Episode 16: Orthographic Mapping: Preparing the Brain to Read

Written By Amie Burkholder

All About Jessica:

  • Former elementary school teacher for 13 years, mostly in 1st grade

  • Certified in reading grades K-12

  • Jessica learned about the science of reading in 2019 and although her heart sank with guilt at how she was initially teaching her students, she began to read and learn all she could about the science of reading.  Fast forward and she’s now sharing Tik Tok phonics videos that help both teachers and parents learn about phonics so they can best teach their students and kids!

  • Connect with Jessica Farmer:

All About Orthographic Mapping:

  • Orthographic Mapping is NOT an activity - it’s something that happens in our brain.  

  • Our brain is not hard-wired to read.  Because of this, we must create pathways and roads that help our brains learn how to read. 

  • Orthographic Mapping pathways look a little like this:

phonemic awareness → blending and segmenting → automatic spelling to sound correspondences → applying knowledge to decoding new words → connecting this to pronunciation and vocabulary

Stages of Reading Development:  

  • Pre-K (or before) where parents introduce the alphabet to their children → pre alphabetic → partial alphabetic → full alphabetic → consolidated alphabetic 

  • The goal:  Reach the consolidated alphabetic stage by the end of 2nd grade.  Then students can transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

  • The other goal: Students must leave 1st grade is essential for foundational skills.

Sight Words, High-Frequency Words, and Irregular/Heart Words:

  • Sight word: ANY word you can read automatically

  • High-frequency words: words that appear often in text

    • was, is, but, there, am

  • Irregular/heart words:  words that have an irregular spelling and can also be high frequency

    • colonel → irregular word but not high frequency

    • come → irregular word and high frequency

Strategies to Support Decoding:

  • Be willing to sit in the decoding stage for as long as it takes - this stage will build strong readers

  • Activities that promote orthographic mapping:

    • Explicitly teach spelling patterns that follow a scope and sequence

    • Phonemic awareness involving blending and segmenting

    • Word mapping with sound boxes using magnets and manipulatives

    • Using decoding skills to read new words

    • Learning high-frequency words:

      • Students say the word

      • The teacher uses it in a sentence

      • Students count the sounds, and say the word multiple times

      • The teacher writes it on the board and goes over the spelling

      • Concentrate on the sounds and heart parts of the word

      • Work on handwriting, counting sounds, and mapping 

      • Try not to just use flashcards

Jessica’s Three Main Takeaways:

  • Foundational skills are SO essential in the primary grades K-2

    • Teachers: You are SO important!

  • Activities don’t have to be fancy or complicated - students will grow regardless!

    • These can be simple and straightforward

    • Be consistent

    • Follow the I Do, We Do, You Do method

  • Keep growing your teacher knowledge

    • “Teachers teach - the curriculum doesn’t!  Your knowledge needs to be beyond what the curriculum offers you.”

Phonics Curriculum Recommendations:

If You’re Just Getting Started…

Amie Burkholder
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