Building Early Phonemic Awareness

Authors

Tessa K. Sutfin, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow

Abstract

Alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness skills are strong predictors of later reading ability (Stanley and Finch, 2018). Therefore, phonemic awareness and letter-sound relationships are skills that Kindergarteners have a limited amount of time to master. As a result, educators must think critically about the strategies and forms of assessment implemented to ensure they are setting young readers up for lifelong success in reading. The purpose of my study was to determine if explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence would increase student ability to isolate, segment, blend, and decode grade-level text. Strategies included kinesthetic movements of the hands and arms, Elkonin boxes (Ehri, 2022), decoding flashcards, and decodable readers. Additionally, this action research study provides implications for one particular Kindergarten classroom which received the explicit instruction described above. The data for this action research study was collected in a triangulation through daily anecdotal observations, weekly quick screeners, and a pre (form A) and post (form B) test. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect of explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence on student ability to isolate, segment, blend, and decode grade-level text. There was a statistically significant difference in the scores prior to implementing the strategies and after implementing the summarizing strategies. These results suggest that explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence had a positive effect on students' ability to isolate, segment, blend, and decode grade-level text.

Recommended Citation

Sutfin, Tessa K. (2025) "Building Early Phonemic Awareness," Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/ctlle/vol10/iss1/5