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Tips For Setting Up An Effective Sound Wall

Writer: Peaceful PrimaryPeaceful Primary
Feb 232 min read

TEACHING PHONICS

One of my main goals as a primary reading teacher is to help students connect their spoken words to written language. My hope is that they can use this knowledge to decode words, and eventually read and write with fluency and comprehension.

 

ALL ABOUT PHONEMES

A first step in accomplishing this goal is to help students understand that the words they already know are made up of smaller units of sound called phonemes. Phonemes can be represented by specific letters and letter combinations called graphemes. In other words, phonemes are the smallest units of sounds, and graphemes are the letters that represent those sounds.



WHAT IS A SOUND WALL?

A sound wall is a visual reference for students that focuses on phonemes as opposed to the more traditional letters of the alphabet presented in alphabetical order. On a sound wall, each of the 44 phonemes in the English language is represented by a poster. Under each phoneme is a list of the letters (or letter combinations) that can make that specific sound.



HOW IS A SOUND WALL HELPFUL?

A sound wall is a reference for students. Students trying to spell a word can search the sound wall for possible letter combinations that represent a sound. For example, the middle sound for the word “paint” (the long ā sound) may be represented by the anchor picture “acorn”. Students can use the list of graphemes listed under the picture to help with spelling :  ai, ay, a, a_e, ei, eigh, and ey. In this way, the sound wall becomes a useful tool in daily writing.


COMPLETE SOUND WALL KIT

You can get everything you need in this sound wall kit, including all the mouth articulation cards, headers and phoneme cards for vowels and consonants.


More Ideas for your Classroom:

Enhance and practice sound wall phonics and graphemes with this fun doodle style printing booklet! Your students will love this!

Click the image below to see all the pictures.



Looking for free resources for your classroom? Try these:



 
 
 

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