Segmenting and Blending
Segmenting and blending is a strategy to help struggling readers work on phonemic awareness. To have this strategy be effective, students need to be able to separate sounds in words and put the sounds together to make words. According to Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner, 2014, “games, songs, and chants that teachers and parents often sing and play with young children are easily adapted to help children learn to blend and segment” (pg. 169). One way to start this strategy is by using a simple riddle game. You can tell the students you are thinking of an animal that lives on a farm and is a /p/-/ig/. The children are then asked to blend the onset and rime into the correct word (Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner, 2014 pg. 169).
Students will start to get better at developing concepts of print and their ability to identify the individual sounds that are in spoken language. The next step is to connect the spoken words to words and letters that are printed. A good place to start is with consonant sounds. These are the easiest for students to segment (Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner, 2014 pg. 169).
One activity you can use is called Segmentation Cheer:
Segmentation Cheer
Listen to my cheer.
Then shout the sounds you hear.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Let's take apart the word sun.
Give me the beginning sound. (Children respond with /s/.)
Give me the middle sound. (Children respond with /u/.)
Give me the ending sound. (Children respond with /n/.)
That's right!
/s/ /u/ /n/-Sun! Sun! Sun!
Students will start to get better at developing concepts of print and their ability to identify the individual sounds that are in spoken language. The next step is to connect the spoken words to words and letters that are printed. A good place to start is with consonant sounds. These are the easiest for students to segment (Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner, 2014 pg. 169).
One activity you can use is called Segmentation Cheer:
Segmentation Cheer
Listen to my cheer.
Then shout the sounds you hear.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Let's take apart the word sun.
Give me the beginning sound. (Children respond with /s/.)
Give me the middle sound. (Children respond with /u/.)
Give me the ending sound. (Children respond with /n/.)
That's right!
/s/ /u/ /n/-Sun! Sun! Sun!
The main content area the segmenting and blending strategy is best used for is reading. This strategy helps struggling readers break the words apart to see the sounds separately before they see them as a whole. Developing a child’s phonological awareness is an important part of developing a reader. “Many research studies indicate that kids who have weak phonological awareness also have weak reading skills”(Blending and Segmenting Games. (n.d. 2015). Retrieved October 22, 2015).