5 Common Mistakes Teachers Make With Phonemic Awareness And How to Fix Them

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Phonemic awareness can feel like one of those things you should be doing more of, but it’s not always clear how to do it well, or where to fit it in. With so much to cover in a day, it’s easy to make small missteps that can slow down your students’ reading progress.

The good news? A few simple tweaks can make your phonemic awareness instruction more effective and easier to manage. Let’s walk through five common mistakes (most of us have made at least one!) and how to fix them without adding more to your plate.

Mistake #1: Avoiding Letters in Phonemic Awareness Instruction

It’s true that phonemic awareness is about working with sounds in spoken words. But that doesn’t mean you should keep letters out of it entirely.

In fact, research shows that incorporating letters into phonemic awareness tasks can actually improve student outcomes. When students blend or segment sounds with letters, it builds a stronger connection to decoding. So while purely oral activities are helpful—especially early on—using letters helps bridge the gap between speech and print.

Fix: Once students are ready, include letters during blending and segmenting practice. For example, show the word map, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /p/, then have students blend them and read the word. Use letter tiles, grapheme cards, or magnetic letters to practice phonemic awareness tasks like blending and segmenting.

Try this: The Phonemic Awareness Task Cards work with or without letters, so you can adapt based on where your students are.

Mistake #2: Skipping the Continuum or Jumping Ahead

Phonemic awareness skills develop along a continuum, from simple tasks like identifying beginning sounds to more complex ones like segmenting full words. But when time is tight, it’s tempting to jump ahead or skip steps entirely.

That can backfire. If students don’t have a strong foundation, they’ll likely struggle with more advanced tasks and with reading.

Fix: Follow the skill progression and stay longer on blending and segmenting if needed. These are the most essential skills for reading, so it’s okay to slow down and give students more time to master them.

Try this: The task cards are organized by skill, making it easy to pinpoint exactly what each student needs next. And you can start wherever your students are. If they can already segment and blend syllables, start on the next skill.

Mistake #3: Only Doing Whole-Group Practice

Whole-group instruction has its place, but it doesn’t always meet the needs of every student. Some kids might already have the skill, while others need more repetition and support.

Fix: Build in time for small group or one-on-one practice for the students who need it. This is where students can get exactly what they need, at the right pace.

Try this: Use the task cards for quick small group warm-ups or during centers. No prep required, you just grab a few cards and go.

Mistake #4: Treating It as a One-and-Done Skill

Blending and segmenting aren’t skills you teach once and check off the list. Students need lots of ongoing practice, even after they’ve been introduced to them.

Fix: Add short, consistent review to your weekly routine. Even 5 minutes a day can make a big difference.

Try this: Use one (or a few) cards each morning during your opening routine, transitions, or in centers to keep skills fresh without extra planning.

Mistake #5: Spending Too Much Time on Advanced Phonemic Awareness Skills

It can be tempting to focus on higher-level tasks like phoneme deletion or substitution, especially when those skills show up in assessments. But the truth is, most students don’t need those to learn how to read.

Blending and segmenting are the key skills that support decoding. These two skills were found to have the greatest reading advantage to readers in kindergarten and firs-grade. Advanced tasks can be helpful for some kids, but they shouldn’t take the spotlight.

Fix: Prioritize blending and segmenting, especially for K–2 students. Save advanced tasks for enrichment or intervention when appropriate.

Try this: The task cards include a full range of skills, but you can focus only on what your students need most.

Want to make phonemic awareness easier and more effective?

Grab the Phonemic Awareness Task Cards for low-prep practice you can use in small groups, centers, or daily warm-ups. With 100+ cards organized by skill, you’ll always have the right activity ready to go.

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