Phonemic Awareness
Explore articles, free downloads, and practical instructional resources to support intentional, systematic phonemic awareness instruction.
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Phonemic Awareness Skills Development Tools
Word lists and teacher prompts organized by a phonemic awareness skills progression, including blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting sounds.
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Sound Boxes (Elkonin Boxes) Printable Templates
Printable sound box templates to help beginning readers segment spoken words into individual sounds and connect sounds with spellings.
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Sound Boxes: Using Elkonin Boxes to Enhance Phonemic Awareness in Early Literacy
Explore what sound boxes are and how to use them to help students hear phonemes and connect those sounds to...
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Blending Magic
Animated blending lines that make decoding practice meaningful, and take the prep out entirely.
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4 Simple Steps for Using Elkonin Boxes to Help Children Lock Words in Memory
Use a four-step routine with Elkonin boxes, or sound boxes, to connect phonemes with their spellings and support orthographic mapping.
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Looking for a bit of ✨magic✨in your sight word instruction? Start here!
Explore the thinking behind effective high-frequency word instruction and how connecting sounds and spellings helps make words stick.
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Are You Ready for Some Good News? It’s Here . . .
Knowing letters and sounds doesn’t always lead straight to reading. Explore how brief, intentional phonemic awareness practice can help connect...
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Helping Children Remodel Their Brains for Reading
Explore how learning to read builds on existing brain systems, and consider the role of instruction in helping children connect...
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Shifting the Balance: Beginning Readers
K–2 teachers, reading specialists, coaches, and teams supporting beginning readers.
Explore the online class →Tools & Classes for Teaching Phonemic Awareness
Explore classroom tools and professional learning designed to support phonemic awareness instruction.
Blending Magic
Animated blending lines that make decoding practice meaningful, and take the prep out entirely.
Explore Blending Magic →Shifting the Balance: Beginning Readers
K–2 teachers, reading specialists, coaches, and teams supporting beginning readers.
Explore the online class →The Shift in a Nutshell
In Shifting the Balance (K–2), Shift 2, “Recommitting to Phonemic Awareness Instruction,” names a common practice to reconsider: “Taking a “bit-of-this-and-a-bit-of-that” approach to phonemic awareness instruction.” The shift it recommends: