The Spelling Scholar: Word Study as the Foundation of Reading

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The Spelling ScholarWord Study as the
Foundation of Reading

• Agenda
• Background
• Common Core Standards
• Vowel Concepts/Teaching Ideas
• Alphabetic Layer
• Pattern Layer
• Meaning Layer
• Other Vowel Stories
• Questions?

• Eileen Mattmann
• Rosanne Cowan
• www.spellingscholar.com

Spelling is the foundation of reading and the
greatest ornament of writing. Noah Webster
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Word Study Makes a Difference

• Explicit word study instruction and inquiry
  learning enhance acquisition of reading.
• Word structure and analysis helps build fluency
  (alphabetic and pattern layers)
• Understanding affixes and roots contributes to
  vocabulary growth (pattern and meaning layers)
• Fluency and vocabulary increase comprehension.

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How Predictable is Spelling?

• Three Layers
• Alphabetic Layer
• Sound/letter relationship
• Pattern Layer
• Spelling patterns, rules and inflected endings
• Meaning Layer
• Homophones, contractions, affixes, Greek and
  Latin word parts, word origins

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Moving from Alphabetic to Meaning
jumpt, stade, wouldent
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Great Vowel Shift

• Move from Middle English to Modern English
  (1400-1600)
• Blending of French and English
• Vowels sounded as they do in the romance
  languages
• Spellings stayed the same as in Middle English
• Vowel sounds start to shift at different rates
• Some spellings changed, some didnt
• Printing press instrumental in locking in
  spellings
• Vowel sounds constantly changing-dependent on
  area of country

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Vowel Spellings

• ough combination - 10 pronunciations
• cough, through, dough, bough, slough (slaw,
  sluff)
• Each standardized at a different time during the
  Great Vowel Shift, causing the confusion that we
  have today.
• Long /e/ - 23 different spellings
• eat, debris, fleet, field, happy, key, deceit,
  people, mete
• rarely said incorrectly, and occurs early in
  childrens speech
• Short /i/ - 33 different spellings
• hit, myth, sieve, busy, building, pretty
• more difficult for children and non-native
  speakers to master the short "i" sound.

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Alphabetic Layer-Common Core

• Kindergarten
• Rhyming words, blending onsets and rimes, isolate
  and pronounce C-V-C pattern, spell simple words
  phonetically
• Grade 1
• Long and short vowels, every syllable has a vowel
• Spell untaught words phonetically

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Pattern Layer-Common Core

• Kindergarten
• Identify long and short vowels -2 vowels vs. 1
  vowel
• Grade 1
• Know final e and common long vowel letter
  teams, open and closed syllables, every syllable
  has a vowel, spell untaught words phonetically
• Identify root word to add ending
• Grade 2
• Know spelling/sound correspondences for common
  vowel teams
• Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing
  words (e.g., cage ?badge boy ?boil).

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Pattern Layer-Common Core

• Grade 3
• Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and
  other studied words and for adding suffixes to
  base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries,
  happiness).
• Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g.,
  word families, position-based spellings, syllable
  patterns).
• Recognize word structure in reading, apply it in
  writing (suffix rules, meaningful word parts).
• Grade 4-6
• Spell correctly.

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Meaning Layer-Common Core

• Grade 2
• Use an apostrophe to form contractions.
• Know final -e and common vowel team conventions
  for representing long vowel sounds. (Gr. 1-2)
  (Homophones)
• Grade 4-6
• Homophones (bare, bear meddle, medal)
• Word origin
• Spell grade appropriate words correctly

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Alphabetic Layer Concepts

• Introducing the magical vowels
• Vowels make you keep your mouth open
• Vowels and word families

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Vowels and Word Families
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Alphabetic Layer Concepts

• Word Builder Cards
• Identifying long and short vowel sounds-
• Long and Short of It Game
• Long vowels in the alphabetic layer
• o and i can be long with one vowel in word
  (gold, mild, find)

b
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Pattern Layer Concepts

• Long or short vowel?
• tch, ch
• dge, ge

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Open Word Sorts Inquiry Lesson

• c/ck/k
• The open sort-
• What do you notice?
• How should we group?
• Lets make a rule.

• comic pack seek trick
• attic panic speak look
• ask tuck blank soak
• duck traffic music milk

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Completed Sort
Words end in ck Words end in c Words end in k
pack comic seek
trick attic peak
duck panic soak
music look
What about words like make, trunk, ask, and
milk? What about picnic, arctic, and jacket?
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Pattern Layer Concepts

• Open and Closed Syllables

Rabbit Rule
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Pattern Layer Concepts

• Common vowel teams (long vowel sounds)
• Ai, a-silent e, ay
• Ee, ea
• i-silent e
• Oa, o-silent e
• ue, ew, u-silent e

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I Before E
When sounding like e, its i before e, Except
after c, And when sounding like a as in neighbor,
i as in height, or i as in foreign.
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I Before E
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Other Vowel Teams

• Vowel pairs(oy/oi)

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Try It!
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Other Vowel Teams

• Vowel pairs (au/aw/al)

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Another Vowel Pair

• Vowel pair (au/aw)

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Try It!
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Vowel Pair

• Vowel pairs (ou/ow)

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Powerful Silent e

• Powerful Silent e
• Makes a long vowel CVCe (make)
• Words dont end in i or u (lie, blue)
• Clarifies meaning, pleas/please
• CVCCe
• Makes c and g soft, dance, prince, cringe,
  badge
• Reading-Watch for 2 consonants before the silent
  e.
• Changes the sound of the last consonant
  (tens/tense)
• Words that end with /v/
• give, have, love,
• givving/giving, havving/having, lovving/loving
• Provides a needed vowel in a syllable

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The Spelling Scholar UnitDiscovery and
Discussion
le el al il

• title single level mammal
  civil
• tickle maple channel
  pencil
• handle simple camel

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(No Transcript)
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Pattern Layer Concepts

• Inflected endings
• Suffixes that dont change the meaning of the
  base word or the part of speech
• Nouns-plural (desks, beaches)
• Verbs-tenses (plays, played, playing)
• Adjectives-comparative/superlative (fancy,
  fancier, fanciest)
• Contained in the dictionary base word entry

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Find the Base Word

• hopping vs. hoping
• 1-1-1 Rule or V-C

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Silent e Find the Base Word

What happens when we want to add a suffix to a
base word that ends in silent e?
pile ed piled mule ish mulish dive ing diving broke en broken
What happens if we add a suffix that begins with
a consonant to a base word that ends in silent
e?
wire less wireless huge ly hugely care ful careful
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Practice
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Practice
Drop e Keep e
huge ly separate ly surprise ing
admire ation achieve ment commute er
delete ed amuse ment double ing
bubble ing trouble ed engage ment
Drop e Keep e
separately hugely
admiration achievement
deleted amusement
commuter engagement
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Inflected Endings

• Y to I

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Pattern Layer Concepts
Other Spellings for Vowels
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Pattern Layer Concepts

• e, i, y softens c and g

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Pattern Layer Concepts

• e, i, y softens c and g

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Meaning Layer Concepts

• Word Origin-Words from French
• A long a sound at the end of a word can be
  spelled with et as in cachet, crochet, and
  croquet.
• A long e sound at the end of a word ie as in
  prairie and sortie.
• Words ending with an \zh\ sound spelled age as
  in collage, mirage, dressage, garage, barrage,
  camouflage, entourage, and fuselage.
• A \k\ sound at the end of a word is often spelled
  que as in mystique, boutique, and physique.
• Words from Greek
• Spell short i with y as in acronym, calypso,
  cryptic, cynical, dyslexia, homonym, Olympian,
  polymer, symbiosis, synonym, synopsis, and
  syntax.

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More Thinking Strategies as Stories

• England always doubles (labeled vs. labelled)
• Mnemonics (ight, ould, aught, ought)
• Words with short U, spelled with O (love, come)
• luve/love, cume/come

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Websites

• http//www.design215.com/toolbox/wordfind.php
  (build word lists)
• http//www.a2zwordfinder.com/
• http//www.myspellit.com/lang_latin.html (list of
  roots and meanings)
• https//www.msu.edu/defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_af
  x2.htm (list of roots and meanings)
• General Student Practice Sites
• www.spellingcity.com (practice games for your
  list or theirs)
• www.kidsspell.com (more challenging games your
  list or theirs, very easy to difficult)
• www.starfall.com (word family work)
• http//www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactiv
  e/literacy.html12 (many games)
• www.gamequarium.com (many games)
• www.wordsortwizard.com (word sorts provided or
  make your own)

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When children are taught to think about
language, it allows them to learn HOW to spell,
not just memorize words. (Moats, 2009)
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Resources

• Developmental-Spelling Research A systematic
  Imperative, Marcia Invernizzi, Latisha Hayes,
  Reading Research Quarterly, 2004
• How Spelling Supports Reading, Louisa Moats,
  American Educator, 2005-2006
• How Words Cast Their Spell, Malatesha R. Joshi,
  et.al., American Educator, 2008-2009
• Questions Teachers Ask About Spelling, Shane
  Templeton, Darrell Morris, Reading Research
  Quarterly, 1999
• Why Spelling is Important and How to Teach It
  Effectively, V. Berninger M. Fayol,
  Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy
  Development, 2008
• Word Study Instruction in the K-2 Classroom,
  Cheryl Williams, et.al., The Reading Teacher,
  April 2009