Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
2
Lyn Stone
Spelling For Life 1
The world’s best-‐practice spelling program
Sample Chapters
3
For My Mum:
Who, despite what she might think,
has always been there for me.
First published 2009 by The Learning Centre Press
Melbourne, Australia
© Lyn Stone 2011
ISBN 978-1-4092-9027-8
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or
otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
4
5
Introduction Written language, like mathematics, follows patterns. Some people pick up and can use the patterns easily, others cannot. Intelligence is no predictor of who might struggle to spell. What I have learned after seeing many thousands of spelling tests, is that poor spelling also follows patterns. Spelling For Life is my attempt to undo those patterns and explicitly teach workable, reliable habits. Here are the basic patterns and the assumptions/absence of knowledge these patterns are based on; you may have seen some or all of these before. Poor spellers often:
1. have little or no knowledge of the terms vowel and consonant. 2. have gaps in their knowledge of the relationship between symbols and sounds. 3. cannot reliably break words into syllables. 4. have little or no knowledge of prefixes and suffixes and how to add them to base
words.
Furthermore, poor spellers will add complexity to unfamiliar words in an attempt to spell correctly. For example, they often:
1. end –y words with the letters –ey (“aney” for any, “easey” for easy) ; 2. place the letter e word-‐finally when not appropriate (“adde” for add, “begane”
for began); 3. insert the letters -‐er-‐ to represent a single vowel in an unstressed syllable
(“investergate” for investigate, “dervide” for divide) .
And finally, poor spellers have trouble inferring general spelling rules from exposure to written language alone. For example, they often:
1. omit the letter e word-‐finally (“alik” for alike, “min” for mine); 2. use sounding out and auditory cues only, so that their spelling is purely phonetic
(“fier” for fire, “tabl” for table); 3. are unsure of where to insert double consonants (“writen” for written, “geting”
for getting).
All this can and should be explicitly taught. This book strives to do so.
6
7
Who is Spelling For Life for?
Some comments from teachers who have attended the workshops:
• “I am going to be teaching this to my ESL (English as a Second Language) students.”
• “I am looking forward to trying out this program on my small groups in Special Programs.”
• “I love it and think it will work, especially for children in middle years.” • “I am able to use these strategies throughout the whole school (K-‐6).” • “I have been working with some lower-‐functioning grade 5 students and my
new skills will help me to help them.” • “If these techniques were taught at primary level, there would be a world of
terrific spellers. Well done!” • “I have found it particularly useful for year 7 students having difficulty.” • “Very relevant to the work I am doing with students (school age and adult).” • “The Spelling For Life Program has given me tools to help my two teenage
sons with dyslexia.”
As you can see, SFL has application in many situations. My recommendation is this: • SFL students need to have workable phonemic awareness1. If not, they need
prior work on this before beginning the program. The only program known to me which actually creates phonemic awareness is the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program.
• SFL students need to be able to write legibly and reasonably quickly. Children just starting school typically do not have the vocabulary and motor skills required of the program. I do not recommend the program for children under the age of eight.
• SFL is a particularly popular addition to the secondary school English syllabus. • Adults who have difficulty spelling respond very positively to SFL. • SFL is used with great success in many English as a Second Language classes.
SFL is a program which builds on the simple to create mastery of the complex.
1 phonemic awareness: The ability to perceive the sameness, difference, order and number of sounds within words.
8
How can Spelling For Life be Used?
Spelling For Life can be used in three ways:
1. As a reference –
“Spelling For Life clarified the essential rules needed to be learnt by students. It gives new ideas for explaining certain rules.” K.P., Speech Pathologist
A snapshot of the people who come to my seminars looks something like this: • literacy coordinators, • speech and language therapists, • educational psychologists, • special education teachers, • school teachers, • teacher aides, • homeschooling parents
These professionals are often faced with the formidable task of helping their students acquire literacy. This is quite a responsibility and requires a great deal of skill and knowledge. Those from the above professions are usually very well trained and are interested in further expanding their knowledge base so that they can be as flexible and eclectic as the situation or the individual dictates. Often, SFL is used as a reference in a clinical or classroom setting by these people.
2. As an adjunct to a program
“The book helps teachers to learn and then teach students to learn. I look forward to experimenting and practising this program with my Reading Recovery students.”
A.F., Secondary College School Teacher
In many ways this follows on from using SFL as a reference. For example, teachers specializing in remedial reading programs often attend my workshops in order to use elements of Spelling For Life within the framework of their already established programs.
9
Those who use literacy programs that don’t include spelling rules have also found SFL a valuable tool.
“The program supplemented our spelling program (THRASS). We now have rules to match our spelling choices.”
K.W., Primary School Teacher
3. As a program in itself
“Informative, simple, easily accessible. Simple to follow and apply with my ESL [English as a Second Language] students and those for whom spelling is a challenge. Definitely proved that English can be mastered using the rules.”
G.A., ESL Teacher Several schools have in-‐serviced their teachers to use Spelling For Life as part of the curriculum. Speech therapists, private tutors and parents also enjoy using the program fully.
The main advantage of using Spelling For Life as a whole program is that the sequence of activities builds from simple to complex at a carefully controlled pace. Running SFL from start to finish enables you to fully benefit from thousands of hours of research and experience.
PROGRAM LAYOUT
Each chapter contains these sections:
§ Model pages § Theory § Script § Notes to teachers § Ownwork2 § Wordlists § Spelling drills
2 Ownwork: These sections used to be called “homework”, but in many cases, this work is done during class-time under the supervision of the teacher, so it has been re-named “ownwork”. Special thanks to Ann Donohoe of Ananda Marga River School for coining the phrase!
10
MODEL PAGES
“During construction of the…notebooks, children learn to analyse the written spelling of high-‐frequency words, using their minds to apply the rules of the language, not rote memorization. Construction of the notebook, therefore, is the central activity for student achievement in this method because it is the foundation for other language arts instruction.”
Romalda B. Spalding from, The Writing Road to Reading Inspired by the logic of the model notebook in the Spalding method, Spelling For Life has been developed around the construction of a notebook. This we will call the Student Spelling Notebook. Provide your students with a blank A4 exercise jotter.
Students are to use this jotter to compile their Spelling Notebook, containing their spelling lessons, tests and ownwork. When completed, they will have a notebook of spelling that they can use for life. Therefore it must be neatly written, to the best of the students’ ability, and must be a true copy of the model pages set out in the pages of this book. Make sure that you check students’ jotters and correct any errors promptly. Also make sure that you model each page of the book on the whiteboard, either by writing the pages our or using the PowerPoint presentation specifically designed for the program. Before each lesson, have a copy of the relevant page of the Student Spelling Notebook in front of you as your lesson plan. This gives you visual guide as to what your goals are for the lesson. THEORY Each chapter is introduced with a theory section. This explains the rationale behind each lesson. It is useful to re-‐read the theory section before each SFL lesson. This will make your goals clearer. THE SCRIPT When I was being trained to deliver various literacy programs, time and time again I wished that I could instantly say the exact words that my teachers said to their students. They made teaching these programs look so easy.
11
This method of scripting is called Direct Instruction and is, as far as I know, one of the only scientifically validated teaching methods in existence. This is why I have provided scripts. Familiarise yourself with these but feel free to adapt them to your own style. Make sure you know the answer before asking a question, and be prepared to deal positively with wrong answers. In the scripts, answers to all questions are in brackets after the question. The scripts and answers will look like this:
_______________________ Script: “How many letters are in the alphabet?” (26) “How many of those are vowels?” (5) “What are they?” (A, E, I, O, U) “So all the rest are consonants.”
_______________________ NOTES TO TEACHERS I have inserted useful sidebars within the lessons to further explain the theory behind the program. Within these sidebars are instructions letting you know what to do next. OWNWORK The general pattern in Spelling For Life is to set a piece of ownwork for every rule. This usually consists of learning to read and spell some sight words and finding examples of and exceptions to rules. The ownwork is restricted to single-‐word exercises, as these are the building blocks of all the other language-‐arts activities your students will experience in their daily lives. If students genuinely have trouble finding words for the tasks, it is okay to help them by suggesting words that they could use. WORDLISTS Many chapters have a printable wordlist, designed to provide you with examples at your fingertips.
12
The words are taken mainly from the Fry Instant Wordlist. This is a list of the 1,000 most common English words. The first 300 words alone are said to make up 65% of all written material contained in newspaper articles, magazines, textbooks, children's stories, novels, and so on. I have also used the Chambers Children’s dictionary, the Ayers Word List from the Spalding program, and have added affixes to base words to expand the example lists. SPELLING DRILLS At the end of each chapter there is a spelling drill, designed to be used as a method of exercising the most recently learned rules. These are dictated orally and scored. The drills show students their progress. They also give you an idea of what, if anything, you might need to revise and help you with your lesson planning. EQUIPMENT
“Practical, clear and easy to see how to apply this at school. It’s
also an inexpensive resource, the biggest bugbear for schools!” J.R., Primary School Teacher
There is a small set of equipment that you’ll need to teach the lessons. This set can be self-‐made quickly and easily. The most you’ll have to do is photocopy and laminate. There are no expensive kits to buy. LESSON PLANNING
“Easy step by step approach. Easy to implement into any classroom.” N.C., Secondary Literacy Intervention Program Teacher
Each session consists of roughly the same parts: 1. Ownwork – teacher checks ownwork and reviews any concepts as needed. 2. Theory: introduction of new concepts. 3. Practice: illustrating the new concepts with example words. 4. Drills: at the end of each chapter, the students have a short spelling test.
Copying the Student Spelling Notebook and having it there before you is central to the lesson plan.
13
Each session with my students is done once a week and lasts one hour. This is because I work in a clinic where I see students on a one-‐to-‐one basis. There is nothing to stop you having shorter, daily sessions if you are teaching a group of students at school. On average, the entire program can be completed in between ten and twenty contact hours. Good luck, and do enjoy Spelling For Life!
14
Chapter 1 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VOWELS AND
CONSONANTS
THEORY “I loved the explanation of the difference between vowels and
consonants. It made such sense. I knew nothing of teaching spelling before this and it has really provoked my interest in this area – raising both questions and answers.”
S.G., Primary School Principal The purpose of this chapter is to:
• teach students the difference between vowels and consonants and • to get them to understand why we must have a vowel sound in every syllable
of every word of English. So often, the words vowel and consonant are bandied around in the classroom, but a student’s understanding often goes no further than being able to name which letters of the alphabet belong to which category. They have no idea what makes a vowel a vowel and a consonant a consonant, which is strange, as so many of the rules of English spelling are to do with this distinction. The difference between vowels and consonants is simply this:
• consonants are made by obstructing the passage of your breath in some way. • vowels are made by not blocking your breath. They come out freely, as if you
are singing. The shape of your mouth and the position of your jaw and tongue vary from vowel to vowel, but each sound comes out with no obstruction.
Vowels are like musical notes. They carry the main sounds in words. Test this out by trying to sing “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do” without the vowels!
15
WHAT YOU WILL NEED To assist your students to get a full, conceptual understanding of the difference between vowels and consonants, you will demonstrate how we use our body to make speech sounds. You can draw or project a picture of the lungs, throat, tongue, teeth and lips on the whiteboard.
It doesn’t have to be anatomically perfect, you just have to get the idea of these body parts across to the students.
You will also need some magnetic letters, both vowels and consonants. These are the kind that parents stick on their refrigerators to teach their children the alphabet.
16
THE LESSON Script: “How many letters are in the alphabet?” (26) “How many of those are vowels?” (5) “What are they?” (A, E, I, O, U) “So all the rest are consonants. But have you ever wondered why these five letters, A, E, I,O and U are different to the others? “What we’re going to do is a scientific experiment to work out the difference between vowels and consonants. We are going to show the parts of the body that make speech sounds. Firstly, when I make a sound, what does it travel through to reach your ears?” (AIR) “When you take air into your body, where does it go?” (LUNGS) “So we need to start with a pair of lungs.”
Draw a pair of lungs on the whiteboard.
“Did you know that the air travels from your lungs through a hollow tube in your throat and up into your mouth? In fact there are two hollow tubes there. One for food and water and the other for air. It’s horrible when you get them mixed up isn’t it?”
This question gives the students an understanding of these tubes, as virtually everybody
at some time has swallowed air or breathed food or liquid by accident! Draw the hollow tube attached to the lungs.
“Along this hollow tube, you have a set of muscles that vibrate and make sounds. Do you know what they’re called?” (VOCAL CORDS, LARYNX, VOICE BOX. CHOOSE WHICHEVER IS APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR STUDENTS)
Draw some horizontal lines across the hollow tube to show the larynx.
17
“Continuing up the hollow tube, the air from the lungs reaches the mouth. What things do you use in your mouth to make speech sounds?” (TONGUE, TEETH, LIPS)
Draw these.
You can also demonstrate the importance of the tongue, teeth and lips by asking the student to try and speak without using these various parts.
“Now we are going to show how a consonant sound is made.”
If you are confident that you can show how any consonant is made, let the student
choose any consonant sound. If not, choose the sound you make for the letter p. This is the sound you make at the end of the word tap.
Throughout this program, sounds will be represented in slanted brackets like so: /p/ For more on consonant sounds and how they are made, please refer to Appendix 1 at
the back of this book.
MAKING A CONSONANT SOUND Take the magnetic letter p and place it on the lungs. As you demonstrate how the sound
is made, move it through the hollow tube.
“When you make the sound /p/, the air starts in your lungs, and comes up through the hollow tube, does it pick up a sound at your voice-‐box?” (FOR /P/ THE ANSWER IS NO, FOR SOME CONSONANTS THE ANSWER WILL BE YES, SEE APPENDIX 1). “The air reaches your mouth, and then what happens to it?” (IT PRESSES AGAINST YOUR LIPS AND IS RELEASED IN A POPPING MANNER)
Take a magnetic letter p and move it from the lungs through to the mouth, showing
what the tongue, teeth and lips do to make that particular sound. With /p/, the air moves freely through the hollow tube until it hits the closed lips and
has to force its way between them. You can then ask some or all of the following questions:
“Did the air come out freely, or did you have to make some effort to get it out? (EFFORT) “Did something get in the way? (YES, THE LIPS)
18
“Was there something momentarily stopping that air from coming out? (YES, THE LIPS) “Did it have to push its way out?” (YES) “Because you answered yes to the last three questions and said that some effort had to be made to get the sound out, we call this a consonant.”
What you are trying to get the student to understand is that when making a consonant
sound, there was some obstruction in the hollow tube.
When they have answered some or all of the questions above, tell them that that is the definition of a consonant.
You can repeat this with other consonants until the student is confident.
It is often an advantage to contrast it with a vowel straight away.
MAKING A VOWEL SOUND “Now let’s make a vowel sound. We’ll make the sound /a/ as in at. The air starts in the lungs and moves along the hollow tube. Does it pick up a sound at the voice-‐box?” (YES)
NB: all vowels are voiced, but not all consonants (e.g. /f/, /t/ etc.)
“When it moves into your mouth, does anything get in the way or does it come out just like singing?” (IT COMES OUT JUST LIKE SINGING) “This is a vowel.”
Take a magnetic letter a and move it from the lungs through to the mouth, showing that
the air moves through unobstructed. Keep demonstrating until your students can make a model of their own and show how
various vowel and consonant sounds are made.
19
Chapter 2 WHAT CONSONANTS SAY
THEORY
This chapter is the first to use the Student Spelling Notebook. It is now time for your
students to begin writing the rules of English spelling. They will write examples of
words which follow these rules. For ownwork, they will find more examples from
their classroom textbooks and from their everyday lives.
Your students will also be encouraged to find exceptions to the rules. The idea is to
get students to revel in the exceptions.
Too often, a student is proud to learn and demonstrate a rule, only to be
confounded by an exception.
Looking for exceptions leads to confidence in the rules and to the realisation that
English spelling and reading is easier than initially thought.
Not only that, but a teacher’s credibility can be somewhat diminished when a rule
she has laboured to teach is then broken by a word.
Often, words which don’t “play fair” (i.e. that are orthographically irregular) are very
common, so a student is likely to run into an exception very quickly. The only way
round this is to boldly announce that there are exceptions to every rule and that
they should be celebrated!
This method will not only build confidence and reinforce these very important rules,
but will build vocabulary and the students’ ability to investigate.
20
We will deal with some basic rules surrounding consonants first.
Consonants comprise a smaller body of work than vowels. This will also help
students to familiarise themselves with the program and its requirements before the
tasks become more complex.
What makes Spelling For Life such fun, though, is that if you follow the program step
by step, your students will not notice that the tasks have increased in complexity, as
they will have everything they need to tackle each new task.
21
Student Spelling Notebook Page 1
1
b c d f g h j k l m n p qu r s t v w x y z
RULE: Q is always written with the letter u Examples: quite, quick, question OWNWORK: 1. 2. 3. Exceptions: RULE: When c comes before e, i or y, it MUST
say /s/. Examples: once, circle, cycle OWNWORK: 1. 2. 3. Exceptions: RULE: When g comes before e, i or y it MAY say /j/. Examples: /g/ get, give, buggy
/j/ age, religion, gym OWNWORK: /g/ 1. /j/ 1.
2. 2. 3. 3.
22
THE LESSON
Ask your students to turn to page one and number it.
Script:
“The title of this page is Consonants. Because it is a title, what
does the word consonants begin with?”
(STUDENT ANSWER: A CAPITAL LETTER)
“Write the title on the top line in the middle and underline the
vowels.”
NOTE:
Underlining the vowels in the title words is an invaluable exercise for counting syllables.
This will become clearer as the course progresses.
Show the students how to write the word if they do not know how to spell it. This
lesson is about vowels and consonants, not about spelling anything just yet, so keep the
focus on the task at hand.
Do not show the students the completed page, instead, model the page for them to
copy. The action of writing the Notebook will help them process the information.
SCRIPT:
“How many vowels did you underline?” (THREE)
“So how many syllables do you think there might be in the word
consonants?” (THREE)
You are now familiarising the students with a very effective method of reading
unfamiliar words called word attack.
23
From this point on, you will ask your students to write the title and underline the vowels
as above on every page. When working out unfamiliar words in their oral reading
sessions, remind your students to use this method to count the syllables.
As you may know, some vowels are digraphs (i.e. oa,ai,ee etc.). When counting vowels,
explain to your students that some vowels go in pairs, but are still counted as one.
For example, “eating” has three letters in it that can be called vowels, but the e and the
a go in a pair to make one sound. Therefore we count ea as one, bringing the total
amount of vowels in this word to two. There is more about this in the Vowels and Vowel
Generator chapters of this book.
________ Now get them to write all the consonants in the alphabet across the page.
________ Q
When all the consonants are written, point to the letter q
“In English words, what is the letter q always written with?”
(THE LETTER U)
“That is the first rule of English spelling. Please put the letter u
next to the letter q. Now skip a line and write down the rule like
this:”
RULE: q is always written with the letter u.
24
Ask the students to write the following example words underneath the rule:
quite, quick, question
________ OWNWORK:
UNDERNEATH THIS RULE, STUDENTS WRITE THE NUMBERS:
1
2
3
And Exceptions
Find 3 words which follow this rule. Ask your students to write their ownwork
and the exceptions directly into their notebook.
For your convenience, exceptions to all the rules are written in the Appendix 2,
Exceptions section.
________ C
Ask your students to skip a line and write the following:
RULE : when c comes before e, i or y , it MUST say /s/.
Ask the students to write
the following example words underneath the rule:
once, circle, cycle
25
IMPORTANT NOTE: The letter /s/ is in slanted brackets to show that we are talking
about a sound.
Get the students to read the rule back to you and make sure they say “sssssss” when
they read /s/. They are not to name the letter as they would when saying the alphabet.
They must make its sound, like the first sound in the word sing.
Students who have difficulty with literacy often don’t know the difference between the
name of a letter and the sound of a letter.
OWNWORK:
Underneath this rule, students write the numbers:
1
2
3
And Exceptions:
Find 3 words which follow this rule. Ask your students to write their ownwork
and the exceptions directly into their notebook.
For your convenience, exceptions to all the rules are written in the Exceptions
section at the end of this book.
G
Ask your students to skip a line and write the following:
RULE: when g comes before e, i or y , it MAY say /j/.
26
Ask the students to write “Examples” and
the following example words underneath the rule:
/g/: get, give, buggy
/j/: age, religion , gym
The letter /j/ is in the slanted brackets to show that we are talking about a sound.
Get the students to read the rule back to you and make sure they say the sound /j/
when they read /j/. They are not to name that letter as they would when saying the
alphabet. They must make its sound, like the first sound in the word jump.
OWNWORK:
UNDERNEATH THIS RULE, STUDENTS WRITE THE NUMBERS IN TWO COLUMNS:
/g/ 1. /j/ 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
Find 3 words which follow this rule. Ask your students to write their ownwork
and the exceptions in the lines directly into their notebook.
NOTE: There are no exceptions to this rule, as g has the option of saying either of
its two sounds before e, i or y.
27
Spelling For Life Chapter 2 Spelling Drill
“What Consonants Say”
1. Write out all the vowels in the alphabet.
2. Write out all the consonants.
SPELL:
3. queen
4. quick
5. question
6. once
7. circle
8. cycle
9. get
10. give
11. buggy
12. age
13. religion
14. gym
28
Chapter 3 THE SINGLE VOWELS
THEORY
Without vowels it would be very hard to communicate. Every word, and every
syllable within a word, must have a vowel sound, otherwise we would not be
able to say or hear words clearly at all.
This makes sense, when you consider the way in which vowels are made, that is
with an open, unobstructed mouth. It is like comparing singing to humming. You
can hear the words when you sing, but when you hum, you cannot.
This section deals with single vowels, not vowel combinations. Two-‐letter vowels
will be dealt with in the Vowel Generator section later in this book.
You will make students aware of the various sounds that vowels can make by
providing example words.
There are some additional benefits to teaching this chapter:
• Your students will become familiar with the concept of letter sounds
being separate from letter names. This is an important principle. It is
surprising how many students I see who do not know the difference and
who become better spellers and readers after understanding this
distinction.
• Students will also be able to apply the concept of illegal letters to their
spelling. This will give them reliable strategies for tackling the ends of
words. A great deal of students, in my experience, apply a coping strategy
for word endings that goes something like this: “If in doubt, add an e.”
This lesson is the beginning of a much better way to end words.
29
This chapter requires the students to write in four pages of their Spelling Notebook,
pages 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Copy the next four pages and have them in front of you as your lesson plan.
Thank you for reading this sample!
If you think you can use Spelling For Life in your classroom, if you have questions on the content or even queries about bulk
purchases, please don’t hesitate to contact us at
www.linguistlearning.com/contact.html
Or you can simply order by going to: www.linguistlearning.com/bookorder.html
30
Also in the Language For Life Series:
Spelling For Life 2 “Advanced Concepts in Spelling”. The Schwa, syllabification, doubles and the addition of suffixes.
Grammar For Life A guide to grammar based on linguistics including: parts of speech; how to use a dictionary and other reference materials quickly and effectively; and morphology.
Mnemonics For Life “160+ tips and tricks to aid the memorization of tricky spelling words and other subjects. Beautifully illustrated and conveniently alphabetized.” Along with Punctuation For Life, these texts are also available for presentation as professional development workshops for teachers and other professionals.
Find out more at www.linguistlearning.com
31
About The Author
Lyn Stone is a linguist and language therapist who runs
her clinic, The Learning Centre, near Melbourne Australia.
Spalding, Fast ForWord and Lindamood are her main
influences in teaching.
She lives with her husband, and three girls, who
constantly teach her about neurology, education and the
important things in life.
