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Why We Code Words

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Have you been wondering why we code words? Orton-Gillingham teachers and tutors often focus on coding, both encoding and decoding, with their students. Coding is marking up words to indicate the presence of concepts or phonetic skills using paper and pencil or a dry-erase board. It can be beneficial to use color to make patterns jump out more readily. Coding can draw attention to a particular syllable type, syllable division, phonogram, or morpheme.

Learn more about syllable division rules. Read, Syllable Division Between Consonants!

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Why Do We Code Words?

Coding is a way of scaffolding for our students. Marking and coding words is a way to support our challenged readers in looking at words efficiently and analytically. It can be a very valuable tool whenever new concepts such as syllable types or syllable division patterns are introduced. As students use these skills to identify patterns and build their orthographic mapping skills, they move closer to mastery. Coding is a strategy that can be particularly valuable for students who are still breaking the habit of looking at the beginning of a word and approximating it. Coding encourages them to look through the word.

As students develop as readers, the areas of learning that we use the scaffold for shift. As the complexity of new concepts increases, so does the complexity of things we ask students to code. Once students are taught how to code for a particular pattern, it becomes a tool they can add to their toolbox. Ultimately, we want students to use these skills to help themselves when they encounter an unknown word in continuous text. Students truly own a strategy when they can apply it in the wild.

Grab my FREE syllable division games, here!

How Can I Incorporate Coding into My Lessons?

For New Learners

Coding can be used at a very basic level. If we think about a very early reader who is learning to read simple closed syllable words, locating and marking the vowel can help them to identify the VC pattern. This in turn will prompt them to think in advance about the short vowel sounds and promote accurate reading. For a student who is just learning about digraphs like sh, being able to identify sh in isolation is not the same as being able to spot the digraph in a word. Students may read /sh/ correctly when letter cards are put together but attempt to decode /s//h/ when seen in a written word. By highlighting the digraph, it prompts the student to see the digraph as a unit and get their mouth ready for the special digraph sound.

For Advanced Learners

For more advanced learners, coding can be a tool to tackle multisyllabic words and morphemes. Students can divide syllables and identify syllable types. They can mark affixes and roots. Analyzing words this way not only improves reading and spelling but also builds vocabulary.

Dive deeper into this topic! Listen to season 2, episode 5 of the Together in Literacy podcast, Word Attack Strategies for Older Students with Dyslexia!

Coding as a Scaffold

Just as scaffolding on a building under construction is a temporary support, coding is a temporary support for our students. Marking or coding words is an invitation for students to learn how to look at words critically. It encourages students to recognize and notice patterns and to visualize the pattern they are studying. Coding is similar in function to a graphic organizer. It is a way of visually representing the student’s thinking and knowledge.

As students become more independent with skills, coding for that skill can move to occasional review practice

While we eventually want students to be able to code words themselves, just like all procedures, they need to be taught. A gradual release of responsibility model is a particularly useful way to teach them to use this strategy. When they reach for a pencil at a point of difficulty, you will know they have truly mastered using coding to help themselves.

For more information on why we code, check out my YouTube video, Why We Code!

Syllable Division Activities

Are you looking for quality resources designed to use a multisensory approach to prepare your student for syllabicating, decoding, and encoding multisyllabic words? This syllable division resource is compatible with the Orton-Gillingham approach, dyslexia intervention, and other reading intervention programs. It may be used in a 1:1 setting, online teaching, online tutoring, distance learning, small groups, or even whole class, depending on your needs. It includes single-syllable and multiple-syllable practice in a variety of interactive ways!

Check it out in my TpT store!

Are you looking for a list of words to use in your Orton-Gillingham lessons? Word List Builder has got you covered!

Save time searching for words to use in your lessons! Create customized and meaningful review, build your folder of words, create templates and games, and much more in Word List Builder.

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