What are all those funny mouth pictures decorating classroom walls lately? And where on earth is the vowel valley? We talked to expert teachers about how to make a vowel valley sound wall and how to use it to help students learn about vowel sounds.
Jump to:
- What is a sound wall?
- What is the vowel valley?
- Introducing the Vowel Valley
- Teaching With the Vowel Valley
- Vowels Outside of the Vowel Valley
- Supporting All Readers
What is a sound wall?
A sound wall visually displays the 44 phonemes, or speech sounds, in English, arranged based on how the mouth forms to produce them. Students can use the sound wall to connect sounds they hear to ways to spell those sounds. A sound wall is not a word wall that displays whole words in alphabetical order based on the first letter.
There aren’t specific studies of the impact of sound walls (yet!), but reliable science of reading research drives the ideas behind them, including Dr. Louisa Moats’ work on speech-to-print reading instruction, and Dr. Linnea Ehri’s study of the impact of articulation instruction on reading achievement. The short version: Systematically teaching kids to connect spoken sounds to written spellings is the most effective path to kids’ reading and writing success. A sound wall helps organize that teaching.
A sound wall has two sections. One part shows the 25 consonant sounds, organized so that sounds produced similarly are near each other. The second part is known as the vowel valley.
What is the vowel valley?
Source: Mrs. Winter’s Bliss
A vowel valley displays mouth pictures, spelling possibilities, and key words for the 19 vowel sounds in English. The “valley” shape comes from how the chin drops and the tongue moves to articulate various vowel sounds. To better understand, look in the mirror and try this:
- Say the long ‘e’ sound, like in the word “see.” Notice how your mouth pulls wide into a smile—it’s the reason “cheese” is a classic photography prompt! Your tongue is high and forward in your mouth.
- Say the short ‘o’ sound, like at the start of “octopus.” Look at how your chin drops and your mouth opens all the way. Your tongue is low in your mouth.
- Then, say the long ‘u’ sound, like at the start of “unicorn.” Note how your lips are close together again, but this time pursed like a kiss. Your tongue moves to the back of your mouth.
Teacher and dyslexia expert Melanie Brethour (@soarwithdyslexia) explains, “the vowel valley gives teachers and students a shared reference for talking about vowel sounds. Vowels can be challenging because many of them sound similar, and students often need support learning how to distinguish between them.” If you’ve ever struggled to help a student learn the difference between short ‘e’ and short ‘i,’ you can appreciate this. They fall near each other on the vowel valley chart because their articulation is so similar.
Instead of simply telling students a word is incorrect, we can guide them to think about the sound they hear, where it fits on the vowel valley, and how that sound might be spelled.
—Melanie Brethour, Soar With Dyslexia (@soarwithdyslexia)
Melanie says, “For me, the biggest benefit is that the vowel valley becomes a problem-solving tool. Instead of simply telling students a word is incorrect, we can guide them to think about the sound they hear, where it fits on the vowel valley, and how that sound might be spelled.”
Introducing the Vowel Valley
Many classrooms have the vowel valley sound wall on a bulletin board. Personal versions are also helpful for hands-on activities, small-group work, and student reference. First grade teacher and science of reading expert Rachel Sorsel (@mindfulteacherrachel) discourages teachers from starting out with a completed vowel valley. “Instead,” she says, “build it alongside your phonics scope and sequence. As students learn new vowel sounds and spellings, add them to the wall together. This keeps the display meaningful and useful rather than overwhelming.”
Building a sound wall as you go may mean that you don’t end up including all the vowel sounds. A kindergarten class , for instance, may only include the long and short vowel sounds with their most common spellings. In 2nd grade, you may start the year with the long and short vowel sounds already posted and add r-controlled vowels and vowel teams as you introduce them.
You can also post the full display of vowel sounds but hide untaught sounds. Melanie says that in her intervention classroom, she “covered sounds and spelling patterns that had not yet been taught with small printed locks. As we introduced each new concept, students used a key to unlock that sound and add it to our learning.”
Differences in vowel sounds tend to be much more subtle than consonants, so seeing and feeling how the mouth changes can make those distinctions much more concrete.
—Rachel Sorsel, Mindful Teacher Rachel (@mindfulteacherrachel)
When introducing and practicing sounds, Rachel suggests having small mirrors available, “so students can observe their own mouth movements while producing vowel sounds.” She explains, “Differences in vowel sounds tend to be much more subtle than consonants, so seeing and feeling how the mouth changes can make those distinctions much more concrete and can help students segment words more accurately.”
Short ‘A’ Words (Free Printables)
Use our set of Sshort ‘A’ word cards for activities that introduce and practice this vowel sound.
Teaching With the Vowel Valley
It’s crucial to remember that the vowel valley isn’t just a wall decoration. Melanie reminds teachers to “encourage students to refer to it during reading, spelling, and word study activities so it becomes a tool they actively use.”
Rachel adds, “It’s important to explicitly teach students how to use it as a resource. For example, you might model your thinking: ‘I’m trying to spell the ‘ow’ sound. What does my mouth do when I say ‘ow’? Where do I see that sound in the vowel valley? What are the different ways we can spell it?”
The vowel valley can support incidental learning too. For instance, your kindergarten phonics scope and sequence likely won’t cover the “aw” pattern. However, to help a student who’s trying to write “saw,” you could show them the ‘aw’ sound and explain that it’s a vowel sound close to, but slightly different than, short ‘o.’ That student can observe the mouth shape for this sound and see that it can be spelled with the letters a-w. A portable, complete “sneak peek” version of the vowel valley is perfect for this. Or set up your display with untaught sounds covered or flipped over but accessible.
Vowel Team Word List and Teaching Ideas (Free Printables)
Our vowel team word cards and activities can help you introduce and practice vowel spelling patterns.
Vowels Outside the Vowel Valley
There are a handful of vowel sounds that don’t fit in the vowel valley: diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, and schwa.
Diphthongs are two vowel sounds that glide together, including the ‘ow’ sound like in “cow” or “couch” and the ‘oi’ sound like in “coin” or “toy.” In r-controlled vowels, the letter ‘r’ changes the vowel sound. These include ‘ar’ like in “car,” ‘or’ like in “short,” and ‘er,’ which can be spelled e-r, i-r, or u-r. Even though these vowel sounds fall outside of the valley shape, a vowel valley sound wall still helps you teach students to notice how they’re articulated and their possible spellings.
Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English. It’s the quiet, unstressed ‘uh’ or ‘ih’ sound like at the end of “sofa” or in the second syllable of “lemon.” It lives in the space in the middle of the valley since it uses a neutral mouth shape. This placement helps students remember that any vowel can represent schwa, depending on the word.
Supporting All Readers
Dyslexia intervention teachers often use the vowel valley because of how explicitly it connects sounds and spellings. It can also be especially powerful, Melanie comments, for students with articulation challenges. “While a sound wall is not a replacement for support from a speech language pathologist,” she says, “it can help teachers draw students’ attention to sounds during literacy instruction. When teachers and speech language pathologists work together, students benefit from more consistent language around speech sounds and their connection to reading and spelling.”
Learning English vowel sounds can be especially complex for multilingual learners (MLLs) in comparison to other languages. Spanish, for instance, only has five vowel sounds, plus some of the shared sounds are spelled differently than in English! As it does for all students, the vowel valley provides MLLs with a helpful way to organize their thinking about vowel sounds and spellings.
