Often referred to as “encoding,” writing/spelling is an area where teachers may see students’ skills lagging behind their reading (i.e., decoding) skills.
To write words, we need to represent phonemes (i.e., sounds) with graphemes (i.e., letter or letter combinations). Writing/Spelling words accurately relies on a solid understanding of how to first break down (i.e., segment) phonemes in one syllable words and second to record these phonemes/sounds with graphemes/letters. Multi- syllabic words require breaking a word into syllables, then phonemes, then matching these phonemes/sounds with graphemes/letters. “The process of storing a word permanently in memory for instant retrieval is called orthographic mapping (Ehri, 2014, Kilpatrick, 2015)” (https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-
writing-basics/sight-words-and-orthographic-mapping).
Orthographic mapping is strengthened through repeated practice. Incorporating a writing component into a small-group or one-on-one literacy lesson allows for students to demonstrate that they are able to apply the concepts they are being taught across different tasks, which supports the development of flexible thinking.
See the full article in the April/May 2025 LATA newsletter: here