1. Conquer the Code:
Sounds, Symbols, and Syllables

2. Reading . . .
an extraordinary ability,
peculiarly human and yet
distinctly unnatural.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, 2003

3. Literacy . . .
Begins at birth,
and
is a lifelong process!

4. Unfortunately,
Children are not born with this
insight, nor does it develop
naturally without instruction.
Reid Lyon, 1997, NICHD

5. In today’s world,
learning to read well is a key to the
future success of our children. Not
only is reading fluently and with
comprehension by third grade a
legislated priority, it is an ethical and
professional imperative.
(Wolfe and Nevills, 2004)

6. In fact,
teaching reading is
Rocket Science!
(See Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science:
What Expert Teachers of Reading Should
Know and Be Able to Do by Louisa C.
Moats, AFT, June 1999)

7. Research Practice
• National Research Council: Committee on National
Research Council: Preventing Reading Difficulties
in Young Children (1998)
• National Research Council - Starting Out Right: A
Guide to Promoting Children’s Reading Success
(1999)
• National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read
(2000)
• Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks
for Teaching Children to Read (2001)
• Scientific Research in Education (2002)

8. Reading and the Brain
“If we provide intervention at an
early age, then we can improve
reading fluency and facilitate the
development of the neural systems
that underlie skilled reading.”
(Sally and Bennett Shaywitz,
Educational Leadership, March 2004, p. 10)

9. Language Components
Receptive Expressive
Oral Listening Speaking
Written Reading Writing

10. “The Big Five”
• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Text Comprehension

11. Reading Components
and the “Big Five”
Means End
DECODING COMPREHENSION
• Phonemic • Vocabulary
Awareness • Text
• Phonics Comprehension

12. Lesson Plan Format
• Preread Schema
• Read it Story grammar
• Reread it Fluency
• Discuss it Vocabulary
• React to it Comprehension
• Code it Alphabetic code
• Apply it Practice
• Transfer it Generalization

13. Read with “HuGs”
uniting
Holistic & Graphophonic
strategies

14. Reading is the union of
Comprehension + Decoding
(Holistic) (Graphophonic)
Pre-read it Code it:
Read it Hear it
Reread it See it
Discuss it Associate it
React to it Expand it

15. Code it: Alphabetic Code
• Hear it Phonological: sound
• See it Print: symbol
• Associate it Sound/symbol
• Expand it Structural analysis

16. Conquer the Code:
Sounds, Symbols, and Syllables
• Sounds
– Phonological Awareness
– Phonemic Awareness
• Symbols
– Print Awareness
– Alphabet knowledge
• Syllables
– Vowel Patterns
– Syllabication

17. Oral Language
• Listening and Speaking
• Literacy Events
• “Grand Conversations”
• Phonological Awareness: sensitivity to
the sounds of language

18. Phonology: Sounds
• Phonological awareness
• Phonemic awareness
• 44 phonemes (speech sounds)
• Oral / auditory
• Related to reading and writing

19. How many sounds?
• in the word box
• in the word enough
• in the word precious

20. 44 Sounds of the
English Language
• Vowels (10) • Consonants (18)
/ă//ā/ /b/ /j/ /s/
/ĕ/ /ē/ /k/ /l/ /t/
/ĭ/ /ī/ /d/ /m/ /v/
/ŏ/ /ō/ /f/ /n/ /w/
/ŭ/ /ū/ /g/ /p/ /y/
/h/ /r/ /z/

21. 44 Sounds of the
English Language
• Vowel Diphthongs (2) • Consonant Digraphs(7)
/ou/ /sh/ /ch/ /wh/
/oi/ /th/ /th/ /zh/
• Vowel Variants (3) /ng/
/au/
/oo/ (moon) • r-controlled (3)
/oo/ (book) /ar/ /or/ /er/
• Schwa (1)
/ə/

22. Phonological Awareness
• “Funnel – ogical” awareness
• Sensitivity to the sounds of language
– words, syllables, and sounds
• Includes phonemic awareness
• Necessary for understanding the
alphabetic principle and how sounds
match print

23. Phonological Awareness
• Word awareness
• Rhyming words
• Syllable awareness
• Alliteration
• Onset-rime
• Phonemic segmentation and blending
• Phonemic manipulation

24. Phonological Activities
• Clapping, standing, using body
motions
• Manipulatives, e.g., linking blocks,
puzzles, objects, chips or tokens
• Pictures, books, posters
• Music and rhyme
• “Feel it in your mouth!”
• Elkonin (sound) boxes

25. Written Language
• Reading and writing
• Print awareness
• Reading: decoding + comprehension
• Sound – symbol connection [phonics]
• Writing: spelling, handwriting,
written expression [writing process]

26. Orthography: Symbols
• Alphabet (26 letters)
• Represent speech sounds
• Written / visual
• Spelling patterns

27. Print Awareness
• Concepts of Print
• Book concepts
• One-to-one correspondence
• Directionality
• Alphabet Knowledge
• Recognition
• Identification
• Formation

28. How do children develop
print awareness?
• Read alouds
• Shared reading
• Print rich environment
• Big Books, little books, lots of books
• Hearing poems, nursery rhymes
• Seeing charts, signs, lists, “Morning
Message” and “Sign in”

29. Alphabet Activities
• Sort plastic or magnetic letters
• Use letter cards with the ABC song
• Match environmental print labels to
alphabet letter cards
• Locate target letter by using highlighter
tape
• Write letters in the air, using large muscle
movements
• Write letters in shaving cream, sand, or
rice trays

30. Pre-Phonics
• Phonological Awareness
• Oral
• Sounds
• Print Awareness
• Visual
• Symbols

31. Phonics
“refers to instructional practices
that emphasize how spellings are
related to speech sounds in
systematic ways.”
(Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)

32. What is the Alphabetic
Principle?
• the systematic and predictable
relationship between the letters of
written language and the sounds of
spoken language
• the way print matches speech
• the relationship between phonology
and orthography
• also known as the alphabetic code

33. Why learn the Alphabetic
Code?
• It provides the understanding for
the internal structure of words.
• It helps children recognize familiar
words and decode new words.
• It connects reading and writing.
• It enables children to read with
fluency and comprehension.

34. Phonics
• Synthetic Phonics • Structural Analysis
• Part to whole
• Root words,
• Analytic Phonics
prefixes & suffixes
• Whole to part
• Word families (rimes) • Compound words
• Vowel Patterns • Contractions
• 6 Syllable types • Syllabication
• 85-88% regularity

35. Color-Code
Vowels Digraphs Blends
a sh bl-
e ch cr-
i th st-
o wh -nd
u ph -mp
-y -w etc.

36. Orthography: Syllables
• Six basic syllable types
• 85 – 88% of English language
• Vowel Patterns (syllable types)
• Structure of our language
• Alphabetic code

37. Vowel Patterns
• Regular • Effective
• Reliable • Efficient
• Research-based • Easy to use

38. Vowel Pattern Chart
Closed Open Silent e
Bossy r 2 Vowels C+le
Talkers Whiners

39. Vowel Pattern Chart
Closed Open Silent e
cat me ride
fish go cape
bub- ta- hope
Bossy r 2 Vowels C+le
Talkers Whiners
car ta - ble
boat boy
girl bub - ble
meat clown
tur- tur - tle

40. Vowel Patterns
Closed:
A word or syllable that contains only one vowel
followed by one or more consonants;
the vowel is short.
“One lonely vowel squished in the middle,
says its special sound just a little.”
sat bed fin top gum
sand best print shop lunch
at Ed in on up

41. Vowel Patterns
Open:
A word or syllable that ends with one
vowel; the vowel is long.
“If one vowel at the end is free, it
pops way up and says its name to me.”
me she hi go flu fly

42. Vowel Patterns
Silent e [Magic e]:
A word or syllable that ends in e, containing one
consonant before the final e and one vowel before
that consonant; the vowel is long.
“The magic e is quiet, but it has a claim to fame;
it makes the vowel before it say its real name.”
The magic e is so powerful, it gives all its strength
to the other vowel so that it can say its real
name.
make Steve ride hope cube

43. Vowel Patterns
Bossy r [r-controlled]:
A word or syllable containing a vowel followed by r;
the vowel sound is altered by the r.
The letter r is so bossy, it tells the vowel that it
can’t say its real name (long vowel) or its special
sound (short vowel), but must say the r sound (as
in car, for, her).
car her girl for curl

44. Vowel Patterns
Double Vowel Talkers: [vowel digraphs]
A word or syllable containing two adjacent
vowels; the first one is long.
“When two vowels go walking, the first one
does the talking and says its name.”
rain day see meat pie
boat toe slow suit blue

45. Vowel Patterns
Double Vowel Whiners :[diphthongs and variants]
A word or syllable that contains two adjacent
vowels; the vowels say neither a long or short
vowel sound, but rather a very different sound.
Sometimes when two vowels are next to each other,
they make a funny whining sound, like when you
fall down and say “ow,” “aw,” “oy,” and get a “boo-
boo.”
fault saw foil boy loud cow moon new book

46. Vowel Patterns
C+le: [consonant + le]
This syllable ends with “le” preceded by a
consonant, and occurs in two-syllable
words.
When a word ends with a consonant and “le,”
the “le” grabs the consonant before it, and
the word breaks into two parts right
before that consonant.
bub–ble ca–ble ea–gle poo–dle pur-ple

47. Vowel Pattern
“Prediction Power”
The prediction power of the patterns ranges from 77 to
89%, each of which is much better than predictions on
the basis of chance alone. Teaching children vowel
patterns can make a difference in their fluency and
comprehension (May, 2002).
Closed Open Silent e
86 – 89% 77% 81%
Bossy r 2 Vowels C+le
Talkers Whiners
77%

48. Irregular / “Memory”
Words
• About 12 – 15% of English words do
not conform to the regular patterns
• Can be taught through context,
repetition, multisensory techniques,
and learning games, e.g., Word Wall
activities, VAAKT (associative word
cards), BINGO

49. Structural Analysis
• Root words and affixes
• Compound words
• Contractions
• Syllabication

50. Root Words and Affixes
Prefix Root Suffix
un friend ly
re heat ed
in spect or
• Color-highlight or draw a box around
affixes (prefix = green; suffix = red)
• Make charts for similar affixes

51. Compound Words
• Begin with whole word, e.g., doghouse
• Segment and blend
• Use fists, puzzles, linking blocks
• Make lists of compound words
• Use color-coding (doghouse)
• Practice deletion (say doghouse
without dog)

52. Contractions
• Compare “long” and “short” forms, e.g.,
do not (long – 2
words)
don’t (short – contraction)
• Highlight apostrophe (use elbow macaroni)
and deleted letter/s in red
• Use a rubberband to show long and
shortened forms (same meaning)
• Make lists of contractions from stories

53. Syllabication Patterns
• C+le turtle tur – tle
• VC/CV rabbit rab – bit
• V/CV tiger ti – ger
• VC/V camel cam – el
• V/V lion li - on

54. Strategy for Syllabication
• “Spot and dot” the vowels
• Connect the dots
• Look at the number of consonants between
the vowels
• If 2 – break between the consonants
• If 1 – break before the consonant; if it
doesn’t sound right, move over one letter

55. Apply and Transfer
• Provide many opportunities to use
these skills and strategies, both in
isolation and in connected text
– Fiction and non-fiction
– Poetry and songs
– Decodable text
– Learning games and activities

56. Why?
When students have the MEANS
to conquer the code,
they will reach the GOAL, and
master the meaning!

57. The End
Remember . . .
Teach a child to read,
Give a gift for life!!
Thank you for your
kind attention!
Happy Teaching!

58. Websites of Interest
www.aft.org American Federation of Teachers
www.ascd.org Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development
www.educationworld.com Education World
www.fcrr.org Florida Center for Reading Research
www.idafla.org Florida Branch - IDA
www.interdys.org International Dyslexia Association
www.nifl.gov National Institute for Literacy
www.nationalreadingpanel.org National Reading Panel
www.reading.org International Reading Association
www.readingrockets.org Reading Rockets