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Stretching a word
The teacher:
• explains that learning to stretch a word will help students to hear and identify the
sounds that make up a word
• explicitly models how to stretch a word, eg ‘Listen to this word … mat. I’ll stretch
it out … mmmaaattt’ (holding each sound for approximately 1½ seconds)
• starts with words that comprise two or three sounds (for example vc, cvc words),
progressing to more difficult examples
• programs phonemic awareness activities that correspond with reading and spelling
activities for the letter–sound relationships students have acquired. This supports students
to develop an understanding of the relationship between phonemes and graphemes
• emphasises the importance of correctly pronouncing each sound
• provides students with multiple and varied examples of stretching words to assist
with generalisation.
Segmenting with a pause between each phoneme
The teacher:
• explains that learning to pull a word apart into separate sounds will help students to
hear and identify the sounds that make up a word
• provides opportunities for students to clap or tap out phonemes (Rose 2006), so that
they recognise each separate sound
• commences with easier segmenting activities progressing to more difficult segmenting
activities, for example:
– identifying the first sound in a word (‘What sound can you hear at the beginning
of
rocket
?’)
– categorising words with the same beginning sound (Rose 2006) (‘Do
bag
and
bin
begin with the same sound?’)
– producing new examples of words starting with the same sound (‘Tell me some
names in our class that begin with the same sound as
top
’)
– identifying class or family members whose names begin with a sound
– finding or drawing pictures of words that begin with a sound
– identifying the phoneme at the end of a word ‘What sound can you hear at the
end of
pack
?’
– identifying the phoneme in the middle of a word, eg ‘What sound can you hear
in the middle of
name
?’
– segmenting words into separate sounds (phonemes), eg /p/ /i/ /t/, counting
the sounds
• identifies the position of a sound in a word
• links segmenting with a pause between each sound to stretching a word, eg ‘The word
is
chip
, first I stretch it so I can hear the sounds
chiiiippp
. Then I pull the sounds apart
/ch/ /i/ /p/. The first sound is /ch/. The middle sound is /i/. The last sound is /p/.
The word
chip
has three sounds.’
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Support Materials for Students with Special Education Needs
English K–6
R
eading
IMPLEMENTATION