Spelling Patterns

TrinityTutors Virtual Academy

Copyright © 2013 by Fred Duckworth. All rights

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About Our Program Chapter 1

At TrinityTutors Virtual Academy, rather than require

participants to memorize individual spelling words

twenty at a time, we help them master the rules

governing those spellings—a logical, well-structured

approach that enables students to become

competent spellers who accurately encode auditory

speech into written language by applying common

patterns to the 250,000 or so words they must be

able to handle when writing in context.

In brief, we use a five step process that requires

learners to decipher the phonological structure of

each word by applying roughly 29 rules and 70

alphabetic codes to the 44 speech sounds on which

the English language is built.

Consequently, before using this approach your child

will need to be fairly familiar with the concepts of

syllables, vowels, consonants, and both short- and

long-vowel sounds.

The strategies we use have all been adapted from a

variety of sound, well-established spelling programs

like those offered by Romalda Spalding, Zaner-

Bloser and Discover Explicit Phonics, resulting in a

unique approach to spelling instruction that can be

tailored to any educational setting.

Each lesson focuses on a particular pattern related

to a common spelling rule or principle. The spelling

words in the list for that week are chosen to illustrate

the spelling strategy, which you can help your child

learn by spending time at home examining the

words together.

Moreover, you will probably want to encourage your

child to make a habit of using the following study

strategy and spelling ideas suggested by Zaner-

Bloser:

1. Look at the word.

2. Say the letters in the word. Think about how

each sound is spelled.

3. Cover the word with your hand or close your

eyes.

4. See the word in your mind. Spell the word to

yourself.

5. Write the word.

6. Check your spelling against the spelling in your

notes or on the spelling handout.

Your son or daughter will also grow as a speller by

writing stories, diaries, signs, letters, etc. Encourage

him or her to write frequently while playing and

exploring hobbies, as well as during quiet times.

Enjoy writing together!

The Weekly Routine Chapter 2

On the next page you will find a description of how

TrinityTutors Virtual Academy goes about

conducting rigorous, content-rich, criterion-

referenced/mastery-learning spelling program.

It is not meant to be an exact prescription that

parent-educators using this program must follow. It

does however indicate the type of word structure

analysis I strongly recommend you have your

learner carry out each week.

Of greater concern however than the minute details

of lesson execution is whether your child success-

fully masters the targeted skills and concepts by the

end of each week.

Short-a Spelling Words

GRADE 1 GRADE 2 GRADE 3

an ask land

can sat plan

man fan stand

ran map act

had hand last

dad cap band

am sad grand

at fat stamp

cat bat sand

hat as

has

and

Word Lists for Lesson 1:

Sample Lesson / Day 1:

During the first spelling lesson of the week, your

focus will be on having your learning use his or her

listening skills and draw on his or her preexisting or

background knowledge to see if he or she can

identify what the words in the new spelling list all

have in common.

At this point, you do not allow the students to see

the list. Instead, you have your learners listen

carefully as you read the new words one-by-one,

instructing them to listen for some “quality” all the

words share in common. You might even ask them

to repeat each word after you, saying something like

the following...

I’m going to read this week’s list of words and I want

you to repeat each word after me. Listen carefully

and pay close attention so you will be able to tell me

what sound you hear or feel in all the words, or

what it is you think all the words share in common.

If any of your learners are able to identify the

spelling rule, principle or pattern on which you are

focusing this week—wonderful! If not, show them the

list of words (distribute the spelling handout or have

them turn to the appropriate page in their spelling or

language workbooks) and ask them what letter or

letter combination or other common feature they

notice or recognize in all the words.

If they are still unable to identify the targeted spelling

rule, principle or pattern, go ahead and make

explicitly clear exactly which rule, principle or pattern

you are focusing on this week. (If you’re using a

keyword picture, show it at this time. Also, distribute

the spelling list if you have not done so already.)

If the spelling program you are using does not focus

on a particular spelling skill or concept, introduce

“closed syllables” and have your learners search the

words with the goal of locating all of the closed

syllables in the list.

Even if the spelling program you are using does

have its own focus pattern, rule or principal, make

sure you also discuss “close syllables” anyway

since, by the end of next week, all FIA students in

grades four to seven are to be able to verbally

answer the question “What do you know about

closed syllables?” if and when asked by the school’s

English head of department.

(Answer: A closed syllable is a syllable that ends

with a consonant, and the vowel in a closed syllable

is usually short.)

Unlike many in the education establishment, here at

TrinityTutors Virtual Academy we do not necessarily

frown on rote memorization and in fact, are of the

opinion that it can serve as a valuable instructional

tool. However, we do agree that rote memorization

for its own sake is rather pointless and therefore

make a practice of going on to check whether

students can apply all information presented in a

practical manner.

For example, we might write the following words on

the boardH

zon blug flo pru

Hand then ask the student to circle the closed

syllables.

Sample Lesson / Day 2:

After reviewing yesterday’s discussion, have the

students practice their handwriting by copying each

word as you write it on the board. Discuss how this

week’s pattern applies to each word as you provide

direct instruction with respect to how individual

letters are formed or written. If the students are in

grade four or above, these lessons should be

conducted using cursive handwriting.

(By the way, the previous lesson implies that

students are familiar with the concepts of syllables,

vowels, short vowels and consonants, so if this is

not the case, you will need to start there. [Such is

the case with child-centered and criterion-

referenced/mastery-learning instruction.] It should

also be mentioned that unless your students can

verbally explain or describe the above concepts [i.e.,

What is a syllable? What are the vowels? What are

the short vowel sounds?] we at TrinityTutors Virtual

Academy will regard this as a lack of evidence that

students have indeed mastered this material, so

please ensure your learners can verbalize all skills

and concepts they supposedly know.)

As you work your way through the list, have your

students verbalize the corresponding rule, pattern or

principle from time to time. Make sure you reinforce

the link between the targeted spelling concept and

its corresponding letter(s) or letter combination(s).

When finished, have your learners continue

practicing the verbalization of this week's spelling

rule until they can say it without any assistance.

Finally, have your learners use the rule to spell

words chosen randomly from the list as well as other

words (or nonsense words) that they should be able

to “encode” by applying the rules, patterns or

principals currently under study as well as those

learned previously.

Sample Lesson / Day 3:

Review what was learned during the first two

lessons. Then have the class read each word

twice—the first time at normal speed, but pausing

between each uninterrupted phonemic unit the

second time around (whenever they come to a multi-

syllabic word) to demonstrate how each word should

be divided or broken into syllables.

You might also want to have your learners tap their

fingers (or clap their hands) to emphasize the

number of syllables.

Another alternative is to have the students copy the

list of words on their own, writing the number of

syllables next to each word without any assistance.

You might even have them write the spelling words

phonetically using standard pronunciation symbols,

instructing them to be sure they divide the words into

syllables and use accent marks. Once they finish,

you can have them compare their spellings with

those in a standard dictionary of from a dictionary

website.

After completing the above activities, ask your

learners to identify the position of specific sounds by

asking questions like:

“Which syllable in the word ___________ has the

/__ / sound?”

And finally, review skills and concepts already

mastered or currently being learned by instructing

the class to identify spelling patterns from the

present and past lessons. Ask questions like:

“How do you spell the /__ / sound?”

Sample Lesson / Day 4:

Have each student choose one of the five spelling

activities below, directing your learners to alternate

activities from week to week and informing them that

each activity will be graded for completeness and

neatness.

1. List the spelling words in alphabetical order,

using one of the following alternatives.

a. Write each word on graph paper, placing

one letter in each box. Then draw an outline

around the entire word to see its overall

shape.

b. Study the most difficult words from the list

using “triangle spelling.”

2. Use each word in a sentence that has at least

six other words in it besides the spelling word.

a. Watch usage of the word, and make sure it

is in the context of the appropriate definition.

b. Underline each spelling word.

3. Write a paragraph or story that uses/includes all

of your spelling words. Underline the spelling

words.

4. Using the definitions to create clues, design a

crossword puzzle on graph paper. Include the

clues and leave the puzzle blank.

5. Write each of your spelling words and next to

each word, define it. Make sure that the

definition applies to the way the word was used

in class.

The following alternative can be used once the

students know most or all of the patterns:

Have the students “decode” the syllables comprising

each word, categorizing them according to the six

types of syllables.

Follow up on this task by asking questions like:

1. How many vowel sounds are in this word?

2. Are there any digraphs in this word? If so, what

are they?

3. Are there any diphthongs in this word? If so,

what are they?

4. Are there any r-controlled vowels in this word? If

so, what are they?

During the activity, make sure you stress all

important sound-symbol correspondence. Also, ask

questions like:

1. What type of syllable is the first syllable?

2. Which syllable is a ____ syllable?

3. Which syllable is accented?

You may choose to introduce the six types of

syllables as students encounter them, or you can

provide students with the definitions beforehand,

possibly even providing a lesson ahead of time

along with examples of each type of syllable.

Test Day:

Administer the final spelling test. When

administering the test, read each word one-at-a-

time.

First, clearly state the word. Then use the word in a

sentence. Finally, clearly state the word once more.

After that, move on to the next word.

After the last word is given, read through the entire

list just once more so that your learners can make

any last-minute corrections. (By the way, any

student in grade four or above must write each word

using his or her best cursive handwriting.)

Have your learners correct their own tests using a

pen or colored pencil and then record any

misspelled words in their Spelling Journals.

Lesson 1: Closed Syllables Chapter 3

Regardless of grade level, I always begin the school

year by ensuring all students understand the

concept of “closed syllables” (syllables that end with

one or more consonants) and that they know the

vowel in a closed syllable is usually short.

Of course, this implies that they also know what a

syllable is and are thoroughly familiar with each of

the short-vowel sounds. Note also that this will

probably be the only spelling principle grade one

teachers will address, though I personally include

the concept of “open syllables” as well.

Students are first introduced to closed syllables

when they learn what are known as CVC words (for

“consonant-vowel-consonant”) like cat, pot, bed, rug,

bit, etc. Such words are also examples of “closed

syllables.”

The importance of knowing the different types of

syllables (there are six of them altogether) lies in the

fact that whether a vowel makes its short- or long-

vowel sound often depends on the kind of syllable in

which it appears.

Before I go any further however, I had better make

sure we share the same concept regarding exactly

what a syllable is.

Here is the formal definition:

A syllable is an uninterrupted unit within a word that

contains exactly one vowel sound, or one vowel

diphthong, or one syllabic consonant.

Though accurate, the above definition is

nonetheless somewhat difficult to understand. For

this reason, I initialy use the following definition:

syllable: part of a word in which one or more letters

forma single unit containing only one vowel sound

It may be easier to think of syllables as the “beats” in

a word. It often helps to clap as the word is uttered

in a “choppy” fashion, as with...

clap clap clap clap clap clap

en – cy – clo – pe – di – a

As already mentioned, the first type of syllable we

will look at is called a closed syllable.

A closed syllable is a syllable that ends with one or

more consonants. The vowel sound in a closed

syllable is usually short (e.g., cat, it, speck, etc.). We

place a breve above the vowel to indicate that it

makes its short-vowel sound:

băt hŭt shŏck

Closed syllables are abbreviated with: (V-C)

Sometimes when you’re writing, a long word will

need to be divided at the end of a line to avoid a

long blank space next to the right-hand margin.

When this is necessary, you should always divide

the word between syllables, and use a “hyphen” to

mark the division.

(Note: This means you cannot divide words that

have only one syllable.)

Also, do not leave only one letter of a divided word

on a line. If you have a choice, divide the word more

or less in the middle.

For your first spelling assignment, divide your weekly

spelling words into syllables and label each syllable

according to the type of syllable that it is.

By the end of the week, your learner should be able

to do all of the following.

1. Verbalize two facts about “closed syllables.” (A

closed syllable is a syllable that ends with one or

more consonants and the vowel in a closed

syllable is usually short.)

2. Distinguish (by sight) between a syllable that is

closed and one that is not. (Carefully look at the

following group of syllables and circle the ones

that are “closed.” zet gle fid lim pra nig snu)

3. Apply the above information about closed

syllables to correctly sound out unknown and

unfamiliar (nonsense) words: ginron naklis fesfil

lomtric uzrum