Balancing Mastery Between Reading and Spelling
This question is one that I see asked often on Facebook and hear from educators, parents, and homeschoolers. “The student can read, but struggles so hard to spell.”
This ongoing struggle is hard for the student and the educator. Leaving both of them deflated and questioning what to do next. I was that kid. I was that educator. Through those experiences, I found some solutions that have really made a difference for my own spelling and how I work with the students in front of me.
I will lay out the top key points that helped me bridge the reading to spelling mastery for myself and my students. I am not a perfect speller, but I do have a better grasp of why some words are spelled the way they are.
For educators, parents, tutors…
Knowledge
Read the book: Uncovering The Logic of English, by Denise Eide. Or watch some of her videos. Truly, the best spelling rule/pattern advice out there. That I have read. As the educator, you need to understand why some words break the rules. You can explain it to the students and make it easier for them to master spelling.
The kid-friendly spelling version that I love is free from Nessy. Improve your spelling free resource from Nessy.
Letter Sounds
Make sure the sounds are made correctly. Many educators and parents are shocked by the realization that the sound they have been teaching for the letter symbol is making it harder to blend. This video will help 44 phonemes by Rollins Center. Her tip is clip the extra schwa sound at the end of the letter sound. Make sure it is a clear /b/ sound, not “buh.” Occasionally, letter name confusion is an issue.
Vowel Sounds are Important
Every English word must have at least one vowel in it, or a letter that is acting as a vowel, such as tricky Y. Without the vowels, they are just letters and not words. Letters I and A, are words on their own. Vowels have long and short sounds; the consonants do not. So, mastery starts with the knowledge that these five letters, a, e, i, o, u can do special things. Letter Y, is tricky. As the first letter, Y will say its sound. After that, it may act as a vowel, and the sound may depend on the syllable placement.
The origins of words are important to remember; our favorite word, pizza, is not English in its origins. That is why the vowels make different sounds.
Closed and Open Syllables
Open and closed syllables are one of the very first syllables that emergent readers will come across in their reading. Many educators skip over the explanation and just call them High Frequency Words HFW. However, there is an opportunity to teach the students why I say its name “I.” The letter I is an open syllable. When the letter t or n, is next to the letter I, it is now closed.
I – open, In -closed, It – closed
A – open, At – closed
Go – open, Got – closed
It may also be time to teach that letter s, makes the “z” sound sometimes.
Rules VS Patterns
Spelling makes more sense when you can see the patterns. Some people shy away from spelling rules to emergent readers, or only teach the magic E rule. I was in my 40’s before I learned why the words: give, have, love, and done are not affected by the magic E rule. Which is surprising because there is always one student who struggles with this, or reminds me of the rule breaker words. One of the most logical guides or rules is this: English words usually do not end with the letters v, i, j, or u. With that one bit of knowledge, we now have the explanation for why the silent E is at the end of so many words. Think of the letter E as a helper letter.
The V, is pointy. He would fall over without E to hold him up. Nessy Video.
The letters I and U, need a silent E at the end of words: pie, blue.
The letter J, is replaced by the soft G and magic E, in words like page and stage. In addition, after short vowel sounds, DGE does the job of making the “j” sound. hedge, bridge, fudge.
Letter O Schwa Pattern
Schwa sounds with silent E words are often called Heart Words. Come, some, from, done, love, mother. I like to teach them as a pattern of words that have the letter O making the “uh” sound. Nessy has a good video. I add the m. The letter O may make the schwa sound after these letters: v, n, m, th. This is a fun Uno-style-Schwa game for the schwa sound. After we play the game, a spelling test can follow to see if the student has applied the skills. Writing is important for mastery.
Vowel Teams and Spelling Patterns
It is easy to say, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” However, that catchy rhyme will not help me choose a spelling pattern.
AI or AY
If we have already learned the rule above about which letters do not like to be at the end of words, we should be closer to figuring out which spelling to use.
Letter I, does not like to be at the end of words. AI would be used at the beginning or in the middle.
Aid, aim,
AY usually will be at the end of a word. Not counting the suffix endings.
say, play,
For other long A spellings like a-e, or ai, that is has a lot to do with homophones like
sail – sale, wail – whale
or words that need a silent E to soften letters C, or G sounds.
race not (rais), and rays is total different word.
page not (paij) because English words do not end with the letter /j/. Silent E is needed to soften the letter G.
How We Correct Matters
No one likes to hear that the spelling is wrong. However, with spelling, you can say, “You have two of those sounds correct.” Now, let’s think about how we can fix this one sound.
In the examples above, the word page was spelled incorrectly. However, the sounds were correct-ish. That is something to point out. AI does say “A,” and it is in the center, which would be good if the target word were pail. The sound is in the correct place, however the letter /j/ can not be at the end of the word. So what are the options? /ge/ or /dge/? We need /ge/ to be magic E and change the vowel A to the long sound.
This may seem like a long explanation, but some students will thrive with an explanation that informs them for future spelling words. Many students are trying to memorize the whole word without applying any spelling tactics.
These mnemonic vowel teams are a tactic that we use in reading intervention. The images are colorful picture-embedded letters, and on the back of the cards have spelling tips and examples of where they can be used in words. Beginning, Middle, End.
Some students like the option of word scrambles. This allows them to see the letter options and put them in the correct order.
Spelling scope and sequence
Students often need practice with reading and spelling. They can benefit from an opportunity to choose the correct spelling. These self-checking Flip-Chute cards. Let them read and guess which is the correct long A spelling.
a-e, ai, ay, ei, eigh
This is also a great vocabulary builder. The students are choosing the correct spelling pattern, and they are introduced to homophones such as:
tale, tail,
plane, plain,
mane, main
male, mail,
sale, sail,
ate, eight
There are nine card sets in the bundle, and more are on the way.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my collection of reading and spelling tactics. If you have made it this far, I would like to share one more freebie for spelling the schwa sound and a silent E helper. Please follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and TPT.
