synthesis

Angie Neal, M.S. CCC-SLP

A (Sort of) Succinct Summary about Spelling

Why We Need to Know More about Spelling x Federal laws (ESSA and IDEA) and many state laws require that students receive systematic, explicit and

evidence-based instruction (more on that below) in the essential components of reading instruction. These components include phonological awareness, phonics (see phonics vs. spelling below), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

x Writing (translating spoken language into print via the spelling of words) was the first thing that happened to reading. The more we know about how the words we speak are made up of sounds, how sounds are represented by letters as well as the predictable patterns for how letters can be combined, the better we will be at reading familiar and unfamiliar words.

Phonics vs. Spelling Wha he Diffe ence x Think of spelling as the action of physically writing letters to represent sounds to form written words (a verb).

Phonics is the study of the connection between how words sound and the letters and/or letter combinations that represent each of the sounds in words. Phonics is the knowledge used to perform that action (a noun).

x English words follow a set of predictable patterns; not rules. Knowing these patterns is how proficient readers a e able o di ing i h ook a a po ible o d and j a a equence of letters that could not be a word.

x As proficient readers, we are aware of patterns in the English language i e in he j e ample every word m ha e a i en o el o d ne e end in he le e j , and he le e ne e come af e he le e ). However, for beginning and struggling readers, every printed word is as unfamiliar and challenging to decode as

j until he ha e been a gh he e pa e n and he code fo ha o nd look like

How Phonological Awareness is Related to Spelling • Phonological awareness is a conscious awareness of the sounds of language. If a student struggles with being

aware of the sounds of language, they will struggle to understand how spoken sounds are represented by the lines, circles and squiggles known as letters.

• Phonological awareness is what allows us to spell words by accurately representing each sound in the word. For example, if a den pell he o d pa a pa i ma be d e o poor awareness for each of the sounds.

• Phonological awareness is also what allows us to hear the differences between similar sounding words, compare o d e kno i h o d e don kno e and to subsequently represent each of the sounds when spelling

(ex. habit and habitat, session and secession, etc.).

Phonological Awareness and the Alphabetic Principle • The alphabetic principle is not about the 26 letters of the alphabet. The Alphabetic Principle is the idea that

letters (graphemes) and letter patterns (phonics) represent the sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. • To master the alphabetic principle, students must be able to hear, differentiate and be aware of the sounds of

spoken language (a.k.a. phonological awareness) • Keep in mind that the letter name does not always logically correlate with the letter sound. This can be very

confusing especially for students who struggle with being aware of the sounds (phonological awareness) in words. This is why alphabetic knowledge is a screening tool. There is a strong phonological component to learning letter sounds. When students a en a a e of he sounds, its takes longer for them to learn the letter names (and their corresponding sounds).

The Alphabetic Principle and Phonics • The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to use the Alphabetic Principle, but there

is no way to do that unless you have knowledge of the 44 sounds of English and what they look like. • Thi i h defining he Alphabe ic P inciple can be conf ing - because it is not just about the 26 letters of the

alphabet. It is about how the alphabetic principle overlaps with phonics.

Angie Neal, M.S. CCC-SLP

• He e an example of how the Alphabetic Principle overlaps with phonics: The sound /j/ may look four different ways. It can look like the lette j he le e g he le e eq ence of -ge o he le e eq ence of -dge There are phonic patterns that inform us of which letter/letter sequence to use.

Phonological Awareness and Phonics Wha he Diffe ence x Phonological awareness is a focus on the sounds of language. Phonics is knowledge of what the sounds may look

like and the predictable allowable patterns for letters/letter combinations. x Phonological a a ene can be done i h he e e clo ed phonic can

What about Sight Words, High Frequency Words and Irregular Words? x Only 4 percent of words in English are truly irregular. Approximately 50 percent of all English words can be

spelled accurately by sound symbol correspondence patterns alone, and another 36 percent can be spelled accurately except for one speech sound (usually a vowel) (Moats, L. & Tolman, C., 2009). The remaining words are able to be figured out when students have an understanding of their origin or etymology.

x High frequency words should be taught within the appropriate pattern they follow (i.e. like ime made fall within the magic e make he o el a i name pa e n a o nd abo again o ld be ideal o each when learning about the schwa sound pape open belo o ld be pa of a ni abo open syllables, etc.).

x Irregular words should be taught by focusing on the parts that are regular and then teaching the parts they need o lea n b hea check o Hea Wo d Magic f om Reall G ea Reading com .

x If a student memorizes ten words, they can only read ten words. When a child learns the sounds of ten letters they can read 350 words with three sounds, 4,320 words with four sounds and 21,650 words with five sounds (Kozloff, 2002).

Assessing Spelling x Single word dictation does not equate to the challenge of reading and spelling in connected texts. Therefore,

assessments of word knowledge should also ensure that students can apply knowledge of the word as well as visually discriminate correct vs. incorrect spellings.

x One of the most powerf l mea e of a den eading kill i o look a a ample of den i ing in connected text Looking a den i ing i like a peek nde he hood of he kill they use when reading.

o When sounds are misrepresented, missing our out of place as a signal that phonological awareness may be impaired (ex. gril for girl, sop for stop, pig for peg, chain for train)

o Errors where the grammatical morpheme is not applied correctly is a signal that the student is struggling with an awareness of the morphemes and the patterns for how to write them (ex. walkt for walked, runing for running, magishun for magician, eggz for eggs, etc.)

o Words that have all of the sounds represented correctly, but the words are still incorrectly written reveals a lack of knowledge about the appropriate phonics pattern that should be used (ex. qkit for quit, ran for rain, rok for rock, brij for bridge, etc.)

o Words that are written, but have the wrong meaning are related to a lack of knowledge related to homograph or heteronym errors (ex. bear for bare, there for their, which for witch, won for one, etc.)

o Wo d ha ha e all of he o nd b ill don look igh e eal poo orthographic imagery for what he o d ho ld look like (ex. brane for brain, cidy for city, flote for float, frite for fright)

Teaching Spelling • Spelling should be taught systematically and explicitly (see definition below and the laws above) beginning in

early childhood with instruction in phonological awareness and should continue through late elementary school. • Look for a scope and sequence that builds from simple letter sound correspondences and phonic patterns to

more complex, less predictable patterns as well as practice activities that draw connections to phonological awareness (i.e. how many sounds are in this word, sort the words by number of syllables, etc.)

• Provide differentiated levels of instruction to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom. • Include review weeks where new words that follow previously taught patterns are studied.

Angie Neal, M.S. CCC-SLP

• Use each day of the week to focus on a separate skill using words from that unit: explanation of the phonic pattern, applying phonological awareness skills to the advanced levels, developing orthographic imagery, teaching meaning, applying morphemes.

Systematic and Explicit Instruction Defined S ema ic and e plici in c ion i Systematic and explicit instruction is NOT

- Phonemes, phonics and morphology are taught in a logical order going from simple to complex, starting with predictable correspondences and then moving towards less predictable correspondences. - Systematic and explici in c ion ho ld incl de

Phonological awareness instruction in PreK and K Phonological awareness through the advanced levels

through 2nd grade and/or for students who need it Mo e han j ba ic phonic le How to apply grammatical morphemes to the end of

words The basic syllable shapes and how to divide them

.... Greek and Latin roots

.... Understanding and differentiating confusing word endings

- Give the word list on Monday and test on Friday without any instruction, explanation or directed practice - Word lists that do not progress from simple to complex or that are random (without an organizing concept) - Grade levels that are not aware of what was taught the grade level before - Meanings of the words and parts of the words are not studied as well as spelling - Systematic and explicit instruction that stops after 2nd grade (or 3rd grade or 4th grade) - Sight words added to the end of a list vs. high frequency words within the pattern list

Spelling: What NOT to Do 1. Never, ever encourage guessing at words. Instead, give students the skills they need to actually decode the

word. Looking at pictures, guessing and/or relying on any strategy other than decoding the word takes longer than a simply decoding the word and uses up cognitive resources that interfere with comprehension.

2. Ne e e e p ono nce a con onan blend oge he a one o nd i e bl o In ead p ono nce each sound individually (i.e. /b/ - /l/, /s/ - /t/, and /s/ /t/ /r/). This is one of the most common errors.

3. Never, ever repeat the sounds (ex. /k k k/ /a a a/ /t t- fo ca Sa i once and a i like o mean i As a proficient reader, do you repeat the sounds over and over when reading or spelling?

4. Never, ever, teach students to pay attention to only the first and last letters. Every sound makes a difference in the meaning (i.e. salt/slat, deed/dead, seed/said, chin/chain, trap/trip, dial/deal, heat/heart, rig/ring, etc.)

5. Ne e e e add h hen p ono ncing a ingle phoneme e b h fo b o h fo o h fo etc.). In doing so, we are incorrectly teaching students that the one phoneme actually makes two sounds.

Spelling: What to ALWAYS Do 1. When grading spelling tests, instead of writing a grade on the paper write the correct spelling beside the word.

This helps students pay attention to the difference between the correct and incorrect spellings as opposed to what the grade was on the paper.

2. When a student asks you how to spell a word, instead of spelling it for them, ask them to tell you the first sound. Then ask them what sound comes after that, and then after that and so on. Ask for the sound not the letter!

3. While practicing spelling words, help students count each sound by putting up one finger for each sound that they say. Then, when they go to write the word, they should make sure they have written that number of sounds. Remember, some letter sounds can be made p of o o mo e le e e ck in kick ch in beach j o nd in f dge

4. Pronounce unfamiliar words that students will encounter in their curriculum before reading them in the text. Have students repeat the word after you. Tell them what the word means. It is easier to spell, read and understand new, challenging, unfamiliar words if they have phonological long term memory for what the word sounds like and have some familiarity with its meaning.

5. In ead ing a o d all ba ed on le e c ea e a non-alphabetic word wall. When using an alphabetic word wall, there are inconsistencies. Fo e ample nde he le e c he e co ld be o d ch a can cen and child Onl one of ho e adhe e o he c a k pa e n In ead c ea e a sound wall based on graphemes

Angie Neal, M.S. CCC-SLP

(letters that represent the 44 sounds) or post words under previously taught phonic patterns. For example, it o ld make mo e en e o ha e a ec ion de o ed o hen c make i of o nd hen i make i

ha d o nd k and ano he ec ion en i el fo ch

What Do They Mean by Evidence-Based ? x Evidence-based means that a particular collection of instructional practices has a proven record of success.

There is reliable, trustworthy, and valid evidence that when the practices are implemented with fidelity with a particular group of children, the children can be expected to make adequate gains in reading achievement.

x The most important thing you can do to determine whether or not a program or curriculum is evidence-based is o do o o n digging don el onl on online e ie anecdo al a emen clea ingho e pe of

reports and most definitely do NOT trust the sticker on the front ha a He I m e ea ch/evidence based! Be sure you understand how to read the tables in the back of the manual and be able to determine whether or not the study was a valid, reliable and without bias. If o a en e a k fo help f om a chool p chologi speech-language pathologist or another specialist who is trained in research design and how to read and interpret research.

x For decades, there has been a vast amount of research focused on how the brain learns to read. Below is just a very small snippet of powerful findings from the research about the essential components of reading instruction as it relates to spelling. My advice don t believe anything you ve read so far. Get curious and begin doing your own research! • Phonemic awareness is a more powerful predictor than nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and listening

comprehension, and it often correlates more highly with reading acquisition than tests of general intelligence or reading readiness (Stanovich, 1986) and is the strongest single predictor of word reading difficulties (e.g. Pennington, et al. 2012; Snowling, 2000).

• In general, students taught through an explicit phonics approach display scores on word-level reading tests that are 6-7 standard score points higher than student that are taught phonics skills informally (effect size of .44; NICHD, 2000). More importantly, the positive impact of explicit and systematic phonics on at-risk readers is much greater with standard score equivalents being 11 points higher than at-risk readers who are taught through nonsystematic phonics approaches. That difference is large enough that it may prevent some students from future reading difficulties (Kilpatrick, 2015).

• With intensive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics and the opportunity to read connected texts, students demonstrate average gains of 14 standard score points on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (WRMT-R) which are maintained at one and two year follow ups with nearly 40% of students requiring no ongoing special education reading support (Kilpatrick, 2015).

Recommended Programs • A well trained teacher can adapt almost any program to meet the specific needs of any student and because

every program has limitations. A teacher should be smarter than they program or curriculum they use. Money is better spent on training than on most programs because some p og am don ha e research to support them (or don t have research on them yet), some programs only focus on phonic patterns while omitting the other essential components, some are for beginning instruction, some are better for one-on-one, some are better for whole classrooms, etc.

• Shameless advertising Spelling That Makes Sense is the program I wrote when I could not find a spelling program that checked all of bo e . It is based on the research for phonics, phonological awareness, morphology, vocabulary and other related areas of written language. It is divided by grade levels which can easily be adapted for differentiated instruction within a classroom. Instead of referring to them as grade levels, they can be broken down into the categories of word learners. It can be found on TPT (search Spelling That Makes Sense Angie Neal).

For more information or to request a workshop for your school or district about spelling, phonological awareness, phonics,

vocabulary, morphology, dyslexia and more literacy related topics, I can be reached at [email protected]