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:
- Hearing distinct words within sentences
- Hearing syllables within words
- Noticing alliteration, or that certain words begin with the same sound (example: sun, sat, sip)
- Hearing rhyming, and being able to produce rhyming words
- Phoneme awareness, or hearing the individual sounds within a word (cat is made up of /c/ /a/ /t/)
- 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/
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