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Sound Walls: The Benefits of Using Them for ALL Students

Using a sound wall in your classroom can fundamentally transform reading and spelling instruction! Because of the Science of Reading, we now better understand the critical role of phonetics and phonology in early literacy. Although students learn to speak early, teaching them how speech maps to print often gets missed. Developing strong phonemic awareness must happen before students can achieve automatic sight word reading. Therefore, using a sound wall is essential.
Expert Dr. Mary Ellis Dahlgren will show you how to explicitly teach the 44 speech sounds. You will learn how to make learning more concrete by focusing on articulation—observing what happens with the tongue, teeth, lips, and airflow when producing sounds. This is a vital stepping stone to orthographic mapping so all students can become fluent and proficient readers.
Key Takeaways for Building Reading Fluency:
This session provides clear, practical steps you can use in your daily practice. Educators will:
- Learn about the importance of articulation and its direct connection to phoneme awareness.
- Understand the strategic layout of a sound wall and why it’s more student-friendly than a traditional word wall.
- Analyze common phonological errors students make and discover how to provide effective, corrective feedback.
- Examine strategies for engagement as part of daily practice when building a sound wall with consonants and vowel phonemes.
This recorded edWebinar is highly valuable for K-12 teachers, reading specialists, and school and district leaders committed to effective literacy instruction.