One Strategy at a Time...

English Language Arts

If there was one process that I could recommend to every teacher at Bella Vista, it would be Orthographic Mapping or Word Mapping! It's basis is backed up by the Science of Reading Brain Research and is a proven best practice to improve how children learn to read. I could go on and on about the Science of it all and the Brain - just trust me....it WORKS! Any age, any grade!

Highlighting Orthographic Mapping

Orthographic mapping is a behind-the-scenes, cognitive task in which students store words in their long-term memory. It’s not a skill or form of curriculum. It’s a process.

The process of orthographic mapping builds our sight word vocabularies. This is the pool of words from which we can immediately recognize for automatic word reading. This is the same process for phonically “regular” or “irregular” words so that we do not have to spend mental energy sounding out words.

Orthographic mapping requires the ability to connect the phonemes (or the sounds) in spoken words to the graphemes (or letters) in written words. In order to make those connections, one must have phonemic proficiency AND he must have mastered the letter-sound correspondences. Click the image to the right to access a website that outlines Orthographic Mapping.

How we learn orthographic mapping - Five from FiveOrthographic mapping defined When we have seen and read a word many times, it is stored in long term memory as a unique letter string and can be read instantly. This process is referred to as ‘orthographic mapping’ (Ehri, 2015). Orthography is the spelling system of a language. Kilpatrick (2015) describes orthographic mapping as “the […]

Word Mapping Activities to Support Orthographic Mapping

Word mapping activities are a physical way to represent the relationship between the phonemes and graphemes. They allow students to physically connect or match the letters with the sounds they represent and help promote the process of orthographic mapping.

11 Easy Word Mapping Activities to Create Better Readers the Fun Way

Science of Reading Lesson: Orthographic Mapping

Word Mapping - The Science of Reading

How to Teach Sight Words - Science of Reading

Click the image to access a FREE set of posters that highlight the Tapping Motions when we break apart words into their phonemes!

Click the image above to access a Word Mapping Template to support Orthographic Mapping.

Heart Words

Wonders Resource Slides Forced Copy to Support the Science of Reading and High Frequency Words

Click the images above to access resources on a FREE Website that includes some great tools for teaching phonics. All grade levels can benefit from this resource! It includes Digital Word Mapping, Word List Builders, etc. Amazing interactive site for learning Phonics!

Heart Word Magic - Help Students Learn to Read and Spell High Frequency and Sight Words - Click Yellow Button Below

Heart Word Magic is a complimentary teaching tool designed to help students learn to read and spell high-frequency words, particularly those that aren’t very decodable. At Really Great Reading we call high-frequency words Heart Words because they are the first words students should learn "by heart." Click here to read our blog and learn about the research behind how to Make Heart Words Sticky

Heart Word Magic

Really Great Reading® specializes in helping educators teach the foundational skills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading. We provide scientifically aligned professional development, diagnostics, grouping, interventions, and preventions. We help schools build strong literacy foundations in primary grades and help remediate decoding issues in upper elementary, middle, and high school students.

Teacher Tool Kit

ReadingSkillsforInterventionFREEScienceofReadingAligned-1.pdf

Open the image above to access a Reading Skills Step Ladder. This is an excellent roadmap that outlines each of the main Foundational Areas according to The Science of Reading, along with the subset of skills that fall under each. Skills are taught together to create strong readers and should be evident in our Tier 1 instruction with students.

Also included is a Diagnostic Assessment and a free reading intervention Cheat Sheet.

Kami Export - Systematic-Phonics-Scope-and-Sequence.pdf

Open image above to access a Systematic Scope and Sequence for Developing Phonics Skills. An excellent resource when planning for next year. We will be referring to this document often in the upcoming year.

Universal Design for Learning Corner

Included below are the UDL Design Lab Night Slides as well as the UDL Corner Newsletters created for the Elementary and Secondary Early Implementors at each school site. This year we had a cohort of two teachers from each site working together to learn and implement UDL strategies into their classrooms. Georgia Terlaje and myself created the newsletters as a support throughout their journey. You can find each month below.