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Sep 8, 20234 min read

Steps to Teach Reading: Step 3 Orthographic Mapping

Updated: Sep 13, 2023


Do you want to teach your child to read at home? Or perhaps you are looking to support the instruction taking place at school? Whatever your situation, it can be helpful to understand the steps to teach reading.


The majority of children require direct intentional instruction to learn to read effectively:


The process of teaching reading takes time and patience, but children who read effectively are more likely to enjoy reading.


What is Orthographic Mapping?


Orthographic Mapping is essentially the memorization of words in long-term memory so words can be read and understood instantly. When a person is sounding out and blending sounds to make words, it is very difficult to simultaneously understand the meaning. This means that orthographic mapping is critical to building fluency and comprehension in reading.


Orthographic mapping is made up of three components:

  1. Automatic letter-sound associations

  2. Proficient Phonemic Awareness

  3. Connecting the sounds of oral words with the letter(s) for quick retrieval

Once children are able to recognize a word without sounding it out, it is stored in their long-term memory and it becomes a sight word. Fluent adult readers have 30,000 to 60,000 sight words stored in their memory.


Note: Often times children learn "sight words," which are high-frequency words that they are taught to memorize without learning how to decode. Children do require direct instruction to learn phonemic awareness and phonics and store sight words through orthographic mapping to learn to read effectively. More on this at the end of the post!


How to Teach Orthographic Mapping


Malia Hollowell the author of The Science of Reading in Action recommends a specific process for teaching orthographic mapping.


  1. Tap it - Have your child tap each of the letter sounds on the table or the palm of their hand. Example: Hoot = /h/ /oo/ /t/.

  2. Map it - Slide a manipulative into a box for each sound as they repeat the phonemes making up the words again.

  3. Graph it - Have children write the letters they use to spell each phoneme with as they repeat the word again. Example: /h/ (write h), /oo/ (write oo), /t/ (write t).

  4. Write it - Have children write the complete word.

  5. Read it - Have children slide their fingers under the letters as they blend the sounds.

  6. Repeat it - Complete steps 1 -5 four more times (a total of five times) to commit it to memory.


What do you do when you have a word that "doesn't follow the rules?"


You still follow the process! :-)


However, you may need to help your child with the letters that match the sound. Malia Hollowell recommends that if an error is made, have your child erase the letter(s) they wrote and write the correct ones. Then draw a heart next to the letters so they remember that they need to memorize that letter(s) sound by heart.


For example:

  • Word: Said

  • /s/ /e/ /d/

  • If they write "sed", have them correct it to "said," and explain that the short e sound is written "ai" and have them draw a heart to remember.

  • When they repeat the 5 step process, they should write it correctly.

Good readers can memorize a new word in just one to five exposures. It is important in this step that children have mastered the earlier steps (phonological awareness and decoding) previously, so this step is effective.


So what about sight word lists?


Many schools still teach students to memorize sight word lists before children have reached the step of orthographic mapping. Is this wrong? Yes and No. Sight words or high-frequency words can be useful in helping children read quickly, and thus feel successful and have their confidence boosted. However, the sight words would be more effectively taught/memorized if taught differently. So sight words are helpful when taught effectively.


So when writing this post, I Googled "teaching sight words." Oh my goodness there is all sorts of information about the best way to teach sight words and much of it is contradictory. I read several of the top posts. Some are dated, some I agreed with partially, and some are accurate but seemed more complex than in The Science of Reading in Action, which seemed to me the most simple explanation. Though there are of course multiple ways to teach still using these solutions to teach sight words more effectively.


  1. Teach the sight words in order in conjunction with your phonics lessons.

  2. Connect pronunciation, spelling, and meaning for children (flashcards are not the best).

  3. Use decodable readers (instead of leveled readers).

Conclusion


Orthographic mapping is a critical step in building fluent readers. It is what allows children to proficiently read and assign meaning to words that are stored in their long-term memory. Without building the fluency that comes with orthographic mapping, reading comprehension is extremely difficult for children.


Orthographic mapping helps children connect the letter sounds and the written word and commit them to memory. So by having children identify the sounds and match the sounds with letters and repeat this process several times, they can commit the words to memory.


High-frequency sight words that many schools have children memorize, still have a place in reading instruction. However, the instruction needs to be altered to be more effective.


Happy reading!


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