Sound Walls in the Classroom: A Popular Misstep?

I’m all about practicality.  The simpler, the better.  Which also extends to the things that go up on the classroom walls.  Especially if it’s something that’s going to take permanent residence on those walls.  Most especially if it’s also a significant amount of space.  Sound walls are one of those things that take up a ton of space in the classroom and are also meant to be used all year long.  But using sound walls in this way is a misstep.

Sound walls have become quite popular lately, with so many teachers across the country using one particular phonics program.  

The idea is that the phonemes are what go on the wall, along with the corresponding letter(s) and a couple of words that include that particular phoneme as each one is taught.  There’s a display for consonants and a separate one for vowels.  The popular  curriculum so widely used right now also includes cartoonish pictures of lips to show mouth formation of each phoneme.

They are meant to be visual reminders of the phonemes as children are reading and/or writing.  But logistically, they miss the mark. 

As Shanahan explains, “But as a practical memory aid, they’re weak (more useful for the teacher as a guide to presentation than to the kids as a guide to reading words).  I guess the idea would be that when a student comes to a challenging word, he/she could go to the word wall, find the right combination of graphemes and examine the pictures of the articulatory apparatus in the hopes that replicating that shape would lead to proper sounding out of that word.”  Shanahan, 4/17/21 blog

The sheer logistical impracticality of sound walls cannot be denied.  

First, there’s location to consider. Sound walls are used primarily during instruction of phoneme-grapheme introduction. Meaning they should be in close proximity to where you’re teaching. But in how many classrooms is this actually possible? Not many. Often, the best place large enough for a sound wall is often quite a distance from the teaching space, making it a very cumbersome tool to use and even harder for kids to see.

Then there’s practicality for kids–the ones for whom the sound wall is meant to support. As Shanahan describes (above), a child would have to put down their text, remember what letter/letter combination they just encountered, walk over to the sound wall, search for the letter/letter combination they were looking for (remembering this the whole time), say some of the words/pictures to remember how that phoneme sounds, and continue to remember this sound as they walk back to their place, pick up their book, find where exactly it was that they were–and then apply the sound they just picked.

And that’s if they get it right.

Remember, this tool is meant for K-2 classrooms. Full of kids with very short attention spans.

It’s an even larger misstep to use sound walls as a writing tool.  

Here again, a child would have to remember what sound they’re looking for, go to the sound wall, sift through all the phoneme cards and pictures (still remembering what it is they’re looking for), decipher between which of the completely identical mouth formation pictures is the right one, and land on the phoneme-grapheme correspondence they needed, remember that letter/letter combination, go back to what they were doing, and write it.

Another issue?

What a sound wall won’t show is what kids need most–to know what the vocal cords are doing.  Yes, there might be labels on the sound wall saying words like “voiced” and “unvoiced.” But what kindergartener can read these words?  Adding yet another picture to indicate voiced or unvoiced only adds to the confusion and clutter of all that’s already on the wall. 

What does the research say?

If you search Google for information about the efficacy of sound walls, all you’ll get is a couple of phonics companies purporting them to be helpful. Sound wall sales mean easy money for companies.

One company’s cheapest product for sound walls, which includes the bare minimum, will cost you $142. You can also tack on a course for another $120. The company says that sound walls “help students develop phonemic and phonological awareness, connecting the sounds of spoken language to common reading and spelling patterns.” But sound wall displays don’t do that.  Explicit instruction from a teacher does that.

Another company claims that sound walls “provides a visual reference to help students learn and practice how to produce each sound correctly,” which is dubious at best (see examples above).  Again–it’s a teacher who helps the student learn and practice sound production, not a wall display.  This company also says that sound walls support “oral language development, phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, and writing.” The only part of this list that sound walls actually might do is support phonics instruction as Shanahan pointed out in that 2021 blog post.  

This website doesn’t stop there, though.  They say that sound wall use is research-backed.  To their credit, they do supply a list of the research they’re drawing from.  But even a cursory glance will tell you that none of the research articles they list even touch on sound walls.  Phonics instruction, yes. Sound wall use – and its impact on reading and writing – no.

But at least this company only charges $30 per set of their basic materials.

I can find only one actual journal article on sound walls.  It comes from Teaching Exceptional Children (2022). The report is all about how teachers of special education students added a sound wall to their students’ general education classroom to support the special education students in their reading and writing.  But the article does not discuss the actual impact of sound walls on students’ reading or writing.  It’s simply an article explaining what sound walls are and how to use them along with your phonics instruction.  As Shanahan pointed out — it’s just a tool to aid instruction.

 “The truth is, we really don’t know if they have any value at all.”

 Shanahan, 3/4/23 blog

In other words, there is simply no evidence to support sound walls.  

And they are extremely cumbersome for kids to use. Not worth the classroom wall space. 

However…if it helps even one child, it’s worth trying. 

But make it a small version that you can pull out as needed during small group instruction.  It will only ever be needed for the few sounds a child is still learning.  

Used in this way, you’re right there to guide students so time isn’t wasted with them standing there scratching their head, trying to figure out which of 5 identical mouth shapes is the one they need…and very possibly not get it right. 

Using a sound wall during small group instruction also means you’re right there to then hand a child a mirror to check their mouth formation–and provide quick coaching as needed–so kids can keep their eyes on the text and just keep reading (or writing).

Sound walls make a good teacher tool.  Nothing more. 

No need to waste precious time or wall space.  

I hope this post was helpful in helping you avoid sound wall missteps.  By all means, share it with a teacher friend considering adding a sound wall display in their classroom.

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!  Simply email me at [email protected] or reach out for a coaching call!

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