science of reading

How do we teach spelling? 

Spelling can be a tricky skill for many young learners. Most kids find that reading words is much easier than spelling them, which is true. When we are reading we don’t have as much to recall because the letters are already on the paper to jog our memory. When we are spelling we start with only the sounds and have to recall what letters to use to spell those sounds. 

Another reason spelling can be tricky is the way many of us have been taught, and then teach our own kids, is to just memorize words. I remember I got my spelling list from school each week and wrote them over and over again to practice. What we know now though is that our brains simply cannot store every single word we learn. There are just too many. So, our brains have a more efficient way of storing words in parts so we can automatically read and spell them. We store the words through a mental process called orthographic mapping. Basically, we recall the parts of words (sounds) and store those in our memory along with their letter formations and letter/sound correspondence. It is much easier for us to store letter/sound patterns than whole words. So, we don’t want to memorize spelling words, our brains will eventually run out of room. We need to map words out! This means we hear each sound in the word and then pull those spelling patterns from our memory. We must have phonemic awareness to be able to do this! If you’re unsure what phonemic awareness is, go back in our blog posts and you will find more information!

Here’s what this actually looks like: 

Let’s say we’re spelling the word: “sneak”

  1. Step 1 Say it: Child says the word “sneak”
  2. Step 2 Say each sound: “ /s/ /n/ /e/ /k/ “
  3. Step 3 Map it: Draw a line or a box for each sound ___ ___ ___ ___
  4. Step 4 Write the sounds: sn  ea  k

It is important not to skip the mapping step, especially early in spelling instruction. We store patterns based on the sounds, so be sure to draw a box or line for each sound in the word. Remember, that is NOT the same as drawing a line or box for each letter. For example, In “sneak” the “ea” only makes one sound, the long e sound. So, it only has one line when we map it out and we write both the letters that spell that sound on that line. 

I have a spelling tool in my TpT store that works wonders for spelling help! It includes all the steps in a fun way. Check it out here. It has a pop it feature which also makes it so much fun! Kids pop out each sound before they map it. 

By admin, ago

What is the best way to teach the letter sounds? 

It can be tricky to know exactly how and when to start teaching the letter sounds. The “when” is not as important as the “how.” You can start teaching the letter names and sounds as young as 2 years old, basically once kids begin speaking. However, it’s not necessary to start that early either. It is a very personal choice for each family. Some kids will be more eager than others, some kids will catch on really quickly, others may need some more time. You know your child best. A good rule of thumb is to aim for kids to know at least half the letters upon entering Kindergarten.

The How 

The how of teaching the letter sounds is the most important part here. There are proven ways to teach the letters that we know result in the best retention. We want to start with knowledge of the letter names. We want to teach letter sounds at the same time or after we teach the letter names. For more info on this, check out last week’s blog post. We also want to start with just teaching one sound per letter. There are letters that make multiple sounds and letter sounds may change based on where the letter is in a word or other letters surrounding it. This is too much information when we are first starting letter sounds. So, we begin with one sound per letter and then we build onto that later. The goal is to begin reading CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words first so this is all the info we initially need to teach. 

*There is one letter that is an exception to this rule, the X. The X is special because it actually makes two sounds on it’s own, /k/ /s/. We want to teach that this letter makes two sounds back to back right away.*

How to introduce the letter sounds

We want to tie the letter sounds back to the letter name. So, we show a child the letter (T, for example). We have them say the name, keyword, and then sound, “T, tiger, /t/.” It’s important to use both the name and sound. Letter names are the only stable part of a letter, the sounds change so the letter name is like an anchor in our brain to be able to learn multiple sound patterns. 

Ensuring we are saying the sounds correctly

When first introducing the sounds it’s important  to note the mouth formation so we can ensure kids are pronouncing it properly. It is a hard habit to break if students begin pronouncing the sounds incorrectly. You can have them look at your mouth while they say it, and look in a mirror when they say it to be sure it matches. My letter/sound cards have a deck with the mouth formation included! 

Another common occurrence when teaching the sounds is adding what we call the schwa onto the sound of a letter. The schwa is basically a lazy vowel sound, /uh/. For example, when we teach the letter B we might say the sound it spells is /buh/ we want to cut off the /uh/ and just say /b/. If we add the /uh/ onto the end students struggle later on to blend and segment words because they are saying an extra sound. So, they might spell ‘bed’ like this, ‘bued’ because they are hearing an extra sound on the end of the b. I used to do this all the time early in my career and even catch myself still doing it occasionally. So, be careful! It is easy to forget. 

How often and how to practice

We want to practice letter sounds over and over again until they are mastered! I usually teach about 3 letter sounds at a time, but this is very personal to each child. Some kids may be able to learn 5 letter sounds at a time, and others may do better with 1 sound at a time. Neither of these are better than the other, the important thing is they are learning. Consistency is key here! If you introduce a letter sound you need to keep practicing it daily going forward, just 5-10 minutes per day is enough! The important thing is consistency.

Making it multisensory (using more than one sense while practicing it) will also help with retaining the sounds more quickly. So, writing the letter in sand and then saying the sound, coming up with a motion to match the sound, or playing a game of hopscotch with the letters where you have to say the sound land on are all great ways to make it multi-sensory. Multi-sensory also means more fun!! One of my favorite activities is to say the letter sound and then have the child write it. When they can do this we know they are really making the connection between the letter and the sound! Try to take games or activities you already do regularly and incorporate the sounds into them. Simple is almost always better. It doesn’t have to be a huge burden to plan! 

By admin, ago

What is phonemic awareness and how do we start to build it?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes (sounds) auditorily. This means we are only using spoken words and sounds, not writing them on paper. Students must be able to manipulate the language and sounds before 

Phonemic awareness ability is one of the two biggest predictors of reading success. We know for kids to be able to read and spell, they must have phonemic awareness skills. We can start building these skills young, but how and where do we start? 

Once students have a good handle on phonological awareness (if you aren’t sure what this is or how to build it check out our previous blog post) we can start building phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate sounds in spoken language. 

It’s important to practice these skills daily for about 5-10 minutes starting when students are in Pre-K or Kindergarten and through at least 2nd grade or until it is mastered.

Phonemic awareness skills from least to most challenging: isolation, blending, segmenting, addition/deletion, substitution. 

I find it is best to teach about 2 of these skills at a time, from bottom to top (easiest to hardest). These skills take time to develop, we cannot just teach these one time and move on. Within each of these categories there are varying degrees of challenge depending on the number of syllables and types of sounds in a word. For example, segmenting the sounds in the word “tap” vs the word “suspect” are very different. It is best to start with more simple words and move up the ladder, then go back and do it again with more challenging words. 

Let’s break down what each of these skills means: 

Phoneme Isolation: is the ability to identify specific phonemes (sounds) in words. For example, the first sound in “bed” is /b/, the middle sound is /e/, and the final sound is /d/. 

Blending: is the ability to hear the individual sounds in a word and put them together to make the word. For example, if a child hears the sounds are /b/ /a/ /d/ they can recognize it creates the word “bad.”

Segmenting: is the opposite of blending. It is the ability to hear all the sounds in a word and break them apart. So, we want children to be able to hear the word “bad” and break down the sounds into /b/ /a/ /d/. 

Phoneme Addition: is the ability to add a sound to a word or word part to create a new word. For example, if you say “rate” and you add the sound /g/ at the beginning it becomes “great.” 

Phoneme Deletion: is the ability to delete a sound from a word or word part. For example, if the word is “land” and you delete the /l/ sound it becomes “and.” 

Phoneme Substitution: is the ability to substitute one sound with another to create another word. For example, if you have the word “cake” and you change the /c/ sound to a /b/ sound it becomes the word “bake.” 

So, how do we begin to build these skills? One of my student’s favorite tools to build phonemic awareness is with the game i-spy! Here are some example questions you can use for each skill while playing i-spy. Remember to model first and then let the child do their own if they are confident. If you want some pre-made i-spy sheets for building phonemic awareness skills you can click here. You can also just play with a picture you find online or with objects in your house!

Phoneme Isolation: Example: “mop” “I spy something that starts with the sound /m/.” “I spy something that ends with the sound /p/.” “I spy something that has the middle sound /o/.”

Phoneme Blending/Segmenting: Example: “bat” “I spy something with the sounds /b/ /a/ /t/. 

Phoneme Addition: Example: “bath”  “I spy something with the word part /ath/ and put a /b/ first.” 

Phoneme Substitution: Example “cake” “I spy a lake, but change the /l/ to /c/.” 
For more information on how to build these skills or what to do if your child is struggling with these skills schedule a call with me!

By admin, ago