Hug, bug, and rug rhyme! An intervention on phonemic awareness using sound blending, segmenting, and rhyming

Research Question. In what ways will providing a specific set of phonemic awareness activities such as sound blending, segmenting, and rhyming help my kindergarten students understand an early component to reading? Research Activities. This study explores the effectiveness of phonemic awareness lessons focused on sound blending, segmenting, and rhyming to teach early literacy skills. Activities included fun, motivational lessons designed to teach students about sounds and word construction in an oral, small-group setting. Context. This study engaged three students from a self-contained kindergarten classroom at a public, suburban elementary school. The focus students were English language learners, with two speaking primarily Chinese and one speaking primarily Arabic at home. The students spanned ability levels but all needed help in phonemic awareness. One student was on an individual education plan. Method and data. The intervention covered a three-month study. A six-week lesson period utilized interaction with manipulatives, visuals, and kinesthetics that orally incorporated sound blending, segmenting, and rhyming. Students worked in a small group on individual questions and were asked to help each other out when they had trouble. Data sets influencing preliminary research design included preliminary data from a writer's workshop, parent survey, and observation notes. Baseline and post-intervention data sets included a student interview, an initial sound fluency assessment, a sound recognition assessment, and a segmentation assessment. Results. Results showed significant improvement in phonemic awareness over the course of the study. Focus students advanced in all three areas of segmenting, blending, and rhyming when comparing baseline and post-intervention data. Students also improved valuable skills in behavior, ability to follow directions, and teamwork. In addition to segmenting, blending, and rhyming, students improved in other areas of English literacy as well. One student improved from not speaking English at all to being able to speak English with relative comfort. The other two students improved dramatically in pronunciation of phonemes