Ep. 185: Understanding the How and Why of Sound Walls with Mary Dahlgren
Mar 1, 2024
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Expert Mary Dahlgren explains the importance of sound walls in teaching all 44 speech sounds. Sound walls help students connect sounds to letters, support phonics instruction, and benefit all students, including English learners. The podcast discusses transitioning to sound walls, the significance of phonological awareness, dialect variations in phonics skills, and practical tools for teaching sound walls in early education.
Sound walls visually represent the 44 speech sounds of English, aiding students' understanding.
Sound walls help students connect sounds to letters, supporting phonological awareness and phonics instruction.
Deep dives
Introduction to Sound Walls and Expertise of Mary Dogren
Sound walls are discussed as an alternative to word walls in enhancing phonological awareness and spelling patterns in educational settings. The episode introduces expert Mary Dogren, who shares her 40 years of experience in education, particularly focusing on phonemes and phonology. Through her work with sound walls, she emphasizes the importance of understanding all 44 speech sounds rather than just the 26 letters, highlighting the significance of teaching phonology in a comprehensive manner.
Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls
Mary Dogren explains her transition from using word walls to sound walls in her teaching practices. She recounts her realization about the confusion students faced in spelling due to improper phonological understanding. By moving from word walls to sound walls, she observed increased clarity for students in understanding the 44 speech sounds and their multiple spelling variations, providing them with a more structured approach to phonics and spelling.
Incorporating Sound Walls for Enhanced Phonemic Awareness
The episode delves into how sound walls promote phonemic awareness in students, aiding them in connecting sounds to corresponding print representations. Mary Dogren emphasizes the significance of integrating sound wall teachings throughout the day in various subject areas, enabling students to grasp phonology, orthography, and spelling patterns effectively. By utilizing sound walls as a tool available at all times, teachers can seamlessly incorporate phonological elements into their daily lessons.
Supporting English Learners Through Sound Walls
The benefits of using sound walls for English learners are discussed, particularly focusing on the differences in phonemes between languages like English and Spanish. Mary Dogren highlights the importance of sound walls in helping English learners understand and differentiate between English phonemes and their native language sounds. By providing insights into phonology and orthography, sound walls become essential tools in supporting language acquisition and literacy for English learners.
Sound wall expert Mary Dahlgren explains how sound walls differ from word walls, why it's important to teach all 44 speech sounds, and how sound walls can help students make sense of English. She shares evidence to support the use of sound walls in your classroom and gives practical advice for implementation.
Takeaways
Sound walls are an instructional tool to help students see and understand the 44 speech sounds of the English language.
Sound walls provide a visual representation of the sounds and their corresponding spellings.
Sound walls help students make connections between sounds and letters.
Sound walls support phonological awareness, phonics instruction, and the development of decoding skills.
Sound walls are beneficial for all students, including English learners, as they provide a structured and visual approach to learning the sounds of the English language. Teachers should be aware of the different phonemes in their students' languages and teach the phonemes in English.