In short, orthographic mapping is the process of connecting written letters with their corresponding sounds and meanings in the brain. It’s literally the permanent storage system in our brain for words and is developed over time through development of phonological awareness and connecting sounds to print.

Today, we will explore orthographic mapping in a bit more depth, and I’ll give you some ready-to-implement ideas for capitalizing on this knowledge in your classroom.

What is Orthographic Mapping?

Orthographic mapping is the process by which we connect the sounds of spoken language to the written symbols that represent those sounds. This process involves several steps, including recognizing letters, associating them with sounds, and storing this information in the brain’s long-term memory. When a student has a strong orthographic map, he/she can quickly and accurately recognize words, which is crucial for reading fluency and comprehension.

So, not to get too into the science behind it (because we know there is plenty) let’s look at some things you can easily implement in your classroom to capitalize on how our brain stores words.

1. Phonological Awareness Activities

Phonological awareness activities can help students develop their orthographic mapping skills. These activities focus on the sounds of language and help students recognize the individual sounds in words. For example, you can have students practice segmenting words into their individual sounds or blending sounds together to form words. These activities can be done orally or using written words.

2. Mapping High-Frequency Words

When we introduce our students to new high-frequency words (HFW) there is a simple and effective process we can use to help them focus on sounds, connect those sounds to print AND recognize phonetic patterns that may be irregular or just untaught at this time.

Here’s my go to for short and effective high-frequency word introductions:

• Read the word to students (have this on a note card, white board, etc)
• Break the word into phonemes (sounds) with students
• Count the number of phonemes (sounds) you hear
• Build the word using magnetic letters – I like to do this using a sound box mat so students can visually see which letter(s) are responsible for which sounds
• Write the word
• Use the word in a sentence (orally or written)

3. Word Walls

Yes, I truly believe word walls still have a very important place in our classroom.

We go through the process outlined above but let’s face it… not all students will automatically store this information permanently in their brains.

A word wall is a great tool to provide students continued support in storing this important information. So, after we go through the process above we mark the “heart” parts of each words AKA the parts that are truly irregular or are at least patterns not taught in Kindergarten yet.

This then serves as a resource that provides support to students as they read and write – and we use it OFTEN to play games so students are familiar with it.

4. Read Alouds

As teachers we know the importance of reading aloud to students for building comprehension, modeling fluency and creating a joy for reading. But, read alouds are also a magical time of day for exposing students to new vocabulary.

When reading aloud, I like to pause and ask students about the meaning of unfamiliar words – whether this is me providing a quick student-friendly definition or letting them share out. Encourage them to think about the sounds of the words and how the letters represent those sounds, it only takes a few moments to segment a word orally.

You can also have students follow along with the text as you read to help reinforce the connections between letters and sounds – I love our flat panel board for displaying books for just this reason!

While orthographic mapping isn’t something we teach per se, understanding what this process is will truly help transform learning how to read for your students.

What other activities do you use that capitalize on this knowledge? Let me know in the comments!

If you’re not familiar with Orthographic Mapping, don’t be shocked. It’s probably the least recognized and understood by many teachers, even if you’ve been in the classroom a long time. In short, Orthographic Mapping is how we store new words in our brain for automatic retrieval. It’s “the process we use to store words into long term memory” (Kilpatrick 2015). 

While phonics and phonetic decoding are essential tools for early literacy, they alone aren’t enough to produce fluency and word recognition. At some point, our brains must begin to store words so we can recognize them immediately, without having to sound them out each time. 

Every word has three forms – its sounds (phonemes), its orthography (spelling), and its meaning.

Joan Sedita, 2020

The process of orthographic mapping involves the brain linking the three forms of the word (sound, spelling and meaning) and storing them together in our long term memory. “It explains how children learn to read words by sight, to spell words from memory, and to acquire vocabulary words from print. This development is portrayed as a sequence of overlapping phases, each characterized by the predominant type of connection linking spellings of words to their pronunciations in memory” (Ehri 2014). 

Alright alright, enough with the science. It’s all well and good to understand what orthographic mapping is. But we’ve got to know how to teach it in the classroom to ensure our students leave early elementary as fluent and capable readers. 

Whole Group

When practicing together, make sure to focus on helping students connect the three parts of a word: sounds, spelling and meaning.

• First, say the word and have students repeat. (i.e. “Rug”)
• Then, ask students: “What is a rug? What does that mean? What do you picture in your mind when you hear that word?”
• Next, have students separate phonemes by stretching out the word and saying it slowly. They’ll recognize the sounds present in the word. 
• Confirm the sounds with the whole group by sounding it out slowly together. 
• Finally, build the word with letter tiles or write it on the board. Students can help by saying aloud which sounds go with each letter. 

Using this sequence, you can intentionally connect meaning, sounds and spelling when introducing new word families or words. This will ensure students understand all elements of a word when they’re beginning to learn and store words in their long term memory. 

Other Activities

The most important thing you can do is habitually connect meaning, sound and spelling with students. Once you’re doing that in the classroom in whole group, small group, and individual settings, you can begin to pepper in other variations of this. 

Sorting Words by Family

Have students match pictures of word family members (i.e. mat, hat, rat etc.) to the correct family (i.e. “-at” family) on a chart or worksheet. Sticky notes are fun for this too!

Draw the Word

Have students quickly draw or sketch (don’t let them spend too long on this!) words they read, strengthening the meaning and spelling connection. 

Roll the Dice

Create special dice with word family rimes on each side. Working in pairs, have students roll in turn and name a word in the family of whatever comes up. If they get stumped, they can work together with their partner to come up with two or more as a bonus!

Remember, practice is really what our struggling readers need most. And tweaking any of the above activities just slightly turns it into a whole new game! Make it fun and keep the pressure low. Learning to read can take time and making kiddos feel like they’re behind (even subtly) is not the ideal environment to gain fluency. 

Sources:

Kilpatrick, D.A. (2015). Assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Linnea C. Ehri (2014) Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning, Scientific Studies of Reading, 18:1, 5-21, DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.819356

Paul, Sarah. (2019). Snippets by Sarah. http://snippetsbysarah.blogspot.com/2019/07/how-do-we-learn-new-words-orthographic.html?m=1. 

Sedita, Joan. (2020). The Role of Orthographic Mapping in Learning to Read. Keys to Literacy. https://keystoliteracy.com/blog/the-role-of-orthographic-mapping -in-learning-to-read/.