Sound Wall or Alphabet Wall?
Teaching your child to read? Why would she need a sound wall? What is a sound wall? It’s not in alphabetical order. Your child likely already has an alphabet poster on the wall! Hot topic here today! on Canadian Thanksgiving Monday! If you’re the mom of a 1st grader, 2nd grader, or struggling 3rd to 5th grader teaching or supporting your child to read at home, using phonics as the foundation for developing a strong, successful reader, you don’t want to miss today’s battle! Should your child have a sound wall or alphabet wall?
I remember being a young supply teacher before getting my full-time teaching gig and walking into a 2nd grade classroom. On the wall was a sound wall. It wasn’t the predictable alphabetical order, but rather, seemed like a mismatch of sounds listed in columns, with some words in each column that began with a grapheme representing some of the 44 sounds in the English Language that your child needs to know. It was neatly displayed with chalkboard markers.
Instead of words such as ‘think and them’ being listed under the letter ‘t’ on the usual alphabet wall poster or desktop chart, the words ‘think and them’ were listed under the letters ‘th’, the ‘th’ digraph, a digraph being two letters that work together to represent one sound. It really made me think. In Grade Two, should students have a sound wall or alphabet wall? Why would we ONLY have an alphabet wall in Grade Two? Did we even need an alphabet wall in Grade 2?
If you’re a mom teaching your son or daughter to read at home, using phonics as the foundation, have you provided your child a sound wall or an alphabet wall? You likely already have an alphabet chart on your wall, or regular printer paper sized for you child. But, should YOU also have a sound Wall?
How many sounds in the English Language? There are 44 sounds in the English language that your child will need to learn and be able to manipulate to become a strong, successful reader. Of these 44 sounds, how many sounds are represented by the short vowels and single consonants in the alphabet alone? So, what about the other sounds?
When I go through the alphabet, and count the phonemes represented by single graphemes, or just single alphabet letters on their own, I get 24 phonemes. This leaves 20 extra sounds, represented by more complex phonics skills, such as consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, long vowel teams (sometimes called long vowel digraphs), r-controlled vowels and dipthongs which are NOT represented by just one letter.
These sounds, or phonemes, are represented by more than one letter. As an example, the long /i/ sound is represented with multiple spellings, ‘igh’ as in the word ‘light’, and ‘ie’, as in the word ‘pie’ (great word for Thanksgiving weekend). The consonant digraph /ch/ is represented by two letters ‘ch’. The /oy/ dipthong is represented by two letters, ‘oy’.
Why would we write words like ‘the’ and ‘thought’ under the letter ‘t’, when these words don’t begin with a /t/ sound? The words ‘the’ and ‘thought’ began with a digraph. The ‘th’ digragh. Voiced and unvoiced. Under the sound for ‘s’, /s/, were words beginning with a soft ‘c’, such as cycle and city. So, this sound wall reinforced to students the multiple spellings for the same sound that exist in the English Language.
No, the words were not listed in alphabetical order, but for a Grade 2 student at school or at home, your son or daughter are far too advanced for ONLY having an alphabet wall at his/her fingertips. A sound wall, in addition to an alphabet wall, makes perfect sense.
Environmental print. I don’t mean environment as in land, sea and atmosphere, I mean your child’s surroundings and resources, as it pertains to reading instruction. As a former classroom teacher, the concept of environmental print being the 3rd teacher IS an easily accessible resource strategy for students!
In the teaching world, the term environmental print refers to anchor charts or posters on the wall where print is displayed to remind students of important phonics or math concepts? So, does your child have an alphabet wall? This could be on the wall or a personal sized-chart at a desk.
So, does your child have an alphabet wall or chat he can easily access, like sitting right there beside him on the desktop or kitchen table during phonics instruction. If not, you’re missing out on the concept of environmental print reinforcing phonics skills you’ve taught at home. When it comes to the question of your child having a sound wall or alphabet wall, the answer is both!
When should you consider getting a sound wall for your child? Your child will benefit greatly from having a sound wall as a reading and spelling reinforcement tool when your child is successfully reading and writing CVC words, and is ready to move to the next phonics skills of learning simple digraphs, such as ‘ch’ spells /ch/, ‘sh’, spells /sh/ and ‘th’ voiced spells /th/ and ‘th’ unvoiced spells /th/.
So, should your child have a sound wall or alphabet wall? It seems we have a tie! Your child needs both!
