Matching Letter Sounds to Spell Words

In this section, we’ll talk about a multisensory teaching strategy we use to teach students to match sounds to letters in order to spell a word!  

Sounds to Spelling

This method adds another very closely related skill to decoding … spelling! The students separate the sounds (phonemes) in a spoken word and then apply the letters (graphemes) for each sound, spelling the word! 

Let's Watch! Dr. Antonio Fierro demonstrates a version of this strategy with the word ship. 

Here's the step-by-step Sounds to Spelling strategy with the word ship. 

Give each student a set of tokens and a sounds to spelling grid, (opens in new window) (opens in new window) also known as Elkonin boxes. Make sure you have enough squares for each sound (phoneme) in the word you'll be using.

You will say a word (ship). Students say each sound in the word while pushing a token into a box to represent each sound (/sh/, /i/, /p/). Then students replace the token by writing the letter that matches the sound! 

For example: 

Say, 

The word is ship: /sh/, /i/, /p/.

Students say,

ship

While moving a small token into the first square of the grid, students say,

/sh/

Moving a second token into the grid, students say,

/i/

And moving the last token into the third square, students say,

 /p/

After students have isolated each sound with a token, you would ask,

Show me the /sh/ sound. 

Students point to the token that represents /sh/. 

Pointing to the second token, ask, 

What is this sound? 

Students answer,

 /i/

Pointing to the last token, ask, 

What is this sound? 

Students answer,

 /p/

Tell students to write the corresponding letters (grapheme) for each sound (phoneme) on the line next to the boxes to spell the whole word!

On the next page, you'll try out one of these strategies by practicing in a roleplay with a partner so you can get comfortable using the strategy.