Dear Reader,
Last week, I started to dig into Scarborough’s Reading Rope, which is a framework to better understand how humans learn to read. Like most models and frameworks, the strands of the reading rope are a helpful metaphor rather than a literal representation; it demystifies the reading process so practitioners can make informed, effective decisions.
In this week’s newsletter, I zero in on decoding and encoding (i.e. reading a word and spelling a word.) I think it’s essential to unpack these two skills, especially since reading and spelling are inextricably linked, but few elementary schools teach spelling anymore. The availability of devices and programs with spellcheck and autocorrect do not and should not give schools a pass on teaching the alphabetic code.
Have a great week!
Erin
Start with the Sounds
But too often phonics is taught backwards. Kids start with the visual of letters when they actually need to start with the sounds.
The discussion of learning to read almost always dedicates significant time to phonics, especially since we know kids need to learn the alphabetic code in order to read. But too often phonics is taught backwards. Kids start with the visual of letters when they actually need to start with the sounds.
Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to discriminate the sounds in words. For instance, bat has three phonemes (b/a/t), while yogurt has five (y/o/g/ur/t). It is not a natural process, and children often struggle at first, though most children will develop their phonemic awareness with explicit instruction. Children who persistently struggle with phonemic awareness, even in preschool, are at higher risk for reading failure later.
What does this look like in a classroom?
Play games where students “break down” a word or “tap it out.” In Kindergarten and first grade, these are exercises that students can do during transitions. (Teacher calls out: bat, students respond: b/a/t.)
Rhyming chants: (Teacher: Sit and mit both end in…. Students: it!)
Have students clap syllables (map - one clap; jumping - two claps; hungary - 3 claps.)
Have students change the sounds in a word. (Teacher: The word is clip. Change the /c/ sound to /b/. What’s my new word? Student: blip!)
Phonemic awareness is integrated into spelling practice. See more below!
Orthographic Mapping
When children are taught to memorize large numbers of words, they are receiving the implicit message that words are not systematic or rule-driven.
The most effective way to teach decoding is to follow an explicit sequence where students learn how to map the sounds of their language onto letter representations. Kids will not decode “fumigation” before they decode “fun.” That might seem just fine, but it doesn’t address one of the biggest critiques of phonics:
There are too many exceptions for students to learn all the rules. At some point, kids will just have to memorize words.
This is not the case. It’s true that certain words (like “is” and “the”) are not regular in the way cave, brave, and save are, but quite a few high-frequency sight words do fit within regular patterns of the English language, such as would/could/should or above/love/dove. When children are taught to memorize large numbers of words, they are receiving the implicit message that words are not systematic or rule-driven. Often times, this is a result of teachers not knowing the orthographic regularity in the English language because they did not learn about it in their preparation program.
Check out this helpful article from Nell K. Duke of The University of Michigan and Heidi Anne E. Mesmer of Virginia Tech for how to teach sight words in the same way you would teach other words.
The Value of Encoding
In short, asking children to encode (i.e. spell) words helps reinforce their understanding of letter-sound relationships.
Here’s a quick set of definitions:
Decoding - the ability to look at a visual representation and determine the sounds it represents
Encoding - the ability to hear a word and to write a visual representation of that word
More simply put: Decoding is when you read a word and encoding is when you spell a word. As I mentioned above, children are usually taught the visual cues of reading first, while there is more and more evidence that students should begin with the sounds.
This is consistent with the findings of memory research. Human memory is strengthened when information is recalled, not just reviewed. And yes, forgetting is part of the equation. Even if the information is imperfectly remembered, when the brain tries to remember something and the incorrect information is then corrected, the memory is strengthened. This phenomena is one of the most replicated in memory research. I’ll talk about it more in future newsletters. In the meantime, check out this excellent Cult of Pedagogy episode on the topic.
In short, asking children to encode (i.e. spell) words helps reinforce their understanding of letter-sound relationships. Research neuropsychologist Jeannine Herron wrote a piece for ASCD several years ago about the ways encoding supports early reading. She includes some of the recommendations mentioned above, such as de-emphasizing the names of letters and moving children away from exclusively relying on visual cues to determine the sounds and alphabetic rules at work in a word.
Extra Credit
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” - Jorge Luis Borges
A reading curriculum created by Lucy Calkins, a professor of education at Columbia, dominates a number of New York City elementary schools and it is the fourth most popular reading curriculum in the country. Her Units of Study was recently reviewed by a panel of literacy experts, who found a number of serious flaws. The reporter Emily Hanford debriefed the report in an article last January.
Memorable Quote: “Reviewer Tim Shanahan, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, agreed. "One suspects that students who are already on or above grade level in reading may do fine [in Units of Study] ... though they may not learn as much as they possibly could."
For a less charitable critique of the Calkins materials, check out cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg’s blog post from a year and a half ago. It breaks down how misconceptions about reading are baked into the way Calkins conceives of reading instruction.
Memorable Quote: “Is using the slower, reasoning approach a good way to become a skilled reader? Absolutely not. Inferring the identity of a word from the cues Dr. Calkins emphasizes is really hard. (It takes stamina.) It’s also fallible unless the child is already familiar with the text or the word occurs in an unusually predictable context (“I have five fingers on my hand.”) Worse, Dr. Calkins ignores the fact that the child is also learning from their mistaken guesses. Our brains are continually updating as we engage in activities like reading. A child who is laboriously deducing the meaning of a word from unreliable cues is also learning mistaken associations from erroneous responses. This is truly how to make learning to read hard.”