First Grade Literacy World

Orthographic mapping can be taught with a variety of multi-sensory approaches. Sedita (2020) describes the discovery of several skills that must be present in order for orthographic mapping to take place. Students should be highly proficient in phonological and phonemic awareness. They should have automatic letter-sound correspondence. They should also be able to decode and blend sounds efficiently. The following activities engage students in these processes and activate the brain to prepare for orthographic mapping. Sound Boxes Students can use sound boxes to write the individual graphemes of a word. Students may also tap or manipulate tiles or counters to show the individual sounds within a word. Sensational Sand While using sensational sand, the teacher calls out a word and students form the letters representing the graphemes in the sand as they say the sounds. Then, they connect the sounds together by reading the entire word aloud.  Blending and Popping Sounds     ...

The processes through which young children acquire the ability to read is fascinating and complex. According to David Kilpatrick (2015), "Orthographic Mapping is the process we use to permanently store words into long-term memory." While a portion of emerging readers will acquire this skill with ease, many students require explicit and systematic instruction in both phonemic awareness and phonics in order to learn. So what exactly is orthographic mapping?  Paul (2021) explains that during orthographic mapping, a whole word is broken into its individual parts of sounds and connected to corresponding graphemes. Teachers may model and guide students through this process as they learn to do it naturally themselves. Eventually this becomes a fundamental part of reading as it increases prosody and fluency. Strong orthographic mapping skills lead to strong readers.  References Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015).  Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming read...

Orthographic mapping is important because is allows students to internalize words and read them effortlessly. The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension. Fluency must be present before independent comprehension may occur. Orthographic mapping must occur in order for fluency to develop.  Henbest et al (2018) conducted research with 5 and 6 year olds in order to demonstrate their ability of orthographic fast mapping. The findings reported that " children ’ s implicit orthographic knowledge is an important factor related to their overall literacy skills." (p. 2017) So how is orthographic mapping achieved? According to the Institute for Multi-sensory Education (2020), "As early phonological skills are developing, children need to learn letter names and basic letter sounds. Learning that letters are used to write the phonemes will open the door to decoding words for reading." (para. 10) References Henbest, V. S., & Apel, K. (2018). Orthographic fast-mapping acros...

Welcome to my little corner of the world wide web! I can't wait to share my research and learning of early literacy. I teach first grade in the rural Upstate of South Carolina. I began my teaching career a decade ago. My passion for teaching reading has expanded over time and led me to a different type of classroom, this time as a student myself. My Masters of Education in Literacy has empowered me to provide individualized learning to my students and guide them on their path of literacy acquisition.  Jillian