Onset and Rime: A Tool for Teaching Children to Read and Spell

Denise Burson
Aug 30, 2010

How can Onset and Rime help my students learn?

Onset and Rime are technical terms used to describe phonological units of a spoken syllable. A syllable can normally be divided into two parts: the onset, which consists of the initial consonant or consonant blend, and the rime, which consists of the vowel and any final consonants. Thus in the word "bank," "b" is the onset and "ank" is the rime. Examples of rimes are: ail, ank, ay.

How to help children develop these concepts and skills

  • Model the onset of words. The onset is anything that comes before the vowel in a one-syllable word. For example: dog -/d/, play -/pl/, at -(no onset).

  • Model the rime part of words. The rime is the vowel and everything that comes after the vowel in a one-syllable word. For example: dog -/og/, play -/ay/, at -/at/

  • Play a game where you take one-syllable words apart, breaking them into onset and rime.

  • Play a game where you put the onset and rime together to make a one-syllable word.

  • Read materials which incorporate the learnt rimes to give the pupils the experience of seeing them in print.

  • Play Riddle Rap Review with students that an onset is the first consonant or blend in a word, and the rime is the last group of sounds beginning with the vowel. Together, the onset and the rime create a word. Give an example (e.g., in the words cake and bake, /c/ and /b/ are the onsets; /āk/ is the rime).

    1. Tell students that they will be given clues to solve a riddle. To solve it, they must change the onset, but not the rime. Give examples to the group, and have them call out the answers together (e.g., "It begins with /b/ and rhymes with coat," "It begins with /n/ and rhymes with rose," "It begins with /ch/ and rhymes with rain").

    2. Select one student from the group to answer the riddle.

    3. Call out a riddle ("It begins with /m/, and it rhymes with rice"). Continue the game using different riddles for each student.

Adaptations:

To make the activity more challenging, have the students create and ask their own riddles with one another.

These are just a few ideas you may find useful. There are more in Learning-Focused Learning to Read notebook. The extensive and positive research that has been carried out in this area is a strong argument in support of using onset and rime as a tool for teaching children to read and spell, and enhancing phonological skills. More importantly onset and rime does work in the classroom and that is the strongest argument of all.

References:
Adams, J., Brown, A., Hatcher, P.J., Hulme, C., Nation, K., & Stuart, G., (2002). Phoneme Awareness Is a Better Predictor of Early Reading Skill Than Onset-rime Awareness, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 82, 2-28.

Bowey, J. (2002). Reflections on Onset-Rime and Phoneme Sensitivity as Predictors of Beginning Word Reading. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 82, 29-40.