Embedded Files
Step 2: Sound-Symbol Instructional Routines
In a 50 minute lesson, we spend about 1-2 minutes on sound/symbol knowledge.
But what a mighty minute it can be. Plan ahead, establish routines, and move along.
And of course - the remainder of the lesson is spent engaging with sound/symbol knowledge. We refer back to this "minute" throughout a lesson.
We invite older students in to break the ice. Nothing grabs attention or inspires like a state-champion college-bound athlete and graduate of Structured Literacy Class telling you to "trust your teacher because it works." Literally - nothing.
Be ready, have a routine, move along.
We ensure all students are responding. "It all starts with sounds and letters, people. Let's hear four voices all, repeat after me, and ...."
We use the basic vocabulary that comes with sounds and symbols - it's surprising (or not?) how many teens don't know what a vowel or consonant is. Even the ones coming to us from AP English. Many teens don't know all the consonant sounds, much less the vowels. We need a shared vocabulary if we're going to investigate words closely.
We follow the Wilson Reading System (Wilson, 2018) scope and sequence:
There are many other excellent curricula. Remember: we don't teach a program, we teach reading. We use parts of the program to help us teach what our students are ready to learn.
We want students to have instant access to consonant and vowel sounds. Effortless, unconscious retrieval.
We drop the keywords for letters as soon as the student can do the task without them. We want instant access to the sounds the letters represent.
We drill the vowels two ways, one after the other: "a, apple, /ă/ -- a, safe, /ā/ -- a, acorn /ā/ -- a, Alaska, /ә/" -- "/ă/, /ā/, /ә/." Then move to just the vowel sounds without keywords when they've mastered them. This can take more than a year for some students.
Then, of course, we refer back to letters and sounds for the entire lesson when fixing mistakes or approaching a challenging word.
Pictures and Results From Our Classroom
With students who just could NOT remember the key words or sounds. Play-do. Voila.
Student leaders mix it up. We watch the clock and keep things moving briskly.
Please let me be even faster this time ...
... a student timing himself in sound/symbol knowledge (for fun?).
Paired students review with each other. This will take more than a minute.
All struggling readers deserve to be taught the foundations of written language.
Including what sounds the letters represent. These 2021-22 scores are from the Word Identification and Spelling Test (WIST) (Wilson & Felton, 2004).
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