Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonics

I think the only people that know how to pronounce phonemic awareness are elementary school teachers and education professors. Well, probably those in the speech and language field, as well. But definitely not a lay person. And even fewer of the people within these groups know what phonemic awareness is- speaking from experience as someone who couldn't have explained the difference between the two up until a few years ago.

So, what is phonemic awareness? And how does it compare to phonics? Let's explore what these are, why kids need them, and how to develop them.

Here is a quick breakdown of the two:

So, phonemic awareness has to do with what students hear.  And you can bet that if a kindergartner or first grader cannot segment and blend sounds, they will struggle with learning to read. Some activities to promote phonemic awareness are:

• Rhyming activities! Here is a great site with a lot of simple rhymes you can do with your students whole group, small group, or individually. Poetry and nursery rhymes are a great resource for rhyming activities.
• Segment syllables and words. FCRR has great games for segmenting sentences, syllables, and words- whichever fits your students' needs.
• Distinguish between different sounds. This Reading Rockets article has a progression of phonemic awareness activities- from distinguishing sounds to rhyming and then breaking down the syllables and phonemes of a word.

Once students are phonemically aware (do you think that is a real phrase? Phonemically aware...), then we can bring phonics into the mix. That means students need to start recognizing the relationship between the sounds they hear and the letters they see. Phonics is a foundational reading skill that researchers have found should be taught directly and explicitly through a variety of practice activities in order to reach students with various learning styles. Here are some resources for phonics activities:

• Ten Simple Phonics Activities Requiring Little Preparation
• How to Match Books to Phonics Features
• Phonics activities from FCRR

TL; DR- Phonemic Awareness is sounds you hear, phonics is connecting sounds to print. 

What are some engaging activities you do with your students to promote phonemic awareness or teach phonics?