Why Word Chaining Should Be A Part Of Every Literacy Lesson

Word chaining and the building of words should be a part of every literacy lesson for beginning readers. When students build words based on the sound symbols explicitly taught, they engage in the orthographic mapping process, which is essential for reading and writing. This linking of speech-to-print is critical for learning to read, and it's fun! Students can participate in hands-on manipulation of letters to create, read, and manipulate new words.

Why is it essential to link sound to letters?

This mapping of speech to print can immediately unlock reading for children. How wonderful is that?! 

Dr. Martin Kozloff (2002) stated, "If a child memorized ten words, the child can only read ten words, but if a child learns the sounds of ten letters, the child will be able to read 350 three-sound words, 4,320 four-sound words, and 21,650 five-sound words."

There is no guessing when one can map the speech sounds to the representation within our orthographic system. Instead, students use their knowledge of the connection of individual speech sounds to the letter representations. 

How To Begin This Process

🟡 Explicitly teach phoneme-grapheme correspondences. 

Connect sounds to letters from the start. This instruction helps students link the sound that they hear with the letter representation for that sound. Over time, more and more phoneme-grapheme correspondences are taught moving from the most common letter representation to the least common. 

🧠 For some students, this connection may happen with 1-4 exposures. Still, for many children, especially those with dyslexia, the number of repetitions needed to map the speech sounds to print is numerous. Word building provides ample opportunity to manipulate and work with the sound-letter representations to build these connections. Once this occurs, this instant recognition lets us apply these known spelling patterns to new unknown words. But how do we get to this point?

We want to understand that for our instructional practices, having a scope and sequence that introduces students to sounds first and then links or connects the spelling is key for the orthographic mapping process. When we explicitly teach the sound connected to the most common letter representation and provide opportunities for children to work with these connections, we are beginning the mapping process. 

The letters SATPIN are a common introduction sequence to the sound-letter connections. Why?

This order of introduction is beneficial in several ways: 

• When using the sequence of SATPIN, it begins with the continuous sounds of /s/. This sound production can be held or continued until one's breath extinguishes. This sequence also allows for the strategy of continuous blending to be used when /s/ is in the initial position of words.
• The vowels /a/ and /i/ are produced far enough away from one another on the vowel valley, limiting vowel confusions. The short vowel /a/ is made with slightly less of a smile than /i/.

• Once students understand the sound representation of these letters, they can begin to build words, even with just 2-4 known letters! Creating those linkages between the sounds we hear and the letter/s we see is the key to unlocking the reading code. 
• You don't have to wait until all the letters are introduced to start blending words! If your students know /s/, /a/, and /t/, they can combine the sounds with reading the words at and sat. 

Providing students with hands-on letters to manipulate and build words makes learning multisensory. Manipulating the letters to build words is the most effective way to develop the sound-symbol correspondences. I use plastic letters, letter tiles, and paper letters in all of my lessons so that my students can manipulate and move the sound-symbol linkages as they develop their reading and writing skills. 

What is the difference between word building and word chains/ladders?

Word building is the ability to use the known sound-symbol linkages to read and write words. Students may be provided with a word orally or as a picture, and then they build the word with letters. You can have students segment the individual phonemes (sounds) as they build the word. Then have the students read the word, and for a vocabulary extension, have them use the word in a sentence.

A word chain also called a word ladder, is designed to build phonemic awareness, decoding (reading), and encoding (spelling). Word chains move in a progression where you only change one sound at a time. For example: sat-sit-pit-pat.  

Building new words based on previously taught phoneme-grapheme correspondences is crucial. Phoneme manipulation requires students to utilize their understanding of segmentation, blending, the position of sound within the word, and the ability to isolate and change the sound to create a new word. A lot is going on with this task.

👆 Above is a quick video of word chaining in action with the letters: SATPIN 👆 

Phoneme manipulation tasks within word chains need to be prepared ahead of time. You want to ensure that students are using previously taught phoneme-grapheme representations and that the shift in words occurs one sound at a time.

You can see in the video ⬆️ that only the previously taught graphemes are available to the student. This scaffold helps limit letter choices and focuses the student. As students learn more phoneme-grapheme correspondences, their letter choices can grow. 

Creating a consistent procedure for word chains helps students know what to do and moves your lesson along. For example:

•  The teacher would say the word. 
• The students echo the word and segment the phonemes as they pull each letter representation. 
• Then the student will read the word. 
• The teacher says a new word that differs in only one sound.
• Students segment the sounds in the word and determine where the sound changes. For this chain, the student would say spell - segment /s/-/p/-/e/-/l/, pull the letters, read the word spell, and then echo "spill" - repeating through the word chain. 

Research indicates that we can begin this work with students as soon as they have the sound-to-letter linkages (phoneme-grapheme knowledge). 

If you learned that phonemic awareness could be done in the dark, and once letters are added, it becomes phonics, this is true. However, research shows that when we link sound to letters and manipulate these, it helps to solidify the speech-to-print connections, which is part of orthographic mapping. By linking the sounds to the letters, we solidify the speech-to-print connections as we map the sounds to print. Therefore, we can begin phoneme manipulation tasks even with our early learners. 

Note: I will scaffold in phonemic awareness work with and without letter linkages for many of my students. Students with dyslexia often have a core deficit in phonological awareness and need targeted instruction to develop this sound awareness and letter linkages. Color tiles work well for this scaffold!

See the chart below for ideas on how to scaffold instruction in the area of word chains and grab the full resource HERE.

Is word chaining a part of your literacy lessons? Remember, when students engage in orthographic mapping, they build the necessary skills essential for reading and writing. Find more information HERE where I share strategies throughout the week.

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