What is Orthography?
Simply put, orthography is the technical term for the spelling system of a language. It's the set of rules and patterns that govern how we use letters and letter combinations to represent sounds and words in writing.
Think of it as the brain's mental blueprint for words. When a child has strong orthographic knowledge, they can quickly and automatically recognize that "phone" starts with "ph" not "f," or that "night" contains the "igh" pattern. This skill is vital for both fluent reading and accurate spelling because it allows a reader to recognize words instantly instead of having to sound them out letter by letter.
What Your Data Tells You
This data gives you a clear picture of how your students' spelling knowledge impacts their reading skills. The "Orthographic Assessment" was scored out of 20.
1. Spelling Knowledge is Still Developing
No student has mastered this area, as the highest score is 14/20. This shows that all students are still learning the complex spelling patterns of English.
2. There's a Clear Link Between Spelling and Reading Accuracy
When you compare the orthographic scores to the reading accuracy, a strong pattern emerges:
High Orthographic Score = High Accuracy: Gra has the highest orthographic score (14/20) and also has the highest reading accuracy (99%). Her strong knowledge of spelling patterns means she can decode words correctly with very few errors.
Low Orthographic Score = Low Accuracy: Sad has a developing orthographic score (10/20) and the lowest reading accuracy in the group at 50%. He made 10 errors while reading only 20 words, which strongly suggests his difficulty with spelling patterns is causing him to misread a large number of words. Similarly, Cas has a score of 12/20 and a lower accuracy of 79%, making 8 errors.
3. Spelling Knowledge Drives Reading Fluency
Strong orthographic skills also lead to more fluent, automatic reading.
Ang is a perfect example. She has a strong orthographic score of 13/20 and the highest Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) score, reading 107 words correctly in one minute. Her brain can recognize words quickly, allowing her to read with speed and confidence.
In contrast, students with weaker orthographic scores like Sio (7/20) and Cas (12/20) have much lower fluency scores (43 and 31 words correct per minute, respectively). They are likely spending more mental energy trying to figure out individual words, which slows down their overall reading pace.
In summary, your data clearly shows that orthography is a foundational skill for literacy. The students with a better grasp of spelling patterns are reading more accurately and fluently. Those who struggle with orthography are finding it much harder to read the words on the page.
Some specific teaching strategies to support the students who have lower orthographic scores.
With the likes for Sio, Ame, Joa, and Sad.
The goal of these activities is to move beyond rote memorization and help students see the patterns and logic within words. This builds their mental "filing system" for spelling, which in turn boosts their reading accuracy and fluency.
Strategy 1: Word Sorts
What it is: This is a hands-on activity where students sort a list of words into different categories based on their spelling patterns.
Why it works: It trains students to look for and recognize common letter patterns instead of seeing words as a random jumble of letters. It’s an active, analytical process that makes spelling patterns explicit.
How to do it:
Choose a specific spelling pattern to focus on. For example, the different ways to make the long 'a' sound.
Write words on small cards. Include words with the target patterns (rain, play, make) and some that don't fit (ran, map).
Ask the student to read each card and sort them into columns based on the pattern (e.g., an 'ai' column, an 'ay' column, and an 'a_e' column).
Discuss why they sorted the words the way they did. "What do you notice about all the words in this column?"
Example for Joa (Orthographic Score: 8): You could give him cards with words like boat, toe, snow, hope, and hot. He would sort them to discover the different 'oa', 'oe', 'ow', and 'o_e' patterns that make the long 'o' sound.
Strategy 2: Sound Boxes (Elkonin Boxes)
What it is: Students listen to a word and move a token into a box for each sound they hear. They then write the letter or letter combination that represents each sound in the boxes.
Why it works: This strategy directly connects the spoken sounds of a word (phonemes) to the letters that represent them (graphemes). It's a powerful way to build the phonics foundation needed for strong orthographic mapping.
How to do it:
Draw a series of connected boxes, one for each sound in a word (e.g., the word "sheep" has 3 sounds, /sh/ /ee/ /p/, so it needs 3 boxes).
Say the word "sheep" slowly.
Have the student push a counter into a box for each sound they hear: /sh/ (one counter), /ee/ (second counter), /p/ (third counter).
Finally, they write the corresponding letters in the boxes: sh in the first, ee in the second, and p in the third.
This would be excellent for Sio and Ame (Orthographic Score: 7) to reinforce the basic sound-symbol relationships they are struggling with.
Strategy 3: Word Building & Word Ladders
What it is: Using magnetic letters or tiles, students build a word and then change one letter at a time to create a new word.
Why it works: This activity forces students to pay close attention to the sequence of letters in a word. It demonstrates how changing just one letter can completely change the word, improving their visual memory for correct letter order.
How to do it:
Start with a simple three-letter word, like cat.
Ask the student to change one letter to turn cat into bat.
Then, change one letter to turn bat into bit.
Continue the chain: bit -> sit -> sip -> ship.
Example for Sad (Orthographic Score: 10): A word ladder could help him analyze words more carefully instead of guessing, which likely contributed to his 50% reading accuracy. Starting with simple CVC words and moving to words with blends and digraphs would be very beneficial.
