ALEX Learning Activity

Phoneme Fun Part 1: Deleting Phonemes in Initial Blends

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Hannah Bradley
System:Dothan City
School:Carver Magnet School
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2810
Title:
Phoneme Fun Part 1: Deleting Phonemes in Initial Blends
Digital Tool/Resource:
Phoneme Fun Part 1: Deleting Phonemes in Initial Blends Google Slideshow
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

In this introductory activity, the teacher will introduce the terms phoneme and blend. The teacher will demonstrate how to delete a phoneme (sound) from the beginning of a spoken word that contains a consonant blend (a group of two to three consonants that retain their sound in a word). 

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
English Language Arts
ELA2021 (2021)
Grade: 2
9. Demonstrate advanced phonemic awareness skills in spoken words.

a. Add, delete, and substitute phonemes at the beginning, end, or middle of a spoken word made up of up to six phonemes and produce the resulting word.

Examples:
Addition - Say bell. Now say bell, but add /t/ to the end of bell. (belt)
Addition - Say block. Now say block, but add /t/ to the end of block. (blocked)
Deletion - Say fin. Now say fin, but don't say /f/. (in)
Deletion - Say range. Now say range, but don't say /j/. (rain)
Substitution - Say strap. Now say strap, but change /a/ to /i/. (strip)
Substitution - Say bleed. Now say bleed, but change the /ē/ to /ā/. (blade)

b. Delete the initial sound in an initial blend in a one-syllable base word.

Example: Say prank. Now say prank, but don't say /p/ . (rank)

c. With prompting and support, delete the medial and final sounds in blends in one syllable base words.

Examples: Say snail. Now say snail, but don't say /n/. (sail)
Say wind. Now say wind, but don't say /d/. (win)

d. Apply phoneme chaining that changes only one sound at a time to show addition, deletion, substitution, and resequencing of sounds from one word to the next.

Examples: bit, bet, bat; sat, sit; pit, pat

e. With prompting and support, reverse sounds within a word by saying the last sound first and the first sound last.

Examples: fine, knife; cat, tack; park, carp
Learning Objectives:

Students will demonstrate advanced phonemic awareness skills by deleting the initial sound in an initial blend of one-syllable spoken words. 
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
Before/Engage
Activity:

1. The teacher will present the slideshow to the students.

2. The teacher will use slides 2 and 3 to explain the terms phoneme and blend. 

  • A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word.

  • A consonant blend is two or three consonants that occur together in a word and that keep their sounds. 

3. The teacher will say, "Today we are going to practice phonemic awareness skills by carefully noticing each of the spoken sounds in words. We are going to be working with words that have consonant blends as their initial sounds. We are going to practice deleting the initial sound of each word." Remind students that initial means first, if needed.

4. The teacher will show slide 4. The teacher should say the whole word star and have students repeat it. The teacher should segment each phoneme in the word star (/s/ /t/ /a/ /r/) while clicking the mouse for each sound. Counters will appear in the Elkonin boxes to represent each sound. The teacher should isolate the initial sound (/s/) and have students repeat it. Then, the teacher should say, "Star without the /s/ is tar" while clicking the mouse to make the initial counter disappear. Students should repeat the word tar. 

5. Repeat these steps for slides 5-9, with the goal of providing less teacher support each time. For example:

Teacher: "Plate"

Students: "Plate, /p /l/ /A/ /te/." (While the teacher is clicking the mouse for counters to represent sound.)

Teacher: Plate without the /p/ is.... (Teacher clicks the mouse to make the initial counter disappear.)

Students: "Late!"
Assessment Strategies:

As the students are performing the phonemic awareness tasks during the slideshow, the teacher should be watching and listening to the students' responses. 
Advanced Preparation:

The teacher will need to copy the Google slideshow and review each of the slides prior to teaching the activity.
Variation Tips (optional):

For students who struggle with this activity, the teacher should provide intervention on segmenting initial, medial, and final phonemes. 

For students who excel at this activity, the teacher could provide words that make a nonsense word after the initial phoneme is deleted (e.g. blue => lue, free =>ree). 
Notes or Recommendations (optional):
  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: blend, delete, Initial, one syllable, phoneme, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness