Since we began our school year, I have continually emphasized how the frequently used words (sight words) and phonemic awareness are the “secrets to reading AND writing”. Sometimes it is hard for students to see as they are learning to read and write as well as for those who can already do so. Phonological awareness is the integration of all the phonemes (sounds), vowels, digraphs, rules, syllables (closed, open, vowel team, r-controlled, dipthong) in how words are spelled. As in the message conveyed in the story, “The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants” by Priscilla Turner, stringing only consonants simply makes sounds and noises. However, consonants and vowels together create words and stringing several words together creates sentences. When we have several sentences together, we can make paragraphs. The more familiar students become with these components, the stronger they will be as they progress through the grades. These are the foundational skills needed to become not only proficient readers, but proficient writers as well.

The English we know and use is a tricky language as it is a combination of a few languages (Roman, Latin, Greek, English). Each of these languages brings their own rules and therefore, we need to navigate through them to become proficient. There are many exceptions to the rules we know in addition to many homophones. The more we read, the more vocabulary we develop, which helps to strengthen our skills. There is spell check but if we are not sure which witch to use or which there, their, or they’re to use, the spell checker will be useless. I have noticed that “your” and “you’re” are often interchanged in text messages I receive (from adults). For this reason, it is crucial to not only continue encouraging our children to read many kinds of books but also be aware of how the words are composed (which phonemes, vowels, digraph, rules, syllables (closed, open, vowel team, r-controlled, dipthong are in the words). It is important to be aware of what is happening in words and not take this skill for granted.

Another thought to consider are prefixes, suffixes, and parts of words that are found in words. For example, when we think of the word ‘phone’, we think of cell phone or ‘telephone’. However, phone is also found in words such as ‘phonetics’ or ‘phonemic’ awareness. The definition of phone is “a speech sound or the smallest segment of sound in sound in a stream of speech” (Oxford Languages, 2023). Another example are words that have ‘oct’ in the beginning of the word such as octopus, octagon, octogenarian, or October. All of these words have something to do with the number eight. Octopus is an eight-legged animal. Octagon is an eight-sided polygon and an octogenarian is a person who is in their eighties. October used to be the eighth month when the Roman calendar was used. Since changing to the present Gregorian calendar. In class, I am trying to point out these kinds of connections so that they learn to be more aware of print. Again, the more we read, the more we become familiar.