Forms Curriculum: Codes, Graphemes, and Phoneme-to-Grapheme Mapping

Codes and Graphemes (Forms Curriculum)

  • Forms uses codes (also called graphene/graphene in the session) to map sounds to written symbols in English. Codes = graphemes; graph themes = written symbols that represent sounds.
  • Key terminology
    • Phonemes: speech sounds (the sounds you hear in a spoken word).
    • Phone names: the sounds themselves (spoken forms).
    • Graphene (codes): written symbols that represent those sounds.
  • Example concept
    • Spoken word: “cat” contains three phonemes: /k/ /a/ /t/.
    • Written word: “cat” uses three graphemes: C, A, T, each representing one phoneme.
    • In Forms, “cat” has three codes (one per sound).
  • How to read codes on flashcards
    • Each code represents a sound (or sounds) and is tapped to track each sound.
    • If a code represents multiple sounds (e.g., a two-letter code), you tap once per sound (e.g., an ea digraph can involve two sounds and is tapped accordingly).
  • Quick example of a code and its sounds
    • This code is S: /s/ (as in sun) and its second sound /z/ (as in shoes); the second sound is denoted by a superscript/mark above the letter when applicable. If no mark, it’s the first sound.
  • Conventions for sequencing sounds
    • Codes can indicate first vs. second sounds when more than one sound is possible for a letter or digraph.
    • The goal is to map each sound to a grapheme (code) so learners can decode written words.

Consonants and Short Vowels (inventory summary)

  • The session covers a broad set of consonant codes and their typical short-vowel contexts.
  • Consonant codes assign a single or multiple sounds to letters (e.g., S has a basic sound and a secondary sound in certain contexts).
  • Short vowels are introduced via simple, single-grapheme representations; they pair with consonant codes to form basic word shapes.

Long Vowels and Vowel Diagrams

  • Long vowels are taught via vowel-diagram concepts where two or more letters make one sound.
  • Common long-vowel patterns include two-letter digraphs or letter teams that produce a single vowel sound (e.g., A at the end, EE, EA, etc.).
  • The approach emphasizes recognizing the written patterns that correspond to longer vowel sounds in words.

Silent Letters (silent-letter codes)

  • Some codes include a silent letter, typically as the first letter or within a digraph.
  • Example concepts mentioned:
    • Certain two-letter codes where one letter is silent (e.g., in some words like right, the GH represents a historical form rather than a separate sound).
    • Silent G in words such as "gnome" and "sign" (the G is not pronounced).
    • Silent U in words like "guess" (U is not pronounced after G in that word).
  • The idea is to teach learners that not all letters in a code correspond to a pronounced sound.

Final Three Codes for Suffixes (three-sound suffix codes)

  • The session introduces three final codes used for suffixes that carry three distinct sounds:
    • TI TI: used for suffixes that produce a three-sound sequence (e.g., related to the "tion"/"sh"-type sound in action).
    • TICI: used for suffixes like "-tical" (as in facial) where the ending contains multiple sounds.
    • V: used with suffixes as in words like "vision" and related forms (e.g., tension/vision context).
  • Illustrative examples from the talk:
    • Action (shows the "tion"-type ending with three sounds via the TI TI family).
    • Facial (illustrates the TICI pattern associated with "-tical"-type endings).
    • Tension / Vision (illustrates the V pattern for related endings).
  • Purpose: these codes help learners parse and read morphologically complex words by treating the suffixes as a three-sound unit.

Quick Reference: Core Word-to-Code Mapping (examples mentioned in session)

  • Cat: three codes corresponding to C, A, T mapping to /k/, /æ/, /t/
  • Yes: example of a word where a multi-sound code is used (illustrative of multi-sound behavior in codes)
  • Ordinary words to show digraphs and vowel patterns (e.g., oi, oa, au, etc.)
  • Action, facial, and tension/vision illustrate suffix-related codes and their multi-sound behavior

Practical takeaways for last-minute review

  • Codes are written-symbol representations of speech sounds; graphemes map to phonemes.
  • Each sound in a word is counted as one code (tap per sound). Multi-letter codes may produce multiple sounds.
  • Long vowels use digraphs and vowel-diagram patterns; short vowels are covered with basic single-letter codes.
  • Silent letters are part of some codes; teach learners that some letters do not produce sounds in certain contexts.
  • Suffixes can be taught as dedicated three-sound codes to simplify reading of morphologically complex words.