The Learning Spark

The Why: I was shocked when I read that phonemic awareness is the most common source of reading difficulties. What!?! Why in the world was I never taught about this in college?  Luckily, it has now become quite a hot topic in education, and for good reason. Before we get into the how of phonemic awareness, let's clear up a few terms that are often confused. First of all, this: (Image from  https://www.theliteracynest.com/ ) I often hear teachers use the terms phonics and phonemic awareness interchangeably, but they are two separate things. Phonemic awareness is an awareness of the individual sounds in a word. When you tie those sounds with print (letters)....it then becomes phonics. Another term that is often confused is phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness is the umbrella term for the knowledge of sounds in spoken language.  Phonemic awareness is a subset skill and is the highest level of phonological awareness.  It is critical that