Spelling Today

It is assumed that* if pupils learn to read they also learn to spell.* if pupils are given enough opportunities to write they will eventually spell correctly without formal instruction.

Memorization of word lists for dictations with no instruction is the most common way of dealing with spelling.

SPELLING (from: Teaching Spelling by R. Shemesh & Sh.

Waller)

If you give a man a fish, he eats it for a day, if you teach a man how to fish, he eats fish for a lifetime.

Decoding and SpellingThe Differences

In order to decode, a reader must translate symbols on a printed page to the spoken words they represent

In order to spell, the speller must translate / produce spoken words into printed symbols

Decoding and spelling are not inverse operations.

Both processes require knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences but not only!!!!!!

Spelling has its own unique characteristics and should be taught

explicitly.

Spelling Certain sounds are written in more than one

way e.g. the sound “K” is written in 4 different ways k, c, ck, q.

The sound of long “a’ in rain, steak, eight, cake.

Sometimes there are no rules . Pupils must learn how to spell the common and useful words, e.g. the sound of “h” in who and where.

All the silent letters: b/ c/ d / g / h / k / l / n / p / s / t / w / gh

Spelling Development1

Prephonetic Stage - still no awareness of the connection between print and speech sounds . Writing takes the form of drawing

Alphabetic Stage – children connect speech to print at the level of syllable. “b” for “be”

Semiphonetic Stage – children demonstrate awareness to left to right direction. They start using consonants for initial sounds but still use incomplete phonetic representation of words e.g. Are you deaf? = RUDF?

Phonetic Stage

Spelling Development2 Phonetic Stage – Every sound in a word

is represented but without knowledge of conventional spelling patterns.

At this stage children develop a sensitivity to letter patterns . They might discover different spelling patterns by themselves.

Now is the time to start teaching spelling explicitly

Knowledge necessary for spelling Spelling is a complex linguistic skill. It demands in addition to sound-symbol correspondence knowledge and exact memory for letter patterns and words integration of the following:

1.Phonological knowledge.

2.Orthographic knowledge

********Some knowledge of syllabification rules

Syllabification Rules

Every syllable has one vowel sound.

The number of vowel sound in a word equals the number of syllables

***Handout

Outline of Spelling Instruction

Phonological awareness

Sound dictation

Word dictation

Outline of Teaching a Spelling Rule (Inductive

Approach) Step 1 – Elicit examples from pupils. e.g. Ask pupils to give examples of words

ending with the “ch” sound as in watch. Step 2 – Ask pupils what spelling pattern

they see. Give the rule –explain and give exception. Practice (exercises, dictations, tongue

twisters, etc.)

What is the rule? (1)

puff, tell, doll, mess, staff, pass, hill, sudden, rabbit, mitten tennis, muffin, hopped, starring, beginning, reddish baking, solving, housing, completed tried, silliest, happiness, penniless, lunch,watch, witch, bunch,

teach,ranch

5 Major Spelling Rules

Doubling the final consonant (FLOSS)Checkpoint: one syllable, short vowel, final consonant f/i / sExceptions: bus, us, yes, has, gas, this, pal

Doubling the medial consonant (RABBIT)Checkpoint: two syllables, 1 medial consonant sound, short vowel sound in the first syllable

The doubling ruleCheckpoint: one vowel in the final syllable, one consonant after that vowel, final

syllable accented, a vowel suffix is being added.Exceptions: 7 letters never or rarely double h,k,y,j,v,w,x

The dropping ruleCheckpoint: final “e”, a vowel suffix that is being added The changing ruleCheckpoint: a consonant before a final “y”, final “y”, a suffix that doesn’t

begin with “I” (skiing)

Spelling Rules/k/ Sound

'c' or 'k'?When we hear the sound /k/ at the beginning of a word write 'k' if it

is followed by 'e' or 'i' and 'c' if followed by 'a', 'o', 'u' or a consonant(key/kid/candle/cup)

'ck' or 'k' at the end of the wordWe write 'ck at the end of a single-syllable word which has a short

vowel sound. (black/clock)We write 'k' at the end of a single syllable word, when it is

preceded by 'n‘,'s', 'r', or 'l' or by two vowel letters .(book,dark)We write '-c' when we hear the sound /ik/ at the end of a word that

has two or more syllables (plastic/logic/clinic)‘qu’When we hear the sound /kw/ in a word, we write ‘qu’. ‘Q’ never

stands alone: it is always followed by ‘u’+vowel.(quiet/kite, square/scare)

Single Vowel Followers (1)

One-syllable, one-vowel words: ‘-ll’, ‘-ss’, ‘-ff’, ‘-zz’ We write ‘-ll’ or ‘-ss’ at the end of a single- syllable word,

preceded by one short vowel letter. (-all, -ell, -ess, -iss’, -aff, -azz)

Exaple: pill-pile / feel-fell / seal-sell

Exeptions: bus/ us/ yes/ plus/ this/ pal / has/ gas (sound of “s” is “z”)

The rule doesn’t apply to words that have more than one syllable.The rule doesn’t apply to “ful” ending – helpful.

(2)

“-tch” or “ch” ? “ch” comes after a consonant –

lunch Exceptions: such/much/rich/which “tch” comes at the end of a one-

syllable, one-vowel word: catch/witch/watch.

The “i” Sound Three different spelling patterns for the long

“i” sound. As in time/sky/flight.1- When you hear “i” saying its name in a one-syllable word

followed by a single consonant sound, the first choice is to write “i-e”.(five)

2- When we hear “I” saying its name at the end of a word, the first choice is to write “y”. English words can not end with the letter “I”

(fly/ try/cry)(Exceptions: guy,buy,tie,die,lie,eye,dye)

3- When we hear the sound “i” followed by the sound “t”, our second choice will be to write “igh”.(sight/bright/night)

Exceptions: bite/kite/white

4- When we hear”I” saying its name in the middle of a one-syllable word followed by a single consonant sound, our first choice is to write “i_e”.(ride/ bike/nice)

The “a” Sound

1- When we hear “a” saying its name in the middle of a one-syllable word followed by a single consonant sound, our first choice is to write “a_e”.(name/game)

Exceptions: eight, weight, reign, break, steak

2- When we hear “a” saying its name at the end of a word, our first choice is to write ”_ay”(play/say/way).

Exceptions: grey, prey, they, survey, weigh, sleigh, hey)

3- When we hear “a” saying its name in the middle of a one-syllable word, our second choice is to write “ai”. It’s generally followed by “l” sail, “n” rain, “r” pair, “d” maid, “t” wait, and “se” praise / raise.

The sound “O”

1-Whe we hear “o” saying its name in the middle of a one-syllable word followed by a single consonant sound, our first choice is to write “o_e”( bone/stone/home).

Exceptions: folk, yolk, boat, goat

2- When we hear “o” saying its name in the middle of a one syllable word, our second choice is to write “oa” e.g. boat, road, coach.

3- When we hear “o” saying its name at the end of a word, our first choice is to write “ow” (yellow/snow/tomorrow) Exceptions: go, hero, although, though, dough, sew

The “U” (ju) Sound 1- When we hear “u” saying its name in a word,

followed by a single consonant sound, our first choice is to write “u_e”(cube/huge/rule).

2- When we hear the sound “u” saying its name at the end of a word, our first choice is to write “_ue”( true, blue, glue, rescue).

(Exceptions: do, two, canoe, shoe, through, ewe, to, you

3- When we hear the “u” saying its name at the end of a word our second choice is to write “_ew”( new, nephew, grew).

4-When we hear “u” saying its name in the middle of a word, our second choice will be to write “oo”

The “OO” Sound Long sound

food, shoot, cool, roof, choose, too, spoon, soon, moon, school, noon, boot, loose,

room, root

Short sound

took, good, foot, book, look, shook, stood, wood, hook, wool

The “e” Sound 1- When we hear “e” saying its name in the middle of a one-

syllable word, followed by a single consonant sound, we often write “ee”(green/cheese)

Exceptions: scheme/ scene/here/these) 2- Another common way of spelling the sound “e” when it

says its name in the middle of one-syllable word is “ea”(read/dream/please). 3- When we hear “e” saying its name at the end of a word

that has two or more syllables, we write “_y”(carry/family/happy)

4- When we hear “e” saying its name in the middle of a word our third choice will be to write “ie” (believe/thief/piece), except if it follows “c”, and then we write “ei” (receive/ceiling/ .

Exceptions: protein, seize, weird, coffeine, codeine

Soft and Hard Sounds 1- We sometimes write “c” when we hear the sound “s” before the

letters i, e, and y . 2- We usually write “ce” when we hear the sound “s” at the end of

a one-syllable word in the singular (prince/face). 3- We usually write “cy” at the end of a multy-syllable word when

we hear the sound”see” (cynical/bicycle). 4- We usually write “g” when we hear the sound “j” before the

letters I, e and y (). 5- We write “ge” when we hear the sound “j” at the end of a word.

(age/orange/large)

6- When we hear the sound “g” before i or e, we often write “gu”.

_“tion” and “_sion”

1- When we hear the sound “sh’n” at the end of a word with two or more syllables, our first choice is to write”_tion”.

2-When we hear the sound “zh’n” at the end of a word with two or more syllables, our first choice is to write “_sion”.

-TION -sion

-cian, -tian, -sian, -shion

Attention/musician/cushion/Russian/profession/Egyiptian

-le, -al and -el

When we hear the sound “l” at the end of a word with two or one syllables:

1- our first choice for a word which is a noun or a verb is to write “-le”.

2- our first choice for a word which is an adjective is to write “-al”.

3- some words end in “-el”.

Some points to remember The letter “l” has a special effect on “a”,

the sound is like in “ball”. The letter “j” never comes at the end of an

English word. The sound of “j” at the end of the word will be “_ge”, such as in cage/age/stage…..

To alleviate confusion homophones should not be introduced in pairs, plane/plain and should always come in context.