What is an Auditory Drill, and How Do I Use It?

phonemic awareness reading Jun 16, 2021

Hi, friends! This week, I'm going to share with you the most effective practice that I have used to help students solidify their sound-to-print knowledge. I have used this in every class that I have taught from PK-12th grade. It helps students map sounds to reliable letter correspondence.

The auditory drill is a quick, 2-5 minute, portion of your daily lesson. Application builds with students over time as more and more phoneme-grapheme linkages are taught explicitly. You will add each explicitly taught phoneme-grapheme to your auditory drill moving from the most reliable letter-sound representations to the least. Next, I am going to walk you through the process of an auditory drill.

The Process of the Auditory Drill

1. Provide students with explicit instruction of expectations.

2. Clearly say the sound (phoneme) in isolation while students 👀look at the teacher's mouth for articulation production and mouth formation cues.

3. Students echo the sound (use mirrors if needed for students to check their articulation and mouth formation).

4. Students say the letter(s) as they write the learned grapheme representation of the sound.

Auditory Drill in Action

I have included a video of an auditory drill in action. Watch by clicking the video above. 👆 Can you tell what sound-letter representations this student has learned thus far? The following image explains the immediate corrective feedback strategies that are used with the student. This immediate feedback is critical for the success of this strategy.

Now, let's talk about an essential part of teaching that helps students move towards independent practice. It is used in all areas of teaching and is part of the process of the auditory drill.

Gradual Release of Responsibility

The gradual release of responsibility sets students up for success, explicitly models and teaches the necessary skills and concepts needed to move to independent practice, and provides ongoing monitoring and teaching. This form of teaching is essential for struggling students and provides them with a solid foundation to build their reading house upon. To read a more in depth explanation about this, click here to read on the blog.

I hope you have found this post to be helpful in providing an effective way to help your students map sounds to reliable letter correspondences. Comment below if you have any questions on this practice. I'd love to help! 😊

Have a great week!

Casey

This information is the intellectual property of @2016 The Dyslexia Classroom®. Do not use or repurpose without expressed permission from The Dyslexia Classroom®. Please email [email protected] for permission, and give The Dyslexia Classroom® an attribution if you use, reference, or quote/paraphrase copyrighted materials. This includes but is not limited to blogs, social media, and resources.

P.S. The Literacy Nest's online conference is being held, for the third year, August 2-6. There will be 17 amazing presenters sharing their knowledge about structured literacy, multi-sensory teaching, and dyslexia awareness. Click here for the downloadable brochure with information about the presenters and their presentations or register here. I will be one of the presenters, and I really hope you will join us! 😊

Hey there!

My name is Casey Harrison

Welcome to The Dyslexia Classroom's blog. I'm a Certified Academic Language Therapist, Dyslexia Therapist, and creator of The Dyslexia Classroom. My passion is to help educators and parents understand their dyslexic learners to help them reach their fullest potential. I'm glad you are here!

Join The Dyslexia Classroom!

Subscribe to access the freebie library and be the first to know about courses, resources, updates, tips and more!

Yes! Sign me up!

What is an Auditory Drill, and How Do I Use It?

The Process of the Auditory Drill

Auditory Drill in Action

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Join The Dyslexia Classroom!

Join The Dyslexia Classroom community