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Sound - Spelling Cards
Dr. Mary E. Dahlgren
mary@tools4reading.com
Purpose
 Sound/Spelling cards are to be used as a tool for the teacher
and student in the understanding of reading and spelling.
 To see the regularity of the English language, if you know the
patterns of the language.
 Understanding word origins and how these origins connect to
spelling patterns.
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Why Use the Cards?
 These cards provide a concrete connection between phonemes in our
language and graphemes.
 Students’ reading development relies on the understanding that
graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) represent phonemes
(sounds).
 Once students understand the sound/spelling system they are able to
decode (read) and encode (spell). Decoding and encoding rely on the
understanding of phonics.
 Mastery of the sound/spelling system will lead to fluency.
 Automaticity in the recognition of patterns is necessary
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Why Use Sound/Spelling Cards?
 Connecting phonemes and graphemes
 Each card represents a phoneme
 the different spellings on a card are graphemes
 There are usually several ways to spell a single sound
(phoneme) in our language
 Grapheme – a letter or a group of letters representing a
phoneme
 There is no guesswork for students if teachers are constantly
making connections to the cards
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44 Phonemes in the English Language
 The Sound/Spelling Cards represent the 44 speech sounds and
over 90 spellings for those sounds.
 On the back side of the “teacher cards” you will find information
to help explain the spelling patterns.
 The information is included to help teachers explain to students
the spellings and to organize instruction based on the
information in the spelling pattern being taught.
 Use a post it note to cover up patterns that have not been
introduced. (Usually 1st grade – 2nd – 5th will have all patterns
showing.)
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Reliability of the English Language
 50% of words in the English language can be spelled accurately
based on sound-symbol correspondences
 36% can be spelled with one error on the basis of sound-symbol
correspondences
 10% can be spelled accurately when considering meaning, word
origin, and morphology
 4% are true oddities - yacht
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What Is Included in the Sound/Spelling
Cards?
 A – Z including short vowels
 Digraphs: ng, ch, sh, th, wh
 Long vowels: a, e, i, o, u
 Vowel teams: aw, oo, oi, oy
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Parts of Each Card
1.
2.
Front side
Keyword – (picture name) apple
Most pictures begin with the target sound.
Exceptions: fox /k//s/, bbok /oo/, moon /oo/ toilet /oi/,
saw /aw/, bird /ir/
3.
Sound – /a/
4. Spelling – grapheme (s) – a
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Front
Back
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Color coding

Consonants are black

Short vowels are red

A red box indicates a short vowel
comes before the pattern
Long vowels spelled with a singe letter
or v_e are green
Vowel teams are blue (diphthongs are
grouped with vowel teams)


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Introducing Cards
This will be determined by the spelling introduction or the reading
pattern being taught in your daily lessons.

This is a picture of ….


Students respond with the keyword
The first sound of the keyword (most pictures begin with the sound) is …

Students respond with correct sound

Point to the pattern you are focusing on for the lesson

For example, say, ” the grapheme – “ck” says /k/”

Have students write the spelling in the air, on a white board, or trace with finger
on desktop while saying –ck /k/

repeat this procedure 3 times
Point out the red box before the –ck. Say, “the red box reminds us to spell with –ck
after a short vowel. All short vowels are printed in red on the cards.
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Why the different patterns?
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Explanation of Word Origins
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Where do you hear the sound in the
word?
 Frequently, spelling lists include a number of spellings for one
sound. There is not always a specific reason for the spellings,
but the more aware students are of the ‘sound’ and the position
of the sound in a word the easier it is to determine reliable
spellings.
 oi oy
 ointment, coil, boy, enjoy - /oi/ is spelled oi in the initial and medial part of
a word and oy at the end of a word.
 ai ay
 rain ,ailment, pail, strain, tray, display /a/ is spelled -ai in initial and medial
part of a word and -ay at the end of a word.
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How Do I Post the Cards?
 They may be posted in alphabetical order A-Z with short vowels and
long vowels above the short vowels.
 In this case the school decided to use the sound/spelling cards as a
guide for word walls.
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How Do I Post the Cards?
Group the vowel teams
together.
Group the digraphs together.
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How Do I Post the Cards?
They may also be posted using the LETRS consonant chart and vowel chart .
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A portion of the LETRS consonant chart Missing voiced /th/ and /zh/ sounds. These sounds
should be written on post -it notes and added to the chart.
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How Do I Use the Cards Daily?
 Refer to the cards when introducing a new
concept in reading or spelling.
 Spelling
 Phonics
 Vocabulary – many of the cards have extra
information on the back that will also help in
vocabulary instruction
 Writing instruction/kid writing
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What do I do if I encounter an uncommon
spelling that is not on the card?
 Explain to students: “As a class we will add an uncommon
spelling pattern to our sound/spelling cards as we encounter
them in our lesson. In this case, we can add the _____
spelling for the /__/ sound to the ________ card.
 Use a post it note to add patterns that may not be on the
cards.
For example - long /a/ - eigh
/f/ -gh
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Phoneme/Grapheme Mapping
 When teaching phoneme/grapheme mapping refer to the cards to
identify spelling patterns.
 Remember each card represents a single speech sound (phoneme) and
one or more of the most common spelling patterns (graphemes) that
are found in the English language.
 The follow slide shows a graph with the sounds represented by colors
first and then spelling patterns beneath the colors.
 (The colors DO NOT represent any specific phonemes - they were
randomly used to show the number of sounds in each word.)
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Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
Refer to Cards When Using this Activity
p. 34
Questions?
 Thank you
 Mary E. Dahlgren
 mary@tools4reading.com
 405-202-4045
 Please call or email for
requests for professional
development.
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