Julianna
¿Qué tan despacio pueden decir la palabra _____?
This vignette combines a few stories into one, modified for clarity. Julianna was a first grade multilingual learning to decode and encode words in English and in Spanish. Ms. Katie observed her reading in English on a book about Nests, pictured below. She noticed that Julianna was not always decoding words articulating each phoneme slowly, moving from left to right. This was especially the case with consonant-vowel-consonant words like “for”, illustrated below.
Ms. Katie asked herself, “what would make this learning easiest for Julianna?” She knew that using writing would be a great venue for teaching slow articulation, since it slowed down the process and made the grapheme-phoneme correspondence more visible. Plus, Julianna had shown strengths in writing (encoding words) that she hadn’t yet shown in reading (decoding words). Ms. Katie also considered language of instruction. Spanish had more transparent orthography and Julianna had more knowledge of letters and sounds in Spanish than she had in English. So, Ms. Katie chose to plan a lesson using sound boxes in Spanish for Julianna and a few other readers. This activity is sometimes referred to as orthographic mapping.
She gathered the group. She prepared some materials: a template with three boxes, a marker, and counters. In a small group writing lesson, she selected a word with three sounds (“oso”). She would have preferred to use cvc words like “sol”, “pan”, or “luz”, but instead, she seized a teachable moment with a meaningful word that came up in the story.
Here is a video clip of teaching with sound boxes:
Emilysoundboxes.MOVThere are steps to follow in the procedure - each one important, and not to be rushed! The teacher can observe how the student is taking on each task.
1. Say the word
Articulate each sound in grandiose fashion. Consider using a mirror to watch how the mouth moves differently for each sound or using a hand brush down the arm to demonstrate slow movement and pronunciation. This also helps to teach students the concept of beginning/middle/end of a word.
2. Push the counters
Push up the counters slowly, one by one, matching with the sounds, in sequence. The teacher models first, and then the student(s) may be invited to try. Do not accept haphazard correspondence! Insist that the articulation of that phoneme matches the counter being moved. (They need to have arrived at the ending box exactly when they are saying the ending sound).
3. Write the letters
Ask the students, “what sound do we hear first?”. After they articulate the phoneme (sound), Involve them in identifying the matching grapheme (letter). They can trace it in the air, choose the magnetic letter from options, or identify on the ABC chart. The teacher writes the letters into each box. In conclusion, have the students read the word all together and possibly write the word on their own.
Julianna began to understand the idea of writing new words using orthographic mapping. Ms. Katie invited her to also use this as a strategy to solve new words in reading, showing her that when she confronted a difficult word on the page, she could stop to slowly articulate it. Sometimes when Julianna struggled to decode the word in text, she offered her the option of writing it out herself and saying the sounds as she wrote the word. This helped.
Through her teaching, Ms. Katie realized that orthographic mapping, and the tool of sound boxes, was transferable across languages. What students knew how to do in one language could serve them in the other. Ms. Katie engaged Transliteracy by recognizing that Julianna could say sounds slowly in Spanish, and demonstrated how to apply this in English, too. In time, they referred to the "Nests" text in English and Ms. Katie invited Julianna to use what she knew to help herself.
Pause and ponder
Consider the act of decoding a new word. What are all the pieces of knowledge and all the skills that a child needs to know in order to do this effectively? See how many you can list!
Take action
Now take your list and choose a focus child. Use the list as an observation tool; take note of what they control and what is still developing. Use your observation to plan upcoming teaching.