What Do I Do When...a student is not writing all of the sounds in a word?

Welcome to the next post in our series....What do I do when?

This post will focus on the encoding side of using sounds...spelling! Remember that reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. We should not teach them in isolation, but respect their relationship and teach them in tandem.

We teach the sounds in isolation paired with the correct grapheme, so we are teaching students to not only recognize the grapheme/sound relationship (phonics/decoding) but also to be able to produce the correct grapheme when given the sound (spelling/encoding).

By directly instructing these two actions we are establishing the connection between speaking, reading, and writing. This is a very powerful way to establish literacy skills.

Let's say you've been directly teaching the sound/letter relationships and your student(s) can recognize them and even produce them when in isolation....but when they go to spell it all falls apart. Now what? How can you help them make that turn towards spelling?

Here are some proven ways that WORK! However, remember that there is no one way that works for EVERYONE and you may have to try a few or combine a few to reach your student(s). This is why I promote teacher training over programs! Teaching training means you can pick and choose because you KNOW HOW to differentiate whereas programs don't provide that kind of knowledge. (end soapbox talk)

These are ways that have been proven to work in my instruction and intervention. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like some more detail. We are a community, so if you have any other methods that are working for your students then please share in the comments or send me a message.

If you would like some resources that can help with decoding & encoding sounds, then please visit my TPT store Simply Primary.

This resource, Break-it-Down: Phonemic Awareness & Phonics Pack, helps students to break apart the sounds in words and recognize sound parts....

This resource, CVC Decodable Word Cards, supports blending sounds and writing words.

Thank You!

Kristin

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