Welcome to the free preview of the Phonemic Awareness from Renewal of Literacy® School.

For example, the young woman in the image above is segmenting the word cat into its three sounds, or phonemes: /k/ /a/ /t/. If she blends them back together, she has the word cat. If she takes away the first phoneme (i.e., the /k/) she has a new word: at. Etc.

Phonemic awareness is one of the most important things to teach beginning students. Phonemic awareness is one of three literacy capacities students need to learn to read and spell. It is a prerequisite for decoding (or sounding out words) and for encoding (or spelling words by sounds). It is a prerequisite for phonics instruction.

Check out the next lesson to see what happens when teachers do not provide direct instruction in phonemic awareness.