Orthographic Mapping Leads to Reading Enjoyment

Orthographic Mapping Leads to Reading Enjoyment

by | Sep 8, 2020 | Dyslexia / Specific Disability in Reading, Teaching Reading to Struggling Readers, Understanding Research

Now, here is something to really sink your teeth into. Get yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and find a cozy, quiet spot to read. I have been learning about orthographic mapping over the past many months, and I feel that I am finally getting a grasp on it. This post covers recent reading research that is incredibly interesting, but also quite complex.

 

The big question we are concerned with today is, “How do students develop the ability to read words with ease?”

 

It is an important question to answer, because if we can help more students become fluent readers, we will be able to get them to the point where they can read for fun!  This happens only when students are able to read words automatically, with ease.  When words are instantly recognized, reading turns into something effortless and fun, and kids can dive into books and stories for enjoyment.

 

When first learning to read, students who have been taught to decode through phonics instruction are able to sound out words letter by letter. This happens very slowly, but eventually, most students are able to recognize words instantly.  How does this happen?

 

Word learning, or developing a sight word vocabulary, involves a mental process called “orthographic mapping” (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 27).

 

When we talk about orthography, we are talking about the symbols (letters) that are put together to form words. A word’s orthography is the precise sequence of individual letters, in a precise order (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 39).  Certain letter combinations that occur frequently in English become “unitized” once the child processes them a number of times.  This means that the common combinations like “str” and “ing” become single units, with the letters attached together in a chunk (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 33).

 

Orthographic Knowledge

 

Orthographic knowledge is the understanding that there are rules which determine the correct order of letters within words (Zakaluk, 1982 / 1886).  This structure is predictable, since in the English language, certain rules govern how letters can be arranged in words (Zakaluk, 1982 / 1996).

 

“One of the most significant facts about language is that it is structured: orthographic symbols are arranged according to a fixed set of rules and cannot be put together in nonpermissable graphemic sequences. For example, it is appropriate to string together the letters s, t and r to form /str/, but inappropriate, in English to combine them to form the sequence /tsr/…The fact that letters cluster in repetitive patterns thus serves as a generalization that can be applied to decipher new words” (Zakaluk, 1882/1996, Section: Orthographic Mapping, para: 1, bolding mine)

 

 

Sight Word – Definition

 

Reading researchers use the term “sight word” to mean “a familiar word that is recognized instantly, automatically and effortlessly, without sounding it out or guessing.  It does not matter if the word is phonetically regular or irregular.  The point is that it is immediately recognized” (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 27). This is important to clarify, since many people use the term “sight word” to mean a word that is spelled in a non-phonetic, irregular way.  In orthographic mapping, any word can become a sight word.  It happens when the word is instantly recognized by the reader.

 

When students read with ease, fluently, we know that they can’t be using their decoding skills to do it.  It happens too quickly for that.  We assume that the student has a picture of the full word stored in the brain, like a kind of visual picture of the word (Kilpatrick, 2016 / Dehaene, 2013). However, this assumption turns out not to be true. In fact, it has been shown by recent brain research that visual memory is not involved in reading, after all (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 27).

 

Whole Language Versus Phonics

 

Dr. Stanislas Dehaene (2013), a cognitive neuroscientist, has explained how recent science proves that words are not stored visually, as whole words. Dehaene explains that even though it feels like we read words as whole words, in actuality, we process letters one at a time, or in familiar chunks, when reading (Dehaene, 2013). This knowledge of how we decipher words using our brains is important, because when teachers learn about this science, it can’t help but impact their teaching practices.

 

If you are an early-years teacher, this knowledge that words are not stored as “whole words” may cause you to think differently about the kinds of tasks you have your students do.  Common practice in many classes, especially for teachers who have a “whole language” philosophy about reading, is to compile a list of irregularly spelled or high frequency words for students to memorize.  Students are assigned a stack of word cards, and the words are flashed in front of the child, while the word is said aloud.  The child repeats the word, and moves on to the next card.

 

In this task, typically the child’s attention is not drawn to the internal structure of the word (the letter combinations / the sounds), but rather they notice general way that it looks, the shape of the word.  The idea is that the child will remember the full word, once they have seen it and heard it said aloud numerous times.  However, we now know that this practice is not likely to be useful for many students. Dehaene (2013), explains that having students pay attention to the “global shape” of a word, attending to the way that the letters descend below or rise above the lines, is not an effective method to develop a student’s sight word vocabulary. Instead what is needed is for students to develop strong letter – sound knowledge.  Letter sound correspondence and decoding words, or sounding words out letter by letter is taught through the phonics method.  Dehaene’s research is important because it essentially puts the debate to rest about whole language versus phonics instruction (Dehaene, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25GI3-kiLdo).

 

 

Phonological Awareness and Letter Sound Knowledge Support the Development of Sight Words  

 

Moats & Tolman (2009) concur that it is not visual memory that is involved in reading, but rather a different process involving our phonological and orthographic processors.  If you recall, “phonological” refers to the sounds in spoken language.  Phonological awareness is the ability to break words down into syllables, and then into individual sounds or phonemes.  Phonemes are usually shown in print by isolating a letter between two slashes, like this:  /a/.  The slashes around the letter a show the sound that the letter “A” makes, in a word like “cat”.

 

The phonemes for the word sit are:  /s/ /i/ /t/.

 

For the word stand, the phonemes are /s/ /t/ /a/ /n/ /d/.

 

Some words have fewer phonemes than letters.  An example is that in the word fish, there are four letters, but only three phonemes.  The phonemes for fish are /f/ /i/ /sh/.

 

/sh/ is made up of two letters, but since it makes one sound, it is one phoneme.

 

As mentioned above, orthography has to do with the symbols in written language, the letters themselves.  Therefore, it is both the sounds within a word, and the letters, that are involved in orthographic mapping.  An important skill that must be developed then, is the ability to associate letters and their corresponding sounds quickly and instantly.

 

 

Dr. Dehaene explains that teaching letter to sound correspondence is the fastest way for children to learn to read and to comprehend what they read. He says that while visual memory is not used in full word reading, it is used in learning the names of the letters of the alphabet. Associating letters and sounds is ” a matter of visual-phonological memorization” (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 30).

 

So how does orthographic mapping actually occur?  This is a very difficult question to answer; it is hard to conceptualize exactly what is taking place. The information that I have come across on the topic is very intricate, but I will do my best to explain it, as I understand it. I highly recommend the following video, from the Reading League, that explains the process in detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRHcUeGohc.

 

 

Phonological Awareness

 

Kilpatrick believes that all children should receive phonological awareness training all the way through to the end of second grade.  At the end of Grade 2, students should be screened to see which skills they still need to focus on.  No age is too old, for teaching phonological awareness.  Kilpatrick provides lessons for older struggling readers, who, he believes, will continue to struggle with reading if their phonological awareness difficulties are not addressed (2016, p. 18).

 

Dr. Kilpatrick recommends that we develop our students’ phonological awareness skills to the advanced stages, in order to develop strong readers.  As mentioned above, phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a word.  Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that encompasses the component skills involved in hearing the sounds in spoken language.   These skills, which progress from easiest to hardest, include:

  1. Hearing distinct words within sentences
  2. Hearing syllables within words
  3. Noticing alliteration, or that certain words begin with the same sound (example: sun, sat, sip)
  4. Hearing rhyming, and being able to produce rhyming words
  5. Phoneme awareness, or hearing the individual sounds within a word (cat is made up of /c/ /a/ /t/)
  6. Phoneme manipulation, or being able to swap sounds in and out of a word, to create a new word

 

 

When a student is first developing the understanding that sentences are made up of words, and words are made up of syllables, they are demonstrating the beginning stages of phonological awareness.  Eventually, students acquire the ability to break individual words into their smallest sounds, or phonemes.  Students are able to hear alliteration, and can distinguish the first sounds in words.  Usually, they will be able to hear the final sounds next, the sounds at the end of words. Eventually students are able to hear and pick out the sounds in the middle of words.

 

Phoneme Manipulation

 

The most complex phonological awareness task, and the task that is most highly connected with successful readers, is phoneme manipulation (Kilpatrick, 2016).  Awareness of phonemes comes naturally to some students, and some need to be taught how to do this, in a very specific, direct way.  For the 30 – 40% of students who do not develop this awareness on their own, it is essential to teach it, as they will not become strong readers without this ability (Kilpatrick, 2016).

 

Furthermore, Kilpatrick states that “poor phonological awareness is the most common cause of poor reading. Reading problems can be prevented if all students are trained in letter sound skills and phonological awareness” (2016, p. 13)

 

Phoneme manipulation is the most difficult of all of the phonological awareness tasks, because it involves taking a word apart (or segmenting it) into its component sounds, and then adding, deleting or changing one of those sounds.  Here are some examples of phoneme manipulation tasks, taken from Kilpatrick’s book, Equipped for Reading Success:  A Comprehensive Step by Step Guide for Developing Phoneme Awareness and Fluent Word Recognition (2016, pp. 221-221):

 

Teacher:  “Say cord”

Student:  “cord”

Teacher:  “Now say cord, but instead of /d/, say /k/

Student:  “cork”

 

Here is another one, that is a bit harder:

 

Teacher:  “Say hand”

Student:  “hand”

Teacher:  “Now say hand, but don’t say /n/”

Student:  “had”

 

According to Kilpatrick, activities like this help students to “map” words, so that they become sight words. In order to do these more difficult tasks with phonemes, students need to have mastered the easier phonological awareness tasks, to the point that they segment a word into phonemes so automatically that they do not even realise that they are doing it (Kilpatrick, 2016).  The act of separating and blending sounds has the effect of cementing certain sound sequences together, in the brain.

 

How does this happen?

 

  • The child takes a known word, divides it into phonemes.

 

  • The child understands that certain letters or groups of letters correspond with each sound in the word, and then bonds these together. The graphemes (letters), are bonded to the phonemes (sounds) in an exact sequence.

 

  • The sequence is specific to a single word, that becomes connected together, so that the word then becomes instantly recognizable (The Reading League, Retrieved on Sept 6, 2020 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRHcUeGohc).

 

 

This belief in the importance of teaching phonological awareness and phonics is echoed by Reutzel and Cooter (2016):  “A prime objective of exemplary phonics instruction is to develop independent word-recognition strategies, focusing attention on the internal structure of words” (p. 187).

 

Phonics Defined

 

Recall here that phonics has to do with both letters and sounds, whereas phonological awareness has to do with just the sounds.  Phonological awareness training happens orally, with no visuals, no pencil or paper, or letter tiles.  Teaching phonics is visual, involving written letters. A good way to remember this is that you can do phoneme awareness tasks with your eyes closed.  Phonics requires your eyes to be open.

 

 

Additional support for this kind of teaching, comes from the National Reading Panel (NRP) Report:  “Recent findings indicate that connections between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) must be taught explicitly and that children must practice applying their phonological awareness skills in their reading and writing. These connections must be explicitly taught through phonics instruction, because “deduction does not always occur” (NRP, 2000 as cited by Reutzel and Cooter, 2016, italicized words mine). Some students might learn to read without explicit phonics instruction, yet without it, 30% of students will never become strong readers (Kilpatrick, 2016).

 

The Orton Gillingham Approach

 

What methods are best suited to teaching students to orthographically map words?  A structured literacy program, in which letters and sounds, letter combinations, and rules for English spelling, are taught explicitly and systematically, is best suited for this.  The Orton-Gillingham approach is one example of structured literacy.  In this approach, students are taught “jingles” to help remember spelling rules.  These rules are taught explicitly, with many examples, pictures and rhymes. Students memorize the rules, and repeat them over and over again, to help with reading and spelling (Bjornson, Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course, June – July 2020).   As Zakaluk (1982/1996) explains, the English language is very structured and redundant, making knowledge of English spelling rules very useful to beginning readers (Section: Orthographic Mapping, para:  1).

 

 

 

Further Explanation of Orthographic Mapping

 

I found a clear and teacher friendly explanation of how orthographic mapping occurs at another teacher’s blog site, and I strongly recommend it to you:  https://sarahsnippets.com/how-do-we-learn-new-words-orthographic/.  Sarah’s blog posts include helpful pictures, as well.  She too, is a fan of Dr. Kilpatrick.

Thank you, Sarah, for your simplified explanations, and awesome visuals, and also to the Reading League for the very precise and descriptive videos!  Please see the links below!

 

 

References:

 

 

Bjornson, V.  (2020) Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course.

 

Dehaene, S. (2013).  Retrieved from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25GI3-kiLdo.

 

Kilpatrick, D. A. (2016).  Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive, step by step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition. Syracuse: Casey & Kirsch Publishers.

 

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Challenge of Learning to Read (Module 1). Boston: Sopris West.

 

Reutzel, D. R & Cooter, R. B. Jr.  (2016).  Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction in an Era of Common Core Standards:  Helping Every Child Succeed.  Pearson.

 

 

The Reading League, Retrieved on Sept 6, 2020 from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRHcUeGohc

 

https://sarahsnippets.com/how-do-we-learn-new-words-orthographic/

 

 

Structured Literacy – The Sextuplets! AKA The 6 Syllable Types

Structured Literacy – The Sextuplets! AKA The 6 Syllable Types

by | Sep 1, 2020 | Dyslexia / Specific Disability in Reading, Evidence-Based Practices Series, Grade 1, Teaching Reading to Struggling Readers

As an identical twin, I think I look for doubles, similarities, or matches in almost everything I do.  If you are a twin like me, you likely find other twins to be fascinating, and swarm toward them like moths to a flame.  I had the absolute luck of getting to work in a classroom a couple of years ago in which the kindergarten teacher, the educational assistant, and I, the resource teacher, all had identical twin sisters! I experienced an immediate feeling of companionship whenever I entered the classroom.

 

Today I am going to introduce you to the six syllable types in English, and perhaps because of my personal way of seeing the world, I like to think of these syllable types as sextuplets.  They are similar but unique in their own special way, just like sextuplets would be!

 

In structured literacy approaches, the six syllable types are explicitly taught to students, as they develop an in depth understanding of English spelling.  Direct phonics instruction, that is carefully structured and sequenced, is key to structured literacy.

 

The National Reading Panel has identified five fundamental reading skills (Melekoglu, 2019, p. 412).  These five skills are the basis for developing reading skills in students and “problems in any one of these skills can impact improvements in other crucial skills” (p. 413).  The five skills are “phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, as cited in Melekoglu, 2019, p. 413).

 

Structured literacy has to do with two of the five fundamental reading skills:  the phonics and phonemic awareness skills, mainly.  However the other components are not forgotten or left out.  As you will see below, when a new letter or letter pattern is taught to students, they are given the opportunity to use that new knowledge in sentences and books.  These skills are not taught in isolation, but rather, applied to reading real text, as soon as possible, and within the same lesson.

 

The important elements of structured literacy, according to Valdine Bjornson of the Manitoba Reading and Learning Clinic, (Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course, June – July 2020) are:

  • The reading instruction is highly sequenced, beginning at the most basic and working toward the complex.  For example, short vowels are taught before vowel teams.

 

  • It is cumulative, in that each lesson involves reviewing what was previously taught.  This occurs when the teacher asks questions about concepts learned in earlier lessons, weaving the concepts into the current lesson. The teacher constantly spirals back to previously taught information, since the later tasks are built on them.

 

  • Every lesson progresses logically, and builds sequentially.  Tasks that are easier, come first in the lesson.

 

  • Concepts practiced earlier on in the lesson are returned to towards the end of the lesson.  The student applies the letters / patterns that were introduced early on in the lesson, to reading and writing words and sentences in the final steps of the lesson.

 

  • Each lesson involves reading “connected text”; sentences or books that include the letters or patterns just taught. The teacher does not give students words or sentences to read that are beyond what they have been explicitly taught.  Doing so would be considered unfair, and would not be emotionally sound.  The teacher is careful to structure the lesson so that the student feels successful, and so they only give tasks to the student that they are confident the student will be able to do.

 

The Orton Gillingham approach is the premier model for structured literacy.  Once students have learned the letter names and sounds, the teacher introduces the six syllable types in English.  There are six syllable-spelling conventions used in English. It is useful to teach them because when students know the syllable types, it makes it easier for them to spell words correctly.  It also helps them to  know how to pronounce the vowels, in words that they do not yet know (Moats & Tolman, 2009).  When students learn how to chunk longer  words into syllables, and have been taught the syllable types, they are able to tackle longer words.  They will be also be less likely to skip or guess at longer words (Moats & Tolman, 2009).

 

Here is a list of the six syllable types.

 

  • Open
  • Closed
  • Silent – e
  • Vowel Team
  • Vowel R
  • Consonant – le

 

Before teachers can introduce the syllable types, students must learn how to divide a word into syllables, and how to count the number of syllables in a word.  This is an oral activity, in which the student is asked to repeat a word, and then clap or tap the number of syllables they hear.  Hearing syllables in words is one of the earliest steps in developing phonological awareness. As mentioned above, phonological awareness is one of the five essential components of teaching reading, according to he National Reading Panel.

 

It is sometimes helpful to have students count how many times their jaw moves down, when they say a word aloud.  Syllables can be counted this way, since every syllable has a vowel, and our jaws drop down each time we make a vowel sound (Moats & Tolman, 2009).

 

Try saying the following words aloud, and while you do, place your hand on your chin.

Count the syllables in each of these words:

 

Apple (2)

Potato (3)

Watermelon (4)

Box (1)

 

Open Syllable

Open syllables are syllables that end in vowels.  When the syllable ends in a vowel, the vowel sound is long.  An easy way to see this at work, is to look at short words that end in long vowels.  Remember that the long sound is when the vowel says its name.  The short sound is when the vowel makes its soft, short sound.  Long “E” is like the sound at the end of “me”, and short “E” is the sound in the middle of the word “bed”.

 

 

Each of these words end in a vowel, and the vowel sound is long.  These are examples of open syllable words.

 

Me

He

Hi

She

No

Go

So

 

 

Closed Syllable

Some smaller words that are examples of closed syllables, are words like “mat” and “set”.  Note that after each vowel, there is a consonant. Words that follow this pattern can be shown as “CVC” or consonant, vowel, consonant.  They can also look like this:  “VC”, in multisyllabic words like the first syllable in “ap-ple” or like in the word “ask“. The consonant “closes the door” and makes the vowel quieter.  One way to help students remember this, is to tell them that it is harder to hear someone who is talking behind a closed door, because the sound is softer.  That remind us that the vowel is making its soft sound.

 

Another idea is to use a visual cue, in which you show students how the pronunciation of a word changes when a consonant is added to the end of the word. To do this, you could have an open syllable word written on a longer card, so that part of the card can be folder over.  On the back of the flap, a consonant is written.  When the consonant is added to the end of the word, the pronunciation of the vowel changes.

 

For example,  the word “me” is written on a card, with a flap that has a letter “T” written on the back. The flap is the door.  When the door is open, the word is read as “me”, pronounced /m/ /ee/, but when the door is closed (the flap with the letter “T” on it closes like a door), the word now reads “met”. Opening the door again hides the “T” behind it, so the word reads “me” again.  This demonstrates the idea of open and closed syllables, and is helpful in illustrating the way that the vowel changes its sound in open and closed syllables.

 

In the training offered by the Orton Gillingham academy, picture cues are used to remind students about the different syllable types.  A tiger is used to show open syllables, due to the long “I” in the first syllable of the word ti – ger.  A camel is used to show closed syllables, due to the short “A” sound in the first syllable, and the fact that the letter “M” closes the door, and signals to us that the vowel uses its short, soft sound in this syllable.

 

The other four syllable types are very recognizable, especially when illustrated with a few examples.  Usually these syllable types are taught in single syllable words first, and then are expanded to words with multiple syllables. Remember that the “C” stands for “consonant”, and “V” for “vowel”.

 

Vowel Consonant – e

(VCe)

Examples:  rake, bike, hope, com-pete, des-pite

 

Vowel Team

(CVVC, CVV)

These are syllables with long or short vowel sounds, that use two or more letters to spell the vowel.  This category includes diphthongs like ou / ow, and oi / oy.  Examples of vowel teams are oo, ae, ai,

Words:  rain, read, away, loud, boy

 

Vowel – r

(V-r)

Also called “R controlled vowels”, because the letter “R” changes the way that the vowel sounds.

Examples are:  er, ir, or, ar, ur

Words:  fur, hurt, cart, yurt, sir

 

Consonant – le

(C-le)

These words have a consonant before the letter “L”, followed by a silent “E”.

Examples:  apple, candle, little

 

Once you know the syllable types, you can notice different combinations of these types in multi-syllabic words.  The word candle, for example, contains a closed syllable: “can”.  Then, the second syllable in the words is a consonant – le syllable: “dle”.

 

Teaching reading this way involves many components, including supporting students in developing phonological awareness, or the ability to hear the sounds within words, which is what they do when they break a word into syllables.  It also involves teaching them some vocabulary unique to English language.  In this structured literacy approach, children are  taught the meaning of the words “vowel”, “consonant”, and “syllable”, for example.  They are taught difference between a long and short vowel sound.  Additional vocabulary is introduced as we teach about open and closed syllables, and it expands from there.

 

David Kilpatrick, a well known reading researcher, advocates for using phoneme awareness and phonics in teaching students to read (2016).  He points out that one might wonder whether it is necessary to teach reading in such a structured and direct way, since it seems that most students learn to read and spell fine without this.  In reality, many students do learn to read without the use of a structured literacy approach, he agrees.  However, for about 30% of students, direct, systematic phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is vital in becoming a successful reader (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 16).  Without it, these students will remain struggling readers throughout school.

 

Teaching phonics and phonological awareness is necessary, in order to prevent many students from becoming struggling readers.  This method supports stronger readers in becoming even better at reading:  “Typical first and second graders can learn to read more quickly and efficiently when they are trained in phoneme awareness” (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 17).  Without a structured literacy approach, such as the Orton Gillingham method, early elementary school teachers will continue to struggle to meet the needs of the weakest readers in their classes.  Being a poor reader will have an impact on a student’s self-esteem and academic success, limiting their potential to become an accomplished, literate adult.

I hope you enjoyed meeting the sextuplets!  They might even feel close to your heart, it you are a twin or a triplet yourself.  I am sure you can appreciate the similarities and the important unique qualities of each.  As a twin, similarities and differences were very important, when I was growing up.  At times the differences were of utmost importance, as I struggled to define myself as an individual.  At other times, the sense of belonging that came from having someone with the same DNA as myself, the same voice, hair, eyes, nose, and body type was very soothing.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you are interested in learning more about structured literacy, I strongly recommend the Orton Gillingham Classroom Educator course, offered by the Manitoba Reading and Learning Clinic.  This post just barely scratches the surface, but if you would like to learn more, you can really go into it deeply through the Orton Gillingham training. For more information, please contact me below or through a message on the home page.

You can also go to directly to Manitoba’s very own Orton Gillingham Academy training locale, at  https://sites.google.com/view/thereadingandlearningclinicofm/home?authuser=0

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Bjornson, V.  (2020) Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course.

 

Kilpatrick, D. A. (2016).  Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive, step by step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition. Syracuse: Casey & Kirsch Publishers.

 

Melkoglu, M. A. (2019).  Evidence based fluency interventions for elementary students with learning disabilities.  European Journal of Education Studies, 6 (5), 411-423.

 

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): Spellography for Teachers: How English Spelling Works (Module 3). Boston: Sopris West.  Retreived on August 31, 2020 from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/six-syllable-types.