Orthographic Mapping Made Easy!

[@nicholemenard4609]

We are working towards reading all words by sight. We have words that follow regular sound patterns and words that have heart parts but all words become sight words.

[@suzannejohnson206]

When do you start orthographic mapping with words like said, the, etc. After teaching all the sounds?

[@braintrust8396]

As soon as you start introducing high frequency words with irregular spelling patterns, it is good to introduce orthographic mapping strategies to promote automaticity. Kids should definitely know all of their consonant and short vowel sounds, as otherwise the entire word becomes a part to memorize by heart!

[@liskl5982]

Why not base spelling on say - past tense sayed -> said ? the letter 'a' is preserved in the spelling. Is this too difficult.

[@braintrust8396]

It would depend on the age of the child and how well they can understand the concept of past tense! "Said" in particular is a very high frequency word often found in books that are often used by students as young as Kindergarten, and the concept of past tense or the suffix -ed would likely be a bit of a stretch to comprehend. It's usually a bit of a balance between what a child can conceptually grasp, the phonics patterns that they understand, and the spelling patterns that don't fit into their base of knowledge.

[@kristencassidy7270]

Can you please explain why you can't introduce the and a as /th/ /ee/ and /ay/?

[@braintrust8396]

You would want to identify the number of sounds in the word "the" first, which is 2. First we hear /th/ and then we hear /u/. Next, you'd want to identify the letters that match with those sounds. In this case, the /th/ sound is spelled with it's regular pattern, "th." Then we focus on the second sound in the word /u,/ which is this case is actually spelled with the letter "e" instead of the letter that typically makes that sound, which would be "u." By highlighting that there are two sounds, and one of those is spelled exactly as we'd expect, it can help to highlight that the second sound is the only one that's spelled irregularly and therefore the only part of the word that needs to be learned by heart. I hope that helps!!

[@kristencassidy3148]

@@braintrust8396 I understand that for those that pronounce it that way. Just as our letters and digraphs can have different sounds, as can e and a. For example, the long e sound can be represented in many ways. If I pronounce the word as th/ee and the word a as aye then couldn’t you teach it as so? Not everyone uses the uh sound. I’m just wondering if there’s proof that these words a and the HAVE to be pronounced as you have mentioned.

[@braintrust8396]

​@@kristencassidy3148 There are definitely differences in pronunciation. Sometimes we absolutely here the word a said exactly as we spell it (with that open syllable a long vowel sound), but I think "the" isn't often said as /th/ /e/ which is why that one for sure seems like one to teach this way. It might not always be "uh," but it usually isn't the standard short e sound. As with English, things are rarely a perfect rule.

[@ambercavanagh2768]

You can absolutely teach it the way you pronounce it. Here in NZ, we pronounce 'the' like 'thee' usually before a word that begins with a vowel, and we pronounce it as 'thu' before a word that starts with a consonant. So I teach both ways to my own kids.