If your student is a beginning or struggling spelling, one of the most important things you can do is teach him how to segment words. Knowing how to segment opens up a whole world of literacy. In fact, it’s surprising that this important spelling skill isn’t taught more widely, especially given how easy it is to teach.
This blog post explains what segmenting is, how to teach it, and how to apply it to your spelling lessons.
And be sure to grab the free printable so you can start teaching segmenting right away!
Segmenting is the ability to hear the individual sounds in words. It improves phonological awareness and long-term spelling ability.
Think of segmenting as the opposite of blending. When we speak, we blend sounds together to make a word. In segmenting, we take the individual sounds apart. For example, say the word ham aloud and listen for the three separate sounds:
In the word shrimp, there are five separate speech sounds. Even though there are six letters, the SH phonogram represents the single sound of /sh/.
A great way to start is with this “Breaking Words Apart” activity.
In this segmenting activity, your child will learn how to hear the sounds in short words. He’ll break apart two-sound words and three-sound words so that later he will be able to represent each sound with a written phonogram.
Segmenting can also be taught using tokens, coins, or squares of paper. You can see a demonstration in the video below.
After your child is able to segment words into speech sounds using tokens, move on to segmenting words using letter tiles or the letter tiles app. It is a simple transition: the student still segments the word aloud, but instead of pulling down a token, he pulls down a letter tile for each sound.
There are three basic steps.
After segmenting words with the letter tiles, the student is ready to move on to spelling with paper and pencil. The student can eventually go straight from hearing a dictated word to writing on paper, segmenting the word in his head if necessary.
Find more great tips for teaching spelling in my free report, “20 Best Tips for Teaching Reading and Spelling.”
This report gives you a glimpse into the proven strategies we’ve used to help over 150,000 amazing children (and adults) learn to read and spell.
Daniella
says:Nice learning platform
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Daniella.
Ssebuggwaawo Robinah Catherine
says:Can please segment for me the word “school” , one, two,
Thank you very much for sharing such wonderful knowledge.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSure, Ssebuggwaawo. School is segmented into its individual sounds, /s/-/k/-/oo/-/l/.
Is there anything else I can help you with?
Ssebuggwaawo Robinah Catherine
says:Thank you very much. The activity is very interesting and enjoyable. This will help me so much to help those who have problem with segmenting words into individual sounds.
Durojaiye Olayinka
says:Wonderful work….it was more than useful.thank you for sharing
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad to hear this was helpful, Durojaiye!
Jenn
says:My 10 yr old is a struggling speller. He has done wonderful on level 1! He is having a problem with differentiating between short (I) and (e), and segmenting when the end sound blends (example: mend, front, shrimp). What can I do to help him?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceJenn,
Distinguishing between short i and short e is a common difficulty, especially for those in certain areas of the US. Check out our 6 Tips to Help Distinguish Between Short I and Short E blog post for ideas and helps.
As for segmenting words with ending blends, first, can your son say the words correctly? If you say mend, can he repeat mend, or does he leave out a sound?
Also, how does he do with reading blends? If he struggles with reading blends, you may want to take a break and work through All About Reading 1 first, and then try spelling again.
If he doesn’t have any trouble reading words with blends, then:
Have you tried the tips on page 66 in the big gray box? First you jump from square to square, and then he does it? I might try that method for a while and then go back to trying with the tokens.
My son struggled with auditory processing in a similar way at this age. Another game I played with him: I would take letter tiles for a word like mend, and mix them up–so I might have enmd. Then I would tell him, “I want to make mend. What letter comes first?” He pulls down the M. “Great! What is the next sound?” and so on. Sometimes he might make the word incorrectly. So I might say, “Oh, I would read that ‘medn.’ That’s different from mend, isn’t it? (emphasizing the d before the nnnnn). Do you know how to change this to make mennnnd?”
Another one you can do is to start with a word like med. If he can build it with tiles, great, let him do that. Then say, “Now I want to change med into mend. That one has another sound, doesn’t it? How can I make mend?” Then you could talk about med. “Med has 3 sounds, doesn’t it? Let’s count them (use the tokens). Good! Now if I change it to mend, how many sounds does that have? Let’s count them.” Try to have him say each sound. If he misses one, you could say, “Let’s try again, listen closely,” and you then say the sounds while he pulls down a token for each sound. Then after you segment a word, say, “Ok, now you try it, you say the sounds in this word,” and see if he can say them all while jumping or pulling down tokens.
Some sounds get muffled together. If the /n/ sound in mend is getting lost, make sure you really punctuate that /n/ sound when you say it. Also, have him watch your mouth while you say the sounds. Mend is a good word to pick on because you can drag out every sound, /mmmmm/ /eeeee/ /nnnnn/ except the final /d/. Give a little pause between each one, then do it again with a long slow blend, and then again blending it fast (we used to say, “say it slow,” and “say it fast.”)
Keep the lessons short & upbeat. If it’s getting to be nicer weather, you could take your lesson outside with some sidewalk chalk too & let him jump out there from square to square. Don’t be afraid to camp out on this lesson for a while nad just do a few words each day. I think it will pay off. I know my son especially had some long plateaus when he was learning to read and spell, and this one (beginning and ending consonant blends) is one we spent some time on.
I hope this helps some. I would love to hear how it goes after a week or two of working on it.
Marija
says:This program is a wonderful tool for my 7 year old struggling reader and speller. I started AAR1 in second semester of a 1st grade. Before the program, he could hardly read a few CVC words, couldn’t spell correctly any words…..We finished AAR1 in about 8 months, started AAR2 and AAS1. I am so happy to see how my child reads now, and how successfully spells words from the program!
I also use AAS program for my 4th grader, who had trouble with spelling. He also benefits greatly from your program.
Thank you very much!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m so pleased to hear how well your child has progressed with All About Reading, Marija! He has made such great progress. Keep up the great work!
morina
says:great program and really usefull.thank you very much.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Morina!
Marilyn Fergus
says:I am excited to learn about this program. Not only for my dyslexic grandchildren, but for my 75 year old husband who has never learned to spell and is a SUPER SLOW reader.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad you have found our program and website helpful, Marilyn! If you haven’t seen it yet, we have a Dyslexia Resources page that I think you will find useful as well.
Let me know if you need anything or have any questions.
Amy
says:This is helpful as we get started with All About Spelling 1!
Melissa
says:This method has been very helpful to my son who has always struggled with spelling.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceGreat to hear this method is helpful for your son, Melissa! Thank you.
Dacia Bergeson
says:This is great! We love All About Spelling so far!
Jennifer
says:We do this with my five year old daughter to work on spelling and she’s doing a wonderful job!
Katie
says:This program has been a tremendous help with my dyslexic daughter! So much improvement. Thank you!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceGreat to hear, Katie! I love that All About Spelling is helping your daughter so.
Amanda
says:Very handy, thanks.
Rebecca m
says:My daughter is finally starting to take off with reading so we’re working on spelling. This is useful info.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this is useful for you, Rebecca. If you have any questions, please just let me know.
Meghan Blankenship
says:I can’t wait to get my kit in for my daughter! She previously attended a private school and has trouble reading AND spelling! I have high hopes for AAR/S!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMeghan,
Let me know if you have any questions, need help with placement, or need anything else, please just let me know.
Jillian Too
says:It looks like a very helpful activity.
Jess J
says:Just downloaded this activity because I feel like we’ve been rushing through spelling and not really giving it the attention it requires. Thank you for continuing to provide fun activities for me and my kids :)
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re very welcome, Jess!
Debbie Saenz
says:Excited to try the activity. I am going to start practicing spelling with my 6 year olds as we are just finishing level 1
Janell
says:Any time my daughter struggles with a spelling concept or particular word, I bring her back to this basic because I realize that she isn’t stopping to hear the sounds in the words. She likes to skip over this step. Thanks for the reminder!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Janell! I do the same thing, telling my daughter to “spell by sound and not from memory”.
Julie Berreckman
says:Thanks for the visuals!
Ashley
says:We do this with the kids which I think is so helpful. Thank you for the activity, this will make it more fun for them!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Ashley! I’m glad you like it. ?
Felicia L
says:This was a great way to simplify spelling and help with reading! The kids loved the activity!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you for letting me know that your kids enjoyed the activity, Felicia! I’m glad this was helpful.
Howell
says:Seems like a great idea. Would really like to try this system with my kiddos.
Bobbie Torgeson
says:Very well explained. thank you!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Bobbie! Thank you.
Swathi
says:Can you please segment word glad .
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSwathi,
Sure. Glad has four sounds: /g/-/l/-/a/-/d/.
Does this help? Please let me know if you have further questions.
Khushbu
says:Very nice ?
Erin
says:This is really helpful
Angel Joshua
says:Great work. Thank you for helping me e understand phonograms and the segmenting of sounds.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Angel! I’m glad this was helpful for you.
Olymtmom
says:My 9 year old son, currently in AAS1 and AAR2, doesn’t like doing the segmenting. He thinks it’s for much younger students, not himself. However, I feel that the exercise is beneficial as he skips over letters or puts them in the wrong order when spelling a word by trying to spell it out in his head, silently. He also wants to use his left index finger instead of his right to pull down letters when spelling, mostly for letters that are on the left side of the board. He is right handed and we have struggled with writing so I really want to encourage him to use his dominate hand as practice for writing. I’m trying to be flexible but still want to follow the process as he really has learned a lot from this program and I’m proud of the progress he has made, but he is the first one to find a shortcut or jump ahead without fully grasping a concept and I don’t want him to pick up bad habits. Any tips or advice on encouraging proper procedures and on the use of segmenting or using the correct finger for using the tiles?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAwww, I understand this, Olymtmom. My youngest child is much the same.
What I have done is compromise. If she gets words correctly her way, then fine. I say nothing. But if she misspells a word, or even hesitates and struggles to spell it, then she has to segment the word, use her dominant hand, the whole nine yards. The argument is minimized this way. I let her try her way but obviously her way didn’t work and now she needs to do it the All About Spelling way.
I don’t know about your son, but my daughter is rather strong-willed and can become unpleasant when things don’t go her way. If she is unpleasant like that, then she must use All About Spelling’s way for every word whether she can spell it correctly or not. She must be pleasant in our compromise or she doesn’t get her way at all.
Note, if she mispells a word at any time that she has been taught in AAS and should have mastered, then she must go through the word AAS’s way at the beginning of the next spelling lesson time. I make a note. So, when she meant to write “poppy seeds” on the shopping list for a recipe she wanted to make but wrote “popie seeds” instead, we worked on poppy and similar words with doubled consonants and the long E sound spelled with an E. But any word she misspells that she hasn’t been taught in AAS yet I just give her the correct spelling and let her know she’ll learn about that later. Our blog post How to Handle Spelling Mistakes discusses this in detail.
Also let him know that segmenting is useful even as an adult. I don’t know about you, but when I’m trying to spell a difficult word or one that is a troublemaker for me, I still segment to ensure I hear each sound. For example, the word ingredient is a troublemaker for me. For some reason I want to use a C instead of a G. But by segmenting that second syllable, I can hear that /g/ is the correct sound.
I hope this helps, but let me know if you need more ideas or run into more issues.