Over the past few years, we’ve worked with many teachers who have wanted to transition from traditional word walls to sound walls, recognizing the benefits of emphasizing the connection between speech and print. By understanding the speech-to-print connection, students are better equipped to decode unfamiliar words and develop proficient reading and spelling skills. Sound walls (sometimes called sound-spelling walls) provide students with a visual and structured representation of phonemes (sounds) and their corresponding graphemes (letters), fostering a deeper understanding of language and its structure.
“We read with our eyes, but the starting point for reading is speech,” (Seidenberg, 2017).
This quote by Mark Seidenberg points to the fact that written language was created to represent speech, not the other way around. Children naturally acquire spoken language at a very young age and then later must be taught the written code that represents the sounds they’ve been speaking. Sound walls are a tool that can support this acquisition. While research on sound walls is not yet prevalent in the field, there are some characteristics of sound walls that make them a useful tool for student engagement and learning.
In this post, we’ll give you an overview of sound walls, including what their purpose is, the benefits of making the switch from word walls to sound walls, and how to use your sound wall once it’s up and running. This will help you maximize the benefits of sound walls in your classroom and support your students’ language development and literacy skills.
Here’s what’s included in this post:
● What is a Sound Wall?
● Why Transition to a Sound Wall?
● Five Steps for Transitioning to a Sound Wall
● Free Sound Wall Resources!
What is a Sound Wall?
A sound wall is an instructional tool designed to reinforce students’ phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge. Unlike a word wall, which displays high-frequency words according to their beginning letter, a sound wall is organized by individual phonemes. Appearing with each phoneme are the graphemes that can represent that sound. By displaying graphemes by the sound they represent, a sound wall enables students to use what they already know (sounds) as a starting point for reading and spelling. This student perspective differs from a word wall that is viewed from the perspective of someone who is already a reader.
Why Transition to a Sound Wall?
Sound walls can reinforce different parts of your structured literacy block, including:
- Auditory Discrimination: You can engage students in activities in which they listen to various words and identify the sounds represented on the sound wall. This helps students develop their ability to distinguish individual phonemes in spoken words, which is a foundational skill for reading and spelling.
- Blending and Segmenting: Using the sound wall as a reference, your students can practice segmenting words into their individual phonemes and blending phonemes together to form words. This approach allows students to manipulate sounds and strengthen their phonemic awareness skills to support reading and spelling.
- Letter-Sound Correspondences: The sound wall serves as a visual aid for teaching letter-sound correspondences, helping your students associate each phoneme with its corresponding grapheme(s).
- Word Building and Manipulation: You can facilitate word-building activities in which students use the sound wall to construct new words by combining different phonemes. This will help reinforce students’ understanding of how sounds come together to form words.
Five Steps for Transitioning to a Sound Wall:
- Become familiar with the phonemes and graphemes: Before introducing a sound wall to students, familiarize yourself with the phonemes and phonics rules that you’ll be introducing. Understanding the relationships between sounds and their written representations is essential for effective instruction and is also helpful for analyzing students’ reading and spelling errors.
2. Decide where you will post your sound wall: When choosing a space, consider the accessibility of the sound wall to your students. Here are some options:
3. Gather your materials: Your materials may include keyword picture cards, sound-spelling cards, phoneme cards, and/or mouth articulation cards. (Note: Research is currently inconclusive on the use of mouth pictures for literacy instruction and further studies are needed to assess their effectiveness and potential impact on learners, but many popular programs include these cards in their resources.)
4. Decide how you will organize your sound wall: You have a few different options, and if you Google “sound wall,” you’ll see the variety that’s out there. For example, vowel phonemes are often organized in the shape of a V, called a vowel valley, but this is not necessary.
Consonant phonemes can be placed into categories based on their characteristics or articulation features (stops, liquids, nasals, etc.), but these labels aren’t necessary for students to know. Choose the structure that works best for you and your students!
5. Make a plan for how you will use your sound wall: Once your sound wall is up, it’s time to make use of it! Carve out dedicated time each day for sound wall activities. Ideas include referring to the sound wall when introducing new sound-spelling correspondences or incorporating the sound wall into other parts of your literacy and content area lessons. Sound wall activities can include saying the sounds aloud, building words using the sound cards, or identifying words that feature specific phonemes. During reading and writing tasks, encourage students to use the sound wall as a tool to apply their sound-spelling knowledge. When students encounter new words while reading, they can refer to the sound wall for guidance in decoding unfamiliar words.
When to use your sound wall:
Use the sound wall daily as a tool, and your students will too!
Free Sound Wall Resources
The Literacy Architects Sound-Spelling Cards
The Literacy Architects Vowel and Consonant Sound Walls
Louisiana Believes Sound Wall Resources
References
Boyer, N., & Ehri, L. C. (2011). Contribution of phonemic segmentation instruction with letters and articulation pictures to word reading and spelling in beginners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(5), 440–470.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2010.520778
Castiglioni-Spalten, M. L., & Ehri, L. C. (2003). Phonemic Awareness Instruction: Contribution of Articulatory Segmentation to Novice Beginners’ Reading and Spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), 25–52.
https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532799XSSR0701_03
Reading Rockets. Transitioning from word walls to sound walls. (n.d.).
https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness/articles/transitioning-word-walls-sound-walls
Wise, B. W., Ring, J., & Olson, R. K. (1999). Training Phonological Awareness with and without Explicit Attention to Articulation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72(4), 271–304.
https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1999.2490