Breaking the Alphabetic Code and Word Attack Strategies

Breaking the Alphabetic Code and Word Attack Strategies Tompkins Ch. 5

Terminology n n Phonemic awareness Phonics Phoneme Phonetics

Cueing Systems n n Phonological System- phoneme, grapheme Syntactic System-structure, grammar Semantic System- morpheme (free/bound) Pragmatic System-function, cultural and social uses

Phonemic Awareness n n Basic understanding that speech is made up of a serices of individual sounds Provides foundation for phonics and learning to read Is a prerequisite to learning to read Is taught through: q q Language-rich environments Songs, rhymes, chants Read-Alouds Sound games

3 Criteria for Phonemic Awareness Activities n n n Developmentally appropriate for 4, 5, and 6 year olds Instruction should be planned and purposeful Phonemic awareness activities should be integrated into other parts of the literacy program

Activities n Match words with sounds n Isolate a sound in a word n Blend individual sounds n Substitute sounds in a word n Segmenting a word into its constituent sounds

Sound Matching Activities n n n Use familiar objects or pictures Guessing words-pairs of object and word walls Rhyming words

Sound Isolation n Teacher says word, children identify beginning, middle and end

Sound Blending Activities Students blend sounds together to form words /d/, /o/. /g/ n

Sound Addition/Substitution n Onsets and rimes Rhyming words Non-sense words

Sound Segmentation Activities n Isolate sounds in a spoken word (sounds, not letters)

Phonics Generalizations n General rules for matching sounds to and letters (always exceptions) One you remember…but now always true… n “WHEN TWO VOWELS GO WALKING THE FIRST ONE DOES THE TALKING”

Consonants B, C, D, F, G, H, J, ETC. n TWO SOUNDS OF “C”=car and city n TWO SOUNDS OF “G”= garage and giraffe n X-Sound depends on location in word= xylophone and maximum n Y and W-consonants at the beginning of word= (yes vs. day and wipe vs. snow n Consonant Blends-grass, blast, string n Consonant Digraphs- th, ch, sh, ph n

Vowels n n n n A, E, I, O, U AND SOMETIMES Y AND W SHORT-CAP LONG- CAPE Vowel Combinations Digraphs- (single sound) snow, nail, heat, etc. Diphthongs-(two sounds) oil, boy, house, now R-Controlled-(bossy R’s) for, car, fur, first, were SCHWA-(unaccented syllable in multi-syllabic words) pencil, about, zebra

Phonograms/Word Families ONSETS RIMES Beginnings n n n n n b r tr ch sh F Cl Sl d Endings n n n n ack ail ide ock ell ump ice

Most useful generalizations n n n n C-two sounds- car, cycle G-two sounds- garage, giraffe CVC- bat, cup CVCe- cave, ride CV- be, go R-Controlled- born, dear, car, for, shirt, fair Igh- high Kn and Wr- know, wrong

Phonics Approaches n Synthetic- introduce speech sounds associated with individual letters (Top-Down) n Analytic- starts with sight words in context, then the sounds of letters in those words (Bottom-Up)

Instruction/Activities n n n Explicit instruction Phonics charts/posters Minilessons Making words Word sorts Interactive writing

Strategies n When a child encounters an unfamiliar word: -skip and read to the end of the sentence -use the beginning letter(s) or sounds, -notice the middle letters/sounds -read subsequent sentences -cloze procedure

Figure 5 --9 Stages of Spelling Development (Adapted from Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2000. ) Gail E. Tompkins Literacy for the 21 st Century, 3 e Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Teaching Spelling n n Instruction should match students’ stages of spelling development Allow students to use “invented spelling” Students should be taught strategies for spelling words (not simply memorization) Ask students to “think it out” instead of sound it out: q q Break word into segments and spell each part. (Elkonin Boxes) Break word into syllables and spell each syllable Identify root words and prefixes and suffixes Write a letter or two as placeholder

n n n The best instruction takes place during authentic reading and writing activities and mini-lessons. Spelling words are drawn from a meaningful contexts (not simply a list of unrelated words) Word walls and sorts Dictionary Use Proofreading. Spelling Options-

Spelling Tests n n n 5 -10 specific word Pretest and Post-test Hands-on Spelling activities Teach strategies for preparing for spelling tests (p. 170) Controversy-allowing children to use invented spelling decreases their future ability to spell

Implicit vs. Explicit n Teaching skills implicitly through authentic reading and writing activities does not work for everyone. Student of diverse cultures/languages may not have the same background experiences as mainstream students n Students of diverse backgrounds may benefit from explicit instruction in which certain skills and strategies are taught in isolation

Structural Analysis n n n Inflectional Endings Prefixes and Suffixes Contractions Compound Words Syllabication and accents

Inflectional Endings n n n Added to nouns to change number, case, or gender boy-boys host-hostess Jane-Jane’s Added to verbs to change tense or person walk-walks, walked, walking Added to adjectives to change degree sad-sadder happy- happily (adjective to adverb)

Affixes: Prefixes and Suffixes n n n Letters or sequences of letters that are added to root words to change their meaning and/or parts of speech Good readers learn to recognize common prefixes and suffixes Knowledge of prefixes helps readers decode words as well as decipher meanings of words Suffixes- ex. –ment, -ous, -tion, -sion Prefixes- ex. un-, pre-, de-, in-, dis-

Contractions n n Apostrophe indicates one or more letters have been left out when two words are combined into one word Ex. I am- I’m n Did not- didn’t n She will- she’ll Children need to know the original words form which contractions are formed n

Compound Words n Consist of two words (sometimes three) joined together to form a new word dishpan houseguest underwear homework

Syllabication n n n Breaking words in to syllables can often help with pronunciation A syllable is a group of letters that forms a pronunciation unit Every syllable contains a vowel sound Diphthongs are treated as single units A syllable may have more than one vowel letter Open syllables- end in vowel sounds Closed syllables- end in consonant sounds

Context Clues n n n - The words, phrases, and sentences surrounding the words to be decoded—helps readers determine unfamiliar words Picture Clues Semantic Clues- clues derived from the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences Syntactic clues-provided by the grammar of our language Homographs- words that look alike that have different meanings – row, wind, content, lead

Sight words n n n Extremely common irregularly spelled words: (at, it, am, go, come, two, there, an, the, walk, etc). Use word in a meaningful way Present & pronounce word Point out how the word looks Practice in context Word walls, labels, picture dictionaries, weekly sight words, games, flashcards, etc.