SPELLING DOES MATTER

Session 1

Introduction

Introduction to NSW syllabus objectives:

A. Communicate through speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing and representing

B. Use language to shape and make meaning according to purpose, C. Think in ways that are imaginative, creative, interpretive and critical

and

Assessment

(Reference: Board of Studies. (2012). NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum: English K-6. Sydney, NSW: Author.)

Activation of prior knowledge

The role of spelling in a literacy program

Spelling does matter. Not only does it matter, the weekly spelling list can form the core of a language/literacy program that provides students with a thorough understanding, not only of how words work, but also of word meanings in various contexts. Structuring literacy activities around a hierarchical spelling program will provide a cohesive program that leaves nothing to chance, and may well reduce the possibility of gaps appearing in students’ literacy knowledge as they progress through the grades.

The word structure strand teaches students how to use their knowledge of how words work to spell and/or read unknown words. The underlying skills in this strand include syllabification rules, spelling rules, alternate sounds made by some consonants, vowels and digraphs, base words and affixes, and grammar.

The word meaning strand has two parts: word meaning in isolation and word meaning in context. Word

meaning in isolation includes dictionary and thesaurus exercises, the study of homonyms, synonyms, antonyms etc., morphemic analysis and the study of etymology.

Word meaning in context includes idiomatic language (i.e. sayings and expressions, e.g., “You’re skating on thin ice!”), phrases, proverbs, general knowledge questions, and the use of context to support understanding when reading and the use of sentence/text structure to support writing.

Diagnostic Assessment

2.3.2 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements

Course/program

sessions Focus and content of the sessions

Standard descriptors at the Proficient Teacher level addressed by the session Working memory

‘Working memory’ is the term used by psychologists to refer to the ability we have to hold and manipulate information in the mind over short periods of time. It provides a mental workspace or jotting pad that is used to store important information. There is a limit to the amount of information that can be held in working memory for even a short period of time and if this limit is exceeded we will forget at least some of what we are trying to remember.

Phonemes, graphemes and morphemes

 Phonemes

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech, e.g. the word 'rug' has three phonemes: /r/, /u/, /g/; the word 'beach' also has three phonemes: /b/, /ea/, /ch/; and the word 'box' has four phonemes: /b/, /o/, /k/, /s/.

 Graphemes

A grapheme is a letter, or number of letters, that represent a phoneme.

 Morphemes

Morphology is concerned with word structure. Morphemes are base words, prefixes and suffixes. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning within words.

Session 2

Phonememic

Awareness

and Spelling

Pre-requisites

a) Phonemic awareness

 Why is phonemic awareness important?

 How do I teach phonemic awareness?

 What kinds of resources and materials should I use to teach phonemic awareness? b) Pre-requisites for spelling

 Short and long vowel sounds

 'y' as a vowel (by position)

 The schwa

 Digraphs

2.1.2 Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities

3.4.2. Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning

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c) Phonics

There are two main groups of words: regular words and irregular words. Regular words include c-v-c structures,

FRPPRQGLJUDSKVHJśHDśVD\LQJWKHORQJÑVRXQGLQWKHZRUGśWHDŜDQGZRUGVFRQWDLQLQJORQJYRZHOVRXQGV ,UUHJXODUZRUGVLQFOXGHDOWHUQDWLYHGLJUDSKVRXQGVHJśHDŜVD\LQJWKHVKRUWÓVRXQGLQśKHDGŜDQGWKHORQJ ¿VRXQGLQśJUHDWŜOHVVXVHGGLJUDSKVHJśPEŜLQśFRPEŜDQGYHU\LUUHJXODUZRUGVVXFKDVśH\HŜDQGśLURQŜ

 Regular words

v-c (consonant-vowel-consonant): These words range from vowel-consonant words, e.g. ‘it’, ‘up’ and ‘on’, to c-v-c words, e.g bet, cup and fox, right through to ccc-c-v-cc words, e.g. ‘script’. In these words every letter has an individual sound.

Common digraphs: A digraph is a combination of two letters that go together to make one sound, e.g. ‘sh-‘ in ‘shut' and ‘-ou-’ in ‘found’. A trigraph has three letters making one sound, e.g. ‘-ear-’ in ‘pearl’, and a tetragraph has four letters, e.g. ‘-aigh-‘ in ‘straight’.

 Irregular words

What makes a word ‘irregular’?

“During the beginning reading stage, any word in which one or more letters does not represent its most common sound will be considered an irregular word.” (Carnine, et al., (2004) Direct Instruction Reading. (4th_{ed.). New} Jersey: Prentice-Hall, p. 46).

Regular words are taught through a careful analysis of the sounds, and the sequence of sounds. However, learning to spell and read sight words requires:

i) the recognition of the ‘tricky bit’ of the word.

ii) linking with other words of the same spelling pattern already learnt by the child, or linking with other words of the same spelling pattern, in groupings provided by the teacher.

For example: 'full'

"Do you know any other words that look and sound like this?" (full) "This word has the same spelling and sounding pattern as ‘bull’ and ‘pull."

iii) knowing the meaning of the word and the word’s part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) iv) the generation of memory cues to assist recall of the ‘tricky’ bit.

Course/program

sessions Focus and content of the sessions

Standard descriptors at the Proficient Teacher level addressed by the session

Session 3

Spelling

Rules and

Word

Structure

Some useful spelling rules

 Functions of the final 'e'

 The one-one-one Doubling Rule

 The doubling four

 'c' followed by 'e', 'i' or 'y'

 'g' followed by 'e', 'i' or 'y' Syllabification rules

Marking words for their structure

When we learn about any given concept in a number of different ways our memory for that concept will be stronger. If we employ this idea when teaching students how to spell the words on their spelling lists our teaching program would include information about word structure and word meaning. Marking each spelling word for its structure would provide a deeper knowledge of each word than that provided by a more simplistic activity, such as the ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ method.

2.1.2. Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the

teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities

Session 4

Assessment,

Diagnosis

and

Remediation

Assessment

 Structuring a spelling assessment for diagnostic purposes

 Diagnosis of errors

 Levels of difficulty  Priority remediation

 Task analysis The weekly spelling quiz

 Teaching for generalisation

Teaching for generalisation refers to the concept of requiring students to be able to use their knowledge of known spelling families and rules in order to spell unknown words belonging to a known family.

 Dictation

 Proofreading

 Word meanings

 Synonyms

2.3.2 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements

Session 5

Teaching

Strategies

that Scaffold

the

Acquisition of

Spelling Skills

2. The role of dictation

Students need to be able to maintain their reading and spelling of a word when these new words are presented in a sentence or a passage. The major issue in completing a dictation for young students is the task of

remembering the sentence in order to write it (a working memory issue.) 3. What to do with a spelling list and how to make words live!

4. Homework activities based on a spelling list

a. Sort spelling list words by part of speech (nouns and verbs), then give each noun an adjective and each verb an adverb.

b. Report back (verbally) on simple research questions. (General knowledge) c. Find synonyms for two words on the list.

d. Find antonyms for two words on the list. e. Find multiple meanings for two words on the list.

f. Create a ‘silly sentence’ using as many spelling words as possible (later used for dictation). g. Write each word out and mark it for its spelling structure.

h. Write each word out and explain its morphemic structure. 5. Morphology

Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language's morphemes and other linguistic units, such as root words, affixes and parts of speech.

6. Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods of their history and when they entered the languages in question.

teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities

3.2.2. Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning

3.4.2. Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning

Session 6

Programming

Programming

1. Based on diagnostic assessments 2. Based on a weekly spelling list

 Lesson plan based on spelling list

 Preparation sheets for the teaching of one week's spelling list

 Suggested content for one week's spelling lessons

2.1.2. Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the

teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities 3.2.2. Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching

Practice

 Vowels (Short and Long sounds)

 Verb ‘to be’ etc. (Year 1 only)

 Phonics Quiz Cards (read up to 10 front of cards )

 Phonics Quiz Cards (spell up to 10 cards)

 Practise spelling rule

 Student roster: dictation of 'silly sentences'

 Student roster: talking and listening - research results New Words

 Extend some of Monday’s words, by adding affixes

 Develop mnemonic cues for irregular words Word Meanings

 Choose 2 words from the regular word list and 2 words from the irregular word list. Work on word meanings in oral and/or written form:

a) Imaging exercises b) Dictionary exercises Sentence Construction

 Create one sentence (simple, compound or complex) using a word from the Word Meaning exercises General Knowledge

Introduce, or construct, the general knowledge questions. Sayings and Expressions

Find a saying, expression or proverb that uses a word from any list

 Discuss the inferred meaning in the saying

 Discuss the usage of the word in the saying

 Discuss the context in which the expression might occur

programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning

3.4.2. Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning

Ants in the Apple Pty Ltd. - NSW Institute of Teachers’ endorsed provider of Institute Registered professional development for the maintenance of accreditation at Proficient Teacher.

Scope of Endorsement

 Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the level of Proficient Teacher - 2.1.2, 2.3.2, 3.2.2, 3.4.2 for the courseSpelling Does Matter