What if I told you that beginning 4 and 5 year-old students can learn the letter sounds in just a handful of days?!

This two-part video series will demonstrate just that!

Using a simple activity, a four-year old with very little previous exposure to letter-sounds or the alphabetic principle will develop phonemic awareness, letter-sounds knowledge, and early decoding within the course of just 5 days. 

Usually, we would pair activities, such as Build It and Switch It (which you’ll witness in the 2 following videos) with Read It, or even higher level Word Work activities. 

However, for the purposes of this mini-case study, just watching 1 activity across 5 days helps demonstrate the power of starting a beginning reader off with an activity that integrates multiple reading skills simultaneously. Who could imagine that a beginning 4 year-old pre-schooler could learn 13 letter sounds in 1 week with just a few minutes of instruction a day?

Four-year Old Learns Letter-Sounds

Three-sound words in less than 3 days!

[2:24] - What is required before a child can read her first word?
[4:45] - Instructional Waste! The traditional approach to teaching literacy.
[6:45] - Rocket to real reading--Overview
[8:26] - Day 1--Preschooler and Build It
[21:03] - Day 2--Our student shows progress!
[30:29] - Day 3--Picking up the medial vowel!
[39:08] - When is a child too young to try the Build It activity?

Thirteen letter-sounds learned by day 5!

[5:26] - Day 4--Introduce Switch It
[15:59] - Day 5--Confident, happy smiles from a beginning reader!

[If you'd rather read the transcript from the above video, here ya go...]

Learn Letter-Sounds with Simple Activity

Marnie: What if this simple board and the simple activity that goes with it could slash tens if not hundreds of hours from your reading instruction this year and zoom your kids into real reading? How would you feel about that? That's what we're going to be talking about today. How can you slash the instructional waste? Particularly if you have a preschooler or a kindergartner, a first-year classroom, I'm going to have a simple activity that I want to share with you that's going to dump the instructional waste and rocket your kiddos into real reading faster than you probably thought possible.

Learn Letter Sounds blog_How many weeks till reading


Marnie: I'm going to show you some video tonight of a beginner. In fact, this beginner's only four years old, and he's going to do just one simple activity. We're going to see how far he can move in just three days. This is going to be part one of a two-part sequence of this young guy doing just one activity. It's perfect for the preschooler or the beginning reader among us. Okay?

Marnie: There's too much instruction in our beginning classrooms, especially. The reading programs, they are well-intentioned. They don't want the kids to get overwhelmed. And yet the result is such a sluggish start that some kids get behind because they don't really see how everything fits together. Then, some kids figure it all out and they start reading, and then there's this gap, and then, the gap grows. What if we presented how the code works from the get-go for all of our kids and linked the pieces of the puzzle instead of putting them out in disparate parts? We might find some significant differences.

Marnie: Okay. We're going to be talking, as I said, about dumping the instructional waste. Okay? Does that sound like a good idea? This is not to cause you stress, teacher. This is to cause you joy, because you get students reading more quickly, and it's very gratifying. We've already kind of addressed this. You guys think it's four to six weeks. I have mentioned one phonics program that it's ... Let's see, September, October, November ... three plus months.

Marnie: So what's necessary before a kid can actually read a word? If they're going to read with a sound-based decoding foundation and then be prepared to learn more and more and more words, all the thousands and tens of thousands that's necessary to be a mature, adult reader of English, they really need to have a sound-based decoding approach. So if they have that approach and aren't just memorizing words based on visual cues alone, they need these core things. They need the alphabetic principle.

Marnie: The alphabetic principle is just an aha or a concept that our written language is code for sounds. So when we say the word ‘cat’, we are saying sounds /c/ - /a/ - /t/. Those sounds are represented by symbols. C-A-T. But when we say the word ‘shout’, there's some different letters in there, but the same sounds in the same way, /sh/ - /ou/ - /t/, are represented by symbols. S-H O-U T.

Marnie: That connection between sound and symbol is how our code works. Having even that insight that that's how to figure out how to read words, that's the alphabetic principle. You got to have that. Number one. You got to be able to segment phonemically, so pull apart words. Probably starting with short words like CVC, three-sound words. Our student today is going to be doing ‘mat’. He needs to be able to go /m/ - /a/ - /t/. That's segmenting.

Marnie: But he needs to also be able to put them back together, blend them. So if I say ‘sun’, he needs to be able to say /s/ - /u/ - /n/. Tonight, we're actually not going to see blending because I'm going to just show you his first three days. But he might have been able to do it after day two or day three. But I didn't give it to him, I think, until day four.

Learn Letter Sounds_typical curricular approach
Learn Letter Sounds_Key decoding skills

Letter-Sound Knowledge and Beyond

Marnie: The other thing you need for your sound-based decoding is letter-sound knowledge. Of course, you got to know that an M can be /m/, and the letter A can be /ah/ or /A/ or /ah/. But to get started, I find it's not too hard for kids to get started if they just know at least one short vowel sound. That is so true, Jennifer. Once the alphabetic principle catches on, their reading skills and confidence will soar. It's that aha that we don't often give them with traditional reading programs. Why don't we?

Marnie: Well, this is one reason that we don't. We often are told that our reading program needs to introduce letter names first. And then, later on, letter sounds. Then, later on, after that, integrating them into real words. So from the very beginning, when we're just teaching kids here is an S, S as in snake, some kids don't get that what we're talking about with S is connected to the code of the sound S in the word snake. Okay? In this example, they're not teaching letter sounds, even, until week five. These kindergartners, first-year kiddos in this program, which is a well-known program, that isn't going to present really the alphabetic principle because they're not even doing letter sounds. Letter names don't help you at all with the alphabetic principle.

Marnie: That's one issue. That's one thing blocking them and slowing them down. Then, they don't introduce vowel sounds until after week six into week seven. We're six weeks into the school year. You can't read a word unless you have at least one vowel, right? This introduction of vowels in this program isn't really connected to print, so they don't really give kids access to real words until after week 30. Most of the first year has gone by, and then we're suddenly moving into words. That is what I'm calling instructional fat, instructional waste. We can do better than that. We don't have to build each piece from the ground up in isolation. We're going to put it together and that's what you're going to see in the video tonight.

Marnie: Okay, so this is what we're going to see. We're going to see a little boy who's four. He's been in preschool. He has not started formal schooling yet. He's been in three days a week of several hours a day of preschool. It's not very academic. He's had some exposure to letter names, mostly. Not so much letter sounds, not so much phonemic awareness. The first day, I'm going to do this activity with him. We call it Build It. You can call it whatever you want. But all we're going to do is build a three-sound word. He cannot segment except the first sound. He doesn't know very many letter sounds.

Marnie: But guess what? Look at what he does across the course of just three days. We spent about seven minutes each day, seven to eight minutes. First day is nine. I think the other two were seven. In the bottom there, look at all those letter sounds. That's what he's going to be introduced to: A-I-O-M-S-T-D-P-C. In three days? And will he be able to segment three-sound words if he can't do it on day one? Will he get the concept of the alphabetic principle?

Marnie: What do think? And you know it's one on one, because it's an easy opportunity for me, since I don't have my classroom anymore. But this same principles apply in a small group setting. You can even do this in a whole group setting. A lot is happening in this activity. It's integrating a ton of things simultaneously. Hopefully, you will think that it can be something useful for your beginners if you've got them.

Learn Letter Sounds_child progress over 3 days


Learn Letter-Sounds, Day 1

Marnie: Okay, so I just want to play some games with sounds. Okay? How's that sound? A short, little game. We're going to make a word. Let's make a word like ... Hmm ...

Student: How about my name? It's easy.

Marnie: That's a good one, but I don't have all those letters. So how about we try ‘mat’, like to wipe your feet on the mat? Okay? If I was to listen for the sound at the beginning of the word ‘mat’, what would I hear here at the beginning of ‘mat’? What do you hear at the beginning?

Student: /m/.

Marnie: /m/. I think you're right. Now, look carefully. Which one of these is /m/? That's it. Now, pull it down and say /m/.

Student: /m/.

Marnie: You did it. Okay. Let's try the next one. What is the sound that you here right here when I say ‘mat’? You have /m/. What's here in the word ‘mat’?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: I hear /a/. Do you hear /a/ right there? Mat. You hear that /a/?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Can you say /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Okay. Now think carefully. Which one do you think is /a/? Exactly. Pull it down, say /a/.

Student: /a/.

Marnie: You're almost done. Look, you've already built /m/ - /a/. You have the beginning of the word ‘mat’. But what goes over here after /m/ - /a/? You need something over here.

Student: I don't know what it is.

Marnie: Okay. Let's listen. Listen. You have /m/ - /a/. We're going to build the word ‘mat’. /m/ - /a/ - /t/.

Student: I hear a T.

Marnie: I do, too. What sound is it?

Student: a T.

Marnie: But what sound comes out of my mouth? /m/ - /a/ - /t/. What just came out?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Can you copy what I did? /m/ - /a/ - /t/. You said the letter name, but what sound is it when we see this? When we see this, we say /t/. Can you say /t/?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Look at what you did. Did you know you could build a word? You said you didn't know how to read, but you just built your first word. Look, you built the word ‘mat’. Okay? Let's check the sounds. /m/ - /a/ - /t/. Mat. Now your turn. Let's do it together. /m/ - /a/ - /t/.

Student: /m/ - /a/ - /t/.

Marnie: Nice job. Okay. I just want to do a couple more because that was so good for you. How about ...

Student: Candle?

Marnie: That's too hard for me. I'm just not up for that. Let's see if I can get a good word here. How about ‘sad’? Are you sad?

Student: uh-uh (negative).

Marnie: Oh, good. Me either. Okay. Let's listen to the sounds in ‘sad’. What do you hear at the beginning of /sssss/ ...

Student: /s/.

Marnie: I think you're right. That was easy. Look carefully. Which of this is /s/? That's it. Pull it down, say /s/.

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Perfect. Now let's listen for the sound here in sad.

Student :Sad.

Marnie: Sad is the whole thing. Let's try to break it up. You first hear /s/. Now we're going to listen for the sounds in ‘sad’. /s/ - /a/ - /d/

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Okay. That's all right. I'll help you. Right here, I hear /a/. Can you say /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Listen to the /a/ in sad. Did you hear it?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: Okay. So which one is /a/? /a/. That's it. Nicely done. You found the /a/ in ‘sad’. So far, you have /s/. Look at what you have. You have /s/ - /a/. You have the beginning of ‘sad’. What do we need to put here, though?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Let's listen. /s/ - /a/ - /d/. We have /s/ - /a/. We need /s/ - /a/ - /d/. What came out of my mouth when I put the pencil here?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Okay. Let's try it one more time. Can you watch the pencil and listen? You have /s/ - /a/. We need to fill this spot. /s/ - /a/ - /d/.

Student: D?

Marnie: And the sound that came out of my mouth is not D. I didn't say sad-y. I said sad. What's that sound?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: It's /d/. Okay. Hey, you found a /d/. Can you say /d/ when you pull it down?

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/. Okay. Look. You made another word. See? You can read. You made ‘sad’. /s/ - /a/ - /d/. I'm not sad at all. I'm rather glad. What about you?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Are you proud of yourself? Hey, high five. That's not a proper high five. A proper high five, please, mate. Thank you.

Marnie: Okay. You made the word sad. Let's check it. /s/ - /a/ - /d/. Each sound separately.

Student: /s/ - /a/ - /d/.

Marnie: Yeah. This one is /s/ - /a/ - /d/. Sad. Now, are you ready to do one last word or do you need to stop now?

Student: I want to do another one. Just one word.

Marnie: One last word. Okay. Great. Awesome. I'm so pleased with what you're doing. I know a good word for you. Let's do ‘sat’. You sat in that booster, right?

Student: I did.

Marnie: Sat.

Student: Why are you covering them?

Marnie: What? What's that?

Student: Why are you covering them?

Marnie: Oh. I just don't want them to be distracting. I want you to listen for the sound and not here. Is that okay?

Student: Okay.

Marnie: Okay, so you're going to make the word ‘sat’. Can you say it?

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Sat. And let's stretch it out. /ssss aaaa t/.

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Can you stretch it out with me? /ssss aaaa t/..

Student: /ssss aaaa t/.

Marnie: Perfect, okay. What's in the beginning of sat?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Okay. It's hard to think when you're looking at your funny face. Making funny faces. Now let's watch the pencil. Sat. What's that sound right there?

Student: I don't know. C?

Marnie: You knew it. Well just tell me what comes out of my mouth.

Student: /s/.

Marnie: That's it, /s/. Which of these is /s/? Pull it down and say /s/.

Student: /s/.

Marnie: That's /t/. That's /t/. Which one is /s/? Can you say it?

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Good, okay. Now we're going to listen to the next sound in ‘sat’.

Student: /sa/.

Marnie: Yeah, what's that? What came out of your mouth? /ssss aaaa t/.

Student: I don't know this.

Marnie: Okay, let's work on it. Listen, let's stretch out the word with me, will you?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Let's make it long. /s aaaaaaa t/.

Student: /s aaaaaaa t/.

Marnie: Okay, so let's do it again while you're looking. /s aaaaaaa t/.

Student: /s aaaaaaa t/.

Marnie: What was that sound right there?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: /s aaaaaaa t/.

Student: I don't know what it is.

Marnie: I hear /a/. Do you hear /a/?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: In ‘sat’?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Okay, look at it. Right there we hear an /a/. Right? In ‘sat’?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: So which one of these is /a/? Bingo. Say the sound.

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Look you already made /s/ - /a/. What word were we trying to make?

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Sat. So we don't have sat, we have a missing letter. We have a missing sound. You have /sa/, we need to make it sat. Sat. What was that last thing that came out of my mouth right here?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: That's right. /t/. Is this /t/? Is this /t/?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Pull it down, say /t/.

Student: /t/.

Marnie: You made the word ‘sat’. You sat in your chair and you made the word sat. Okay, let's check the sounds in sat.

Student: /s/ - /a/ - /t/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Sat.

Marnie: That was beautiful. Thanks so much, want to smile for the camera?

Marnie: What do you think about the alphabetic principle? Did you see how his brain was starting to get, oh these sounds that she's trying to get me to hear, they relate to those little symbols. Did you see how it was kind of hard for him to unglue the sounds? That's the segmenting, that is the avenue that he needs to take to be able to get the alphabetic principle, to be able to begin to decode, and also to help him learn the letter sounds because they're all linked together. Putting them together this way makes a lot more sense for him. And you can do this whole group, you can do it small group. It goes faster when it's one-on-one of course but it still works in this environment.

Marnie: That activity, Build It, could be powerful. Give them a few sounds, give them a few simple words, and teach a whole bunch of things simultaneously. The alphabetic principle, phonemic segmentation, letter sound knowledge. He didn't know all those letter sounds yet, but he's starting to figure it out in the context of the constrained environment. Just three sounds to choose from. But it was kind of boring if you were watching, and you were like well he's not learning a lot, it maybe seems a little slow, and in fact the first day is sort of slow, but we're going to see a really big jump and by day three he's going to be like this.

Marnie: Are you excited about that? Let me show you day two, and then we'll get into day three. And it's just so fast how this can happen for kids of all types. This is a four year old, remember, so maybe your kids have fewer letter experiences but if they're five or six they can do this. Maybe not three days, many can do it this fast, many, many can. But even if it takes them six days, it's still a heck of a lot faster than six weeks or 12 weeks, which, again, is what we talked about at the top of the hour is common in a lot of reading programs. So day one he could only segment the first sound without my help, but let's look and see what happens on day two. Day two he is starting to segment the end sound, and before the end of the video, just seven minutes of instruction, that's all there was, nothing else. He's going to segment the middle sound. So he's going to be able to segment all three sounds on his second day of this activity as a four year old who has not started kindergarten.

Marnie: So that is what you're going to see today and I hope you find that helpful. That's exactly right, the first sound was easiest, particularly because we didn't use stop consonants. We started with consonants, like mat and sat. Those make them easier to pull apart that beginning sound. And in fact, in December I tested him with this activity and he couldn't even segment the first sound, so then I just didn't do it with him, partly because it was Christmas break and the first sound is a really helpful tool. And then yes, the ending sound is easier, whether a three sound word or a four sound word. And then the vowel is always the sticky wicket, so yeah he follows the typical pattern but he will get to the vowel before the end of the second session.

Marnie: Okay, so let's go into day two, again, keep an eye out for: is he getting the alphabetic principle? Is he getting phonemic segmentation? Is he getting letter sound knowledge? What all is happening?

Learn Letter-Sounds, Day 2

Marnie: Are you ready to make some more words again today?

Student: Yes.

Marnie: Okay. Oh, I forgot. I needed to know how old you are.

Student: Four.

Marnie: This many?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: Awesome. Okay. So let's make the word ‘map’. Do you ever see a map on your mom or dad's phone?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Like a picture of how to get someplace?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Yeah? Can you say the word map?

Student: Map.

Marnie: Map. Now can you stretch it out? /mmm aaa p/.

Student: /mmm aaa p/.

Marnie: Hey you did it. Okay, so let's figure out what the first sound in -

Student: /m/.

Marnie: Oh that was pretty easy for you, okay. Which one of these is /m/? Yes.

Student: /m/.

Marnie: You got it, okay. Now let's listen for this sound. What comes next in /m aaaaaa p/?

Student: Map?

Marnie: /m aaaaaa p/.

Student: Map.

Marnie: /m aaaaaa /.

Student: /ma/.

Marnie: I think you got it, what's after the /m/?

Student: /ma/?

Marnie: /ma/ is two sounds. I hear two. Look with me. /m aaaaaa /.

Student: Map.

Marnie: What's that sound by itself?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: I hear /a/. Do you hear that in map?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Okay, can you say /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Now look carefully, which one is /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: That's /p/.

Student: So this one.

Marnie: That must be /a/. Good figuring. Okay, you got /m/ - /a/. You already built most of the word ‘map’. You've got /m/ - /a/. But we need something over here to make ‘map’.

Student: I thought there was more words and longer.

Marnie: Oh, that's it. Just these two sounds. But you need this sound. What's going to go here?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: Let's look at it. Let's look at it.

Student: Map.

Marnie: Yeah, that's the whole word. Look at my pencil. /m/ - /a/ - /p/.

Student: It's a popping sound.

Marnie: Yes, what is that popping sound?

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: /m/ - /a/ - /p/. What comes out of my mouth right then? /m/ - /a/ - /p/.

Student: It's a popping sound, and I don't know what it is.

Marnie: Well can you copy me? /map/.

Student: /map/.

Marnie: What's that by itself? After /ma/?

Student: /p/.

Marnie: That's it. You did it, let's do it again but louder.

Student: /map/.

Marnie: /p/. Just the /p/ by itself.

Student: /p/.

Marnie: /p/. And is this /p/?

Student: Yes.

Marnie: It is. You made the word ‘map’, okay. Let's check the sounds.

Student: /m/ - /a/ - /p/. map.

Marnie: You got it, okay. I just want to check them more carefully, okay? Let's do it together. Loud. /m/ - /a/ - /p/.

Student: /m/ - /a/ - /p/.

Marnie: Except now, I need you to look at the pictures, this is a picture for /m/.

Student: /m/ - /a/ 

Marnie: Oh look at the picture, not at me.

Student: /a/ - /p/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Map.

Marnie: Map, you made a map. You made the word ‘map’. Okay, how about the word ‘sad’. Are you sad?

Student: That's what we just made last time.

Marnie: I think we did ‘sat’. Didn't we do ‘sat’?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Well do you mind doing it again?

Student: No.

Marnie: Okay, let's do ‘sad’. What do you hear at the beginning of ‘sad’?

Student: That's the same thing.

Marnie: It's similar. What's at the beginning of ‘sad’?

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Okay, which one of these is /s/?

Student: That's easy.

Marnie: When you pull it down will you say /s/?

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Nice, okay listen for the next sound in ‘sad’. /saaa/.

Student: /sa/.

Marnie: /sa/ is two sounds, you're so right. What comes after the -

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Well that's on the right track. Okay. Look down here, try not to look over there. But can you look down here? Right here you see /s/, and then there's another sound. What comes here?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. You did it, oh my gosh I didn't help you. Which one of these is /a/? Oh good memory.

Student: That's a K, I think.

Marnie: This is an /a/. Can you say /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/, all right. Okay you've got most of the word already. Look at it. /sa/. Actually why don't you tap it with your finger? Tell me the sounds. What sound?

Student: /s/ - /a/

Marnie: /s/ - /a/. But that's not a word is it? We need to make the rest of the word, how are we going to make the rest of the word? Sad.

Student: /d/. D. D?

Marnie: Yes, but what sound, not the letter name. /sad/.

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/, you did it. /d/. That's /d/.

Student: I thought that was D.

Marnie: Well you know what, it has a name. The name is D, but when we see it, look at it, for reading we say da.

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/. Okay, check your sounds. Point while you check.

Student: Sad.

Marnie: Yes, that's the whole word. Let's do each one by itself. Point with me.

Student: /s/ - /a/

Marnie: And look at it.

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/. And the word is?

Student: Sad.

Marnie: Are you sad?

Student: Mm-mm (negative).

Marnie: Can you tell me a sentence with sad? Like the boy was sad? Or the girl is, what could we do to finish that up? What do we put there?

Student: I don't know, what can we do?

Marnie: You can put anything in there, the girl is sad, the girl is sad because her dog is lost. Okay, yesterday we did sat but how about we do sit for today? Sit. I will sit, yesterday I sat but today I will sit. Okay? You ready?

Student: For what's basically the same word.

Marnie: It's very similar, it's just one happens now, one happened before. Okay, sit. You will sit up properly. Thank you. Okay, last one. Let's do sit. What do you hear at the beginning of -

Student: /s/.

Marnie: That was so easy for you, which one is /s/? That's /t/, can you say the sounds as you pull it down?

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Very good, now you're going to have to listen. What comes here, /s iii t/.

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Not sat anymore, but sit.

Student: Sit.

Marnie: Sit. Sit. /s iiii/.

Student: /i/.

Marnie: /i/. Wow, you're hearing it, that's hard work. Most four year olds can't do that. Okay, look carefully, hm. Which is /s/? I'm sorry, which is /i/?

Student: I.

Marnie: Perfect, it's the letter I and it can be I but it's also /i/. Can you say /i/?

Student: /i/.

Marnie: See you've got /si/. You've got the beginning of sit. /siii/?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Wow, is this /t/?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Say it and pull it.

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Oh, you built another word. Sit. Check the sounds, point with me.

Student: /s/ - /i/ - /t/.

Marnie: Yeah, sit. Do it again.

Student: /s/

Marnie: Point.

Student: /s/ - /i/ - /t/.

Marnie: /s/ - /i/ - /t/, and the word is?

Student: Sit.

Marnie: Sit. You will sit in the chair and make words. You made three words, are you ready to be finished or do you want to make another one?

Student: I'm ready to be finished.

Marnie: Okay, thanks so much for doing your good work today.

Marnie: He, day one, did ‘mat’, ‘sad’, and ‘sat’. But he could not segment anything but the first sound. Day two he did ‘map’, ‘sad’, and ‘sit’ and he segmented the vowel with the /a/, I think. And then he even added a new vowel so he's done M-A-T-S-D-P and I. So a lot of letter sounds. That's pretty cool, right? Look at what he's done, day one just the first sound segmenting, day two he's segmenting all three positions. Maybe a little rusty and needs a little coaching through it but he's starting to be functional.

Marnie: What do you think will happen on day three? Will he get better at segmenting? And the segmenting is the way that he figures out how the code works, it is the way that he learns more letter sounds, he will get better at the alphabetic principle this way. So the segmenting is really the driver of early reading instruction. And that's not what many reading programs show us, they often lead with letter names and then letter sounds. Yeah, letter sounds are important but it's really the phonemic segmentation, being able to break the words up, that gives the kids the aha about how the code works.

Marnie: So day three, and this will be how we wrap it up. Guess what? It says there on the end he's all smiles, he's segmenting all sounds. Look at the bottom, these are the letter sounds he will have accomplished in three days. He's not a master of them but he is using them with greater, and greater facility: A-I-O-M-S-T-D-P and C. I introduce the last day. Okay? So keep an eye out for all that he's learning, and notice if he gets a little bit more comfortable with this activity.

Learn Letter-Sounds, Day 3

Marnie: I wonder if we can do ‘sad’? I think we did that.

Student: Yeah, we did.

Marnie: It's going to be kind of easy for you then. Sad. What do you hear at the beginning of ‘sad’?

Student: /s/ - /a/ - /d/.

Marnie: Oh, I like how you broke that up, so what was that first sound I hear?

Student: /ad/.

Marnie: There's /ad/ over here but right here at the beginning of ‘sad’?

Student: /d/.

Marnie: Yes, you're hearing all the sounds. What's the first one right here for -

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Which is /s/?

Student: /s/.

Marnie: Wow, okay, and listen to this sound. /saaa/

Student: /ad/.

Marnie: Very good, and /ad/ is two sounds. What's the first part of /ad/?

Student: /ad/?

Marnie: Yeah, can you just say /a/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. Which one is /a/? Look carefully. Oh you got it. Can you say it? Pull it down and say /a/.

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. I like how you said it so short. And the last sound is?

Student: /d/.

Marnie: Whoa, you didn't even need my help. Can you pull it down and say it?

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/. And you made ‘sad’. I'm not sad at all, are you?

Student: No.

Marnie: Let's check it. Point with me and say the sounds.

Student: /s/ - /a/ - /d/.

Marnie: Sad. And what's that last sound again?

Student: /d/.

Marnie: /d/. Sad. Okay, that was just amazing. How about something that's maybe a little different. How about ‘tap’? Like ... do you want to tap the board? It's kind of fun to tap isn't it?

Student: Nah.

Marnie: Not so fun? Okay. Tap. Can you stretch out the word? /t aaa p/. Let me hear you stretch it out.

Student: /tap/.

Marnie: And even longer, /t aaa p/.

Student: /t aaa p/.

Marnie: Oh, that was perfect. Okay, let's see if we can figure out what the sounds are for tap.

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Oh, which one is /t/? Yes.

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Real good. And what comes next in /t aaaaa p/?

Student: Tap.

Marnie: That's the whole thing. Let's try to break it up.

Student: /a/?

Marnie: After the T what comes next?

Student: /ad/.

Marnie: /aaaaa p/.

Student: /ap/.

Marnie: /ap/. We've got these two sounds right here. They're going to be /aaa p/. So look down here, what's this sound right here?

Student: /a/?

Marnie: You got it. Which is /a/? Don't forget to, what are you supposed to do when you pull it down?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: Nice. So you've got /ta/. /ta/. But remember we're trying to build the word ‘tap’.

Student: /p/.

Marnie: Is this a /p/?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Oh my gosh, you're rocking. Tell me the sounds.

Student: /t/ - /a/ - /p/..

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Tap.

Marnie: And can you do that for me? Can you tap? That's nice, okay. Sometimes kids would have found words that start with /t/ too hard but you didn't. So I'm going to try another one. How about ‘tip’, like this is the tip of a fingernail?

Student: Yay.

Marnie: Or you can tip the basketball into the hoop. Tip. Can you say ‘tip’?

Student: /t iii p/.

Marnie: Tip. I like how you stretched it out, can you stretch it out even more? /t iiiii p/.

Student: /t iiiii p/.

Marnie: Okay, what do you hear at the beginning of tip?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Oh, which is /t/?

Student: Hm.

Marnie: Can you say it?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: And listen again for the next sound. /t iiiii /.

Student: /tip/

Marnie: /ti/ is two sounds. What comes after /t/? /t/.

Student: /ip/.

Marnie: /ip/ is two sounds so let's try to break it up. What's the beginning of /iiiii p/?

Student: /iiiii p/

Marnie: What goes right here?

Student: /i/.

Marnie: /i/. Can you say /i/?

Student: /i/.

Marnie: /i/. Real loud.

Student: /i/.

Marnie: And you already know where it is.

Student: Well that's I.

Marnie: It's I, and it's /i/ too. So you've got /ti/. And we're making the word ‘tip’. Like the tip of my nail.

Student: And then the tip of my foot.

Marnie: Uh huh (affirmative), yeah. And what's the last sound right here for tip?

Student: /p/.

Marnie: /p/. Is this /p/?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Can you point as you say the sounds?

Student: /t/ - /i/ - /p/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Tip.

Marnie: Wow, you are flying through this. I've got to really think about what I should give you. Hm. Oh how about cat? Do you like cats?

Student: Yeah. I'm allergic to dogs though.

Marnie: Oh, I didn't know that.

Student: And I have a dog.

Marnie: You have a dog.

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: But maybe one day you'll have a cat. Okay, let's think about the sounds in ‘cat’. What do you hear at the beginning of -

Student: /c/.

Marnie: Okay, and now look carefully, which is /c/?

Student: /c/.

Marnie: You found it. /c/. I like how you said it. Now what's the next sound in ‘cat’?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. Good listening. Which is /a/? Pull it and say it.

Student: /a/.

Marnie: And the last sound in ‘cat’?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Mm-hmm (affirmative), which is /t/?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: Whoa, you're just flying through this. Tell me the sounds, point to them.

Student: cat.

Marnie: The whole word is cat. What's the first sound?

Student: /c/ - /a/ - /t/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Cat.

Marnie: Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I have a question for you. Do you ever see anyone in your family use a mop? A mop to clean?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Do you know what they look like?

Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marnie: What would you do with it if I gave you a mop? How would you hold it?

Student: I'd hold it from the tip.

Marnie: Like a broom?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Okay, so let's stretch out the word /mmm oooo p/.

Student: /m oo p/.

Marnie: Can you stretch it out longer?

Student: /mmm ooo p/.

Marnie: Lovely, okay. Let's think about the sounds in ‘mop’. What's at the beginning?

Student: /m/?

Marnie: Yeah, which one of these is /m/? And then what do you hear next in /m oooo p/?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. I love how you separated it. Which one is /a/? Can you say it?

Student: /a/.

Marnie: /a/. And the last sound in mop?

Student: /m/.

Marnie: /m oooo /.

Student: /mop/.

Marnie: And the last one?

Student: /p/.

Marnie: /p/, that's right, /p/. Whoa we're flying, oh my goodness you built ‘mop’. Will you mop the floors for me later? And clean up?

Student: Uh. I don't have a mop.

Marnie: Okay, good answer because nobody likes to do the mopping. Okay check the sounds in mop for me. Point as you say the sounds.

Student: /m/ - /o/ - /p/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Mop.

Marnie: Oh my, my, my, my, my, my. I'm getting to a point where I can't even challenge you. Hm, what is Ms. Marnie going to do? Hm.

Student: How about we make another word.

Marnie: Okay.

Student: And how about you cut some more paper?

Marnie: I'm going to have to cut some more paper tomorrow, okay? But can you make the word ‘top’? Maybe we'll call it a day.

Student: Okay.

Marnie: Top. What do you hear at the beginning of top?

Student: /t/.

Marnie: Yes.

Student: Hm.

Marnie: And what's the next thing that comes out my mouth when I say top?

Student: /to/?

Marnie: /to/ is two sounds.

Student: /o/.

Marnie: /o/. Which is /o/? Yeah, can you say it?

Student: /o/.

Marnie: /o/. And the last thing, top.

Student: /p/.

Marnie: /p/. I like how short your /p/ are. Okay check it and point.

Student: /t/

Marnie: /o/.

Student: /o/ - /p/.

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Mop.

Marnie: Well, you're so close. This would be mop. But this is /t/. Top. You made the word top.

Student: Top.

Marnie: Do you see it? Can you look at it?

Student: Top.

Marnie: Top. The top of your head. Which is a very smart head. Thank you so much, you did great work today.

Marnie: All right. I just wanted to review, it would be very common for a kid who doesn't know the letter sounds, doesn't know how to segment, probably doesn't get the concept of the alphabetic principle. It would be very common for him to go through a curriculum where he does maybe say the letter names first. And then he does just one or two letter sounds at a time. Doesn't really get to real words for many, many weeks and he is not like that because he just has this simple activity called Build It.

Marnie: So I hope that you will try it if you haven't, and if you have tried it, I hope this gives you confidence about why you're doing it. Knowing some of the tools you're providing to your students. Great question, when is too young? Okay, there is no particular age that is too young. It's great to see if the child, Kim, has the ability to perceive the first sounds in words. The first sound. Once they have that, then I usually get them started into this activity, Build It. They don't have that then I would play oral games, like stretching out the sounds. Oh, I'm going to do some mooooopping. Or I'm going to use the mooooop. Can you copy me and say moooop?

Marnie: Or while you're reading a book, Goodnight Moon. And can you say that funny way with me? Mmmmmmoooooon? So you just stretch it out and get them prepared for being able to unglue the first sound. Once they have the first sound, then they can do this activity, even if they don't know any letter sounds. You'll just put three there up on the board and they can figure it out or you just coach them through it. Oh, no that's not /m/, this one's the /m/, and they start to figure it out in that constrained, controlled, environment. So that's a good question.

Marnie: If you didn't know about this activity, here is the link in there about learning more about Build It. It's a great intro activity for anyone out there who wants to slash the instructional fat this year.

Learn Letter-Sounds plus Phonemic Manipulation

Marnie: When you're teaching your students how to read, and you're guiding them through phonological awareness, do you take several weeks to get to the phonemic level? Do you first have to help them identify the words in sentences? And then the syllables within those words? And then, perhaps, the onset and the rhymes within those syllables? And then maybe some phoneme identity work, and finally getting into segmenting and blending and then maybe the hardest level of phonemic manipulation? Does all of that fit how your reading curriculum guides you to get at the phonemic level of reading? Well, I'm going to encourage you to consider that you don't have to do most of that pre-work. You can go straight to the phonemic level, the segmenting, the blending, and even the harder phonemic manipulation level and save a heck of a lot of time.

Marnie: Hi, I'm Dr. Marnie Ginsberg from Reading Simplified. And it's our mission to streamline reading instruction and accelerate students' reading achievement. And that's what we can do when we zip into the phonemic level and don't go through every single step of phonological development. Well you say, "Well, how can they do that? They have to go to identify the word and they have to identify the syllable. And they have to identify the onset and the rhyme before they could get to the phoneme. Right?" That's not been my experience and there's some reading research that shows that what is really needed for readers is the phonemic level. Rhyming doesn't help with reading. It's fun to do. You may do lots of phonological awareness games. You may teach rhyming. But, if you think that's leading directly and rapidly to real reading, you're probably mistaken. The phonemic level of segmenting, blending, and the hardest level of phonemic manipulation is really where it's all at.

Marnie: So I'm trying to present this concept to you in the context of a young student who's doing one activity for five days, where he's going straight into the phonemic awareness level. Even though he's four, he's had very little exposure to phonemic awareness, very little exposure to the letter sounds. Didn't know the alphabetic principle when we got started. But all of those things together, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, letter sound, knowledge, a little early decoding, all of that's happening simultaneously in these activities that he's doing. He's going to go through five days and really zip along as an early reader, even though he doesn't have much background in word identification skills and phonemic awareness.

Marnie: So we're in two parts. We're in the second part of a two-part series. Last week I showed how this young boy, four-year-old, had done three days in a row with just one activity which we call Build It. But then tonight we're also going to be finishing up. What did he do on day four and day five? Well, he went to a harder level. He went beyond just segmenting into phonemic manipulation, pretty much the highest level of phonemic awareness that we can challenge our students with. And, in fact, this level of phonemic proficiency is what Dr. David Kilpatrick says is really missing from a lot of our reading curriculum. So he's actually going to go straight there on day four. A lot of four-year olds would not be able to do that.

Marnie: And I'm proposing to you, after lots of experience with these activities, that this little fellow is sharp. But it's mostly the power of the activity. So keep an eye out for how this activity can save you time. Check out how he's doing on day four with this activity, which we call Switch It. First I'll give you a little preview. Okay? Here we go. Day four, he's manipulating three sounds with some teacher support. And he gets even better at it on day five. But then check out all the letter sounds that he's exposed to. Not a master yet but, in the context of this activity, he can move around all of those letter sounds, 13 sounds. And, at the beginning, he really didn't know many at all. If you want to see the replay of the first three days, we can link that up into this post so that you can watch more of the first three days.

Marnie: But let me show you now where he's gone now on his fourth day. And why do we switch activities? Because once he could segment three sounds then we wanted him to try something harder, keep the challenge up and keep pushing him to the top level of phonemic awareness that he needs to be able to be a quick reader. And also each day we're going to give him more letter sounds. Okay? So let's check out what happens with our four-year old with day four of an activity which we call Switch It. Notice how his segmenting is going to be better, a lot better than what you saw on day one. Notice how he knows more letters sounds. Notice maybe he's a little bit more confident. And here we go. Switch it, day four with a four-year old. Watch all the reading sub-skills that he's got working for him as a newbie to this whole game.

Learn Letter-Sounds, Day 4

Marnie: We're going to build the word mad, we've done that before. I'm not mad are you?

Student: No.

Marnie: No, no one here is mad right now. Okay, so let's listen for the-

Student: I am mad when Tessa doesn't let me play the monkey thing.

Marnie: You understand the word mad very well, I'm sure. Okay. So let's think about the sound that's here.

Student: /m/

Marnie: Yeah. Which one is /m/?

Student: /m/

Marnie: I like how you said it and pulled it down. What's the next sound in mad?

Student: /a/

Marnie: Ooh, rocking it. Okay. Can you say it?

Student: /a/

Marnie: /a/ Okay. Say it and pull it.

Student: /a/

Marnie: Very good. And then the last sound in mad.

Student: /d/

Marnie: Ooh. Is this /d/

Student: /d/

Marnie: All right. So we're changing this game where you're going to try to switch one sound to make a new word. So you have to listen to what I'm going to tell you. Okay? So you have the word mad. And we're going to make one switch. One of these things is going to switch to make it turn into sad. So you have mad. How would you switch it to make sad? Which one of these will move?

Student: That one.

Marnie: That's right. We don't need the /m/ So what goes here?

Student: /s/

Marnie: Oh, good listening. Wow! And you have sad. Okay. So now we're going to switch it to, don't be sad, from there to sat. You sat in the chair. You have sad. You need to switch something to make it sat. Which sound would you switch? You have sad. You need sat.

Student: That one.

Marnie: That's right. We don't need the /d/ Get rid of the /d/ Okay, get that out of the way.

Student: /s/

Marnie: Yeah, you have a /s/ over here. But what's the last sound that you hear in sat?

Student: /sss aa t/.

Marnie: This is /t/ Yeah, that's right. Okay, so let's check it. Point to each one as you check.

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Okay. Just point? You're right, that's the whole thing. Let's separate it, though...

Student: /s/ - /a/- /t/

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Sat.

Marnie: Hey, sat. Sat. You sat in the chair. And so you've been doing this. Oh, you know what? I've got to increase the challenge. Are you ready? Here we go. Yesterday you sat. Today you sit. So we're going to change one sound to make... Look at it. /saaaa/

Student: /at/?

Marnie: Into sit. Which one's going to have to switch? You have... Oh, wow! That was good figuring. Take it out first. Take out the /a/ Yeah. And you put in what sound? We made /s iiii t/. So what's that new sound? You've got sit right here. Did you know you made sit? But I need to know what this sound is right here...

Student: /i/

Marnie: /i/ That's it. You're listening and... Okay. So we're going to change sit to pit. The pit of a peach is the center. That big seed in the center of a peach is called the pit. Okay? So you have... What do you have again? You have sit. We need to change it to pit. Which one should we take away? Sit becomes pit. That's right, take out the... And what's the new sound in pit?

Student: P?

Marnie: What sound though?

Student: /p/

Marnie: Oh, very good.

Student: ...

Marnie: Our board is kind of small for these letter sounds. Okay, you're rocking this. Okay. You've got pit. Let's check the sounds. Point as you check.

Student: /p/ - /i/ - /t/.

Marnie: Pit. Pit. Okay. Can you switch pit to pat? I pat the dog on the head? Pat. First we have to figure out what to switch. Pat

Student: ...

Marnie: We have pit. Look at it with me. We have-

Student: /p aaaa t/.

Marnie: Yeah, that's where we're headed. We're headed to /p aaaaa t/, but we have /p iiiii t/.

Student: /p/

Marnie: So look at it with me. You have pit. And we need pat. Which one should we take away? That's right. We don't need the /i/. Oh, and you know it was what sound? What's this sound?

Student: /a/

Marnie: ... And you made the word pat. Check the sounds...

Student: /p/ -/a/ -/t/.

Marnie: Pat. Okay. I've got a new sound for you. We just did this one yesterday. We're going to switch pat to pot. Cook the food in the pot. You have pat, switch it to pot.

Student: Pot?

Marnie: Pot. Can you say pot?

Student: Pot.

Marnie: Pot. So you have pat, though. What are we going to take away? Well let's listen in-

Student: /p oooo t/.

Marnie: ... Pat and pot, is there a /p/ At the beginning?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Yeah, and we have the /p/ So watch carefully when I show you the two words. Look at my pencil. You have pat and we need pot. Something... We don't need the /a/ That's right. Get rid of the /a/ And we need to make something new here. /p ooo t/. What sound is going to go there?

Student: /po/

Marnie: /po/ Is two sounds. After you take out the /p/ We have...

Student: I don't know how to do this.

Marnie: I hear /o/ Okay, you've got pot. Which one is...

Student: I don't know.

Marnie: That's /i/ Which one is /o/? It's one of these reds. Oh, you found it... You made pot. Check the sounds.

Student: /p/ - /o/ - /t/

Marnie: Pot. Do you like to cook? Would you ever use a pot?

Student: No.

Marnie: Okay, let's do cot. Do you want a cot is?

Student: No, no, no.

Marnie: A cot is like a bed that you could use at a campground. It's not a fancy bed. It's a very simple bed. It's a cot. Can you say cot?

Student: Cot.

Marnie: Yeah, this is the last one we're going to do. Okay? Then you're going to check out the birds. So you have-

Student: Actually, I want to play the monkey game on your phone.

Marnie: Oh, that's right. We promised that. So you... Look, check with my pencil. Last one you have... Look at my pencil. You have pot.

Student: Pot.

Marnie: And we need cot.

Student: Cot.

Marnie: Like a bed that you use when you camp, cot. Okay. What sound needs to be changed? Well, we need an /o/ in cot. We have... Look what we have. We have /p ooo t/. We need /c ooo t/. What should we change? Pot to cot. Oh, that's right. You figured it out. Now let's look really carefully. Which one of these could be the sound in beginning of cot? What's that first sound?

Student: /c/

Marnie: That's /a/ We need a /c/ Which one is /c/? That's it. You found it. You make cot. We have hardly even worked with this sound... Cot. Can you say cot?

Student: Cot.

Marnie: Thank you so much for... We're going to build a...

Marnie: So that was that young lad's first time into Switch It, which is a very challenging level. He's a four-year old. Remember just four days prior he was barely able to segment three-sound words. And he's still a little rusty. The teacher has to give him a lot of help, right? But he's zooming along because he's segmenting more easily. He's doing some manipulation without the teacher's help. And look at all those letter sounds that he will have added by the end of tomorrow, day five. Okay? Notice in day five if the segmenting and the manipulation is a little easier for him. This is why I'm saying that this type of activity, Build It to start and Switch It as soon as they're ready to segment, can cut out a lot of the instructional fat. We don't have to make sure that they can identify syllables first. We don't have to make sure that they can rhyme. We can dive straight into the phonemic level.

Marnie: And why is this? Well, it's really... Phonemic awareness is not necessary in and of itself. It is just a tool to show students how sounds and symbols lineup. They don't naturally... We don't naturally hear all the individual sounds in a word like stretch. When I say stretch, you are also probably creating a mental representation of the letters. Those letters are a cue for you of what the individual sounds are. And that's a hook, a mental hook, for you that's at the phonemic level. And so it's print itself that helps you figure out how to be more advanced at phonemic awareness. So we need to, if we want to give kids the skills of phonemic awareness to be able to allow them to be a good readers and spellers, we need to tie it to print as quickly as possible. Because we know that research says that phonemic awareness drives early print-reading abilities. But print-reading abilities drive phonemic awareness.

Marnie: It's just this positive, virtuous circle. So let's peek into how our four-year old, again, a beginner who knew who practically no letter sounds at the beginning of this week and could not segment but the first sound in a three-sound word. Let's see how he handles his fifth day of this one activity. Not doing anything else, just this one activity. Today he's moving into his second day of Switch It, because he advanced past the ability to just need Build It and he's doing something more challenging. And it's keeping him on his toes and his teacher on her toes. But see how much more advanced he becomes phonemically. And then also how many more letters sounds he's starting to be able to use with this Switch It activity in day five.

Learn Letter-Sounds, Day 5

Marnie: I have a word here at the bottom and I wonder if you could even read it for me.

Student: It is /m/ - /a/.

Marnie: Put them together, it'll be /mmm aaaa d/.

Student: Mad?

Marnie: Wow! Nice reading. So we're going to play a game like we did yesterday, or a couple of days ago, where you switched one sound at a time. You have mad. Don't worry, I'm not mad. And you need to switch it to had. I had a good time at the museum. Mad. What are you going to take away to make it had? Yeah, no /m/. Get rid of that. Okay, what sound goes there to make had?

Student: /a/?

Marnie: /hhh aaa d/.

Student: /h/

Marnie: You heard it. Now look and see. Which one you think is /h/? We haven't done this. You guessed it. That's /h/

Student: /h/

Marnie: Nice. Okay, you made the word had. You didn't even know this one before. Had. Now point to each sound as you tell me.

Student: /h/ - /a/ - /d/

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Had.

Marnie: Nicely done. Let's switch it to hid. We hid the toy from Hershey the dog. You have had. Look at it with me. You have had.

Student: Had.

Marnie: And we need hid. If you watch the pencil it'll help you. You have had. Switch it to hid. Which one are we going to take away? You got it. Put it up over here. Get rid of the /a/. And what sound goes there to make hid?

Student: /hi/

Marnie: /hi/ Is two sounds. What's after /h/?

Student: /hi/

Marnie: /h/

Student: /h/

Marnie: And then what?

Student: /hi/

Marnie: In hid? What's that sound right there, after the /h/?

Student: /hi/

Marnie: /i/

Student: /i/

Marnie: /i/ Which one is /i/?

Student: /i/

Marnie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Okay. Did you know you could make hid?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Tell me the sounds. Point and tell me.

Student: /h/ - /i/ - /d/

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Hid.

Marnie: Hid. Now let's switch it to him. I know him. He's reading really well. Hid to him.

Student: /m/

Marnie: Yeah. Where does the... What sound do we have to take away? Yeah, we don't need the /d/. But we need a?

Student: /m/.

Marnie: Yeah, him. Check the sounds and point?

Student: /h/ - /o/

Marnie: Oh /i/

Student: /i/

Marnie: ...

Student: /m/

Marnie: Him, you made the word him. Okay. Now we're going to add a couple things to our board. Some new things, new things. Let's make him turn into hill. We had to climb up a steep hill. You have him, switch it to hill. What should we take away? Him to hill? We need an /i/. We don't need the /m/. That's right. Okay? Now what sound goes there to make hill?

Student: /ll/.

Marnie: /ll/. Which one of these do you think is /ll/.

Student: /ll/.

Marnie: /ll/. Two letters, but one sound. /ll/. You made hill. Now check just to make sure you've got it.

Student: /h/ - /ill/ - /a/

Marnie: Yeah, close. Let's go back? /h/. And then this is /i/.

Student: /i/

Marnie: /ll/ Look at it? /ll/.

Student: /ll/.

Marnie: Okay. Now I want you to switch it to will. Can you? Will you switch hill to will?

Student: I can't.

Marnie: You can't?

Student: No.

Marnie: I think you can. You have hill. You need to switch it to will.

Student: Will.

Marnie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). What's that sound that's different?

Student: /ll/.

Marnie: Well, we have a. /ll/. Over here. Look as I point. You have hill. We need-

Student: Will.

Marnie: Will.

Student: Y?

Marnie: /w/. We need a /w/. Where are we going to put it? At the beginning, that's right /w/. Which one do you think is /w/? We haven't done this one before. Oh, that's right...

Student: /w/.

Marnie: /w/. Good figuring. You made will. Check it.

Student: /w/ - /ill/

Marnie: Uh-huh (affirmative). And once you separate these? /w/.

Student: /i/ - /ll/.

Marnie: ... Very nice. Okay. So you have will and we need to add, switch a sound out, to make it win. Don't you like to win?

Student: Yeah.

Marnie: Which thing should we change? You have will. We need win.

Student: Win. /n/?

Marnie: Yeah. We need... We get rid of the /ll/. And we need a what sound there? Win.

Student: /n/.

Marnie: /n/. Okay, look very carefully. This is a new one. Which is /n/?

Student:/n/.

Marnie: Not /m/. But /n/.

Student: /n/.

Marnie: /n/. Yeah, your tongue is kind of between your teeth, behind your roof of your mouth. I like it... You made win. I think you are going to win with all these sounds that you're learning. Aren't you learning a lot? Okay, check the sounds in win. Point? ...

Student: /w/ - /i/

Marnie: Point?

Student: /w/ - /i/ - /t/

Marnie: ... Okay. Let me help you do it, because these are all new sounds. So that's a lot for the teacher to ask you to do. Point and we'll do it together...

Student:/w/ - /i/ - /n/.

Marnie: Win. You can win at a game. Okay. How about pin?

Student: Pin?

Marnie: Pin. You might need to pin-

Student: I know.

Marnie: ... A flower to your shirt one day when you're going somewhere fancy.

Student: I know how to do it.

Marnie: You do? What's different to make win into pin? You've got to take something away.

Student: /i/.

Marnie: We need the /i/ in win to become pin. Yeah we don't need the /w/. That's right. You're figuring this out. What sound do we need to make pin?

Student: /pi/

Marnie: Yeah, but what's that by itself?

Student: /p/.

Marnie: ... Check each sound and tap...

Student: /p/ - /i/ - /n/

Marnie: /p/ - /i/ - /n/

Student: Pin.

Marnie: Pin. Okay, last one. Can you switch pin to pan. I'm going to cook up the chicken in the pan. We have...

Student: /p/

Marnie: Pin.

Student: Pin.

Marnie: And we need pan.

Student: /an/?

Marnie: Yeah. We have /p iiii n/. We need /p aaaaa n/. Which thing should we switch from pin to pan? Is there a /p/ in pan?

Student: No.

Marnie: Yeah, we need to keep the /p/. We're going to try to make /p aaaaa n/. Right now we have /p iiiii n/. Yeah, we don't need the /i/. What sound do we need to make pan?

Student: /an/?

Marnie: An is two sounds. What's the beginning of /an/? Pan.

Student: /p aaaa nnn/

Marnie: /p aaaa nnn/

Student: /an/.

Marnie: /an/ and can you separate /an/ into two sounds? ...

Student: /an/

Marnie: Try /a/. Try /a/. Which one is /a/?

Student: /a/?

Marnie: Yeah, you found it /a/. And you know the /a/. And the /n/. Together they kind of, they make a new sound. So it's a little tricky to make this word, but you did it. Okay, pan last one. Point and check...

Student: /p/ - /a/ - /n/

Marnie: And the word is?

Student: Pan.

Marnie: Nicely done. Smile for the camera. I have a word here...

Learn Letter Sounds_benefits of integrating multiple skills

Marnie: Well, we didn't get a smile. But he had made a lot of progress, don't you think? Across the course of five days with just one activity, we saw this young four-year old move from really not being able to segment three sounds to being pretty good at segmenting three sounds. And even being able to manipulate sounds, which is the harder level. Right?

Just segmenting and blending is important, but it's not as hard as the manipulation level. And that's what he was able to do. In fact he did a lot at that level of Switch It. He's learning how the code works. He's learning the letter sounds. He's learning phonemic manipulation and phonemic segmentation. Because when we push a student to phonemic manipulation then segmenting becomes easier, which is great support for them developing their spelling abilities as well as reading.

Marnie: So I began today by encouraging you to think about how you could slash some waste. There are lots of curricula that say that you need to teach the words in sentences and then you need to teach syllables and then you need to teach onset and rhyme and rhyming. And then then you can get into the segmenting and blending level, at the phonemic level.

You will likely find that you don't have to go through that long sequence. Cut that out. And even cut out some other things like the letter sounds in isolation, letter names first. You can do some things that will create more sense to students with these activities which we showed today, like the Build It and like the Switch It. These are activities that they incorporate multiple skills. They're not just separated things.

Marnie: But these activities do things like reveal how our code works, the alphabetic principle. They reveal left-to-right tracking. They reveal the letter sounds themselves. They're just there on the board and the students discover them. If they don't know them, the teacher corrects them. And they quickly pick them up in the context of words while they're also developing phonemic segmentation, phonemic manipulation. All those beginning things help them get the system of our code worked out. And then they're off to the races with real reading. This is great preliminary work for our youngest students. And if you have those that struggle, head into Switch It if they know a handful of letter sounds and can segment a little bit. Because that will kind of reveal to them, "Ah, this is how the code works."

Marnie: So I'd love to know what you think about this. If you've never tried these activities, share how this is very different from what you do. And if you had tried these activities, Build It and Switch It, share what your results are. I know other people out there, teachers, parents, mentors, tutors would love to hear from you. So please share. And I look forward to seeing you on a future Tuesday Night Live at Facebook's Reading Simplified page at 8:00 PM Eastern. If our technology works, that's when we'll be there. Goodnight.

Your Thoughts About This Letter-Sound Activity

Now it's your turn! What do you think of this Build It and Switch It sequence of activities for young readers? Have you tried this or something like it before?