experience some level of difficulty with phonological skills during their education career.  Phonological awareness is foundational for reading fluency and comprehension. Even older students benefit from continued development in this area as it contributes to accurate and smooth reading, enhancing their ability to understand and interpret texts. Finding ways to incorporate ways to improve phonological issues for students in the core classroom can be tough, but word attack strategies are a good access points for tier one scaffolding during core instruction. These strategies help students decode and recognize words by focusing on the sounds and structures of language. In this article, we will suggest some effective word attack strategies that provide just-in-time support when incorporated during core instruction.  

Tracking Text 

One word attack strategy that is appropriate for all students but will provide just in time access points for students who struggle with phonological issues, is tracking text with a bookmark or finger. Often the eyes of struggling readers are not focused on the text. A strong reader’s eyes stay glued to the text, whereas a poor reader’s eyes often look up from the text, sometimes for approval, sometimes hoping someone will tell them the word, and sometimes the student is thinking about the word’s meaning. They often look at the beginning and the end of the word and guess to try to make sense out of the word because they lack decoding strategies. Tracking the text with a finger or a bookmark assists students in keeping their eyes focused on the text. 

Visual Cues 

Visual cues in the classroom can be a beneficial word attack strategy, especially for older students who may struggle with phonemic awareness. Visual cues leverage the visual aspect of language to reinforce phonetic patterns, letter-sound relationships, and decoding skills. A tool that will benefit students who struggle with phonemic awareness but also support all students is to teach them to use colored highlighters when reading text to visually identify specific phonetic patterns or recurring sounds. Encourage them to annotate their texts with visual cues. Highlighting syllables is a way to aid students in decoding. Use different colors or shading for each syllable to make structure more apparent. Another visual cue that can benefit all students is to use analogies and visual comparisons to illustrate phonetic patterns and sound relationships. For example, compare how certain sounds are pronounced by pointing out similar mouth and tongue positions. A final visual cue that can support all students is to provide reading materials with color-coded text to highlight different sounds or phonetic elements. This visual differentiation can guide students as they decode words in context. 

Phonemic Awareness Activities 

Even when students have a foundation in reading, reinforcing and extending phonemic awareness can still be valuable. There are many game-like activities in which students can engage to increase their phonemic awareness. Students who have already mastered these skills can still benefit from the reinforcement, or these activities could be used in center rotations and differentiated based on the groups. Understanding phoneme segmentation is critical when decoding words.  

  • Phoneme segmentation relays are a fun way to get students to think about the segmentation of syllables. Providing each student or team with a multisyllabic word and having them race to write the number of syllables in the word is a healthy competition that emphasizes a highly important skill.  
  • Students can also engage in syllable sorts by providing them a mix of words with one, two, or three syllables. Students sort the words based on the number of syllables. This enhances syllable awareness.  
  • Phoneme manipulation puzzles are another fun activity in which students can engage. Provide students with word puzzles with phonemes missing. Students must fill in the blanks to create new words by changing or manipulating specific phonemes, thus targeting the skill of phoneme manipulation.  
  • Creating a word chain is also a fun game that students can engage in. In the word chaining game, they start with a word, and students take turns adding a word that rhymes or shares a similar phoneme. The goal is creating a chain of related words, and it encourages students to listen for phonemic similarities.   
  • A fun text-based strategy that increases phonemic awareness is to have a phoneme hunt where students search the text they are reading to identify and mark specific phonemes or phonetic patterns. This promotes phonemic awareness in context. 

In conclusion, building and reinforcing phonological awareness skills contribute to increased confidence and motivation among students. As they experience success in reading and related tasks, they are more likely to view themselves as capable learners. Addressing phonological awareness in the core classroom is essential for ongoing literacy development, effective reading, and success across various academic domains. It supports the diverse needs of students and fosters a strong foundation for continued learning and achievement. 

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