Spelling with Time4Learning
Time4Learning’s phonics instruction connects spelling and reading through phonemic awareness and phonological awareness. Lessons that concentrate on blending, segmenting, word analysis, and fluency help students gain mastery of spelling and reading skills simultaneously. Students learn to relate sounds (phonemes) to letters or combinations of letters, helping them in their deconstruction, pronunciation, and spelling of sounds and words. While spelling can be taught through memorization techniques or inventive spelling, Time4Learning subscribes to teaching spelling as a component of reading within an overall language arts program.
Teaching Phonics Spelling
Phonics is a result of phonological awareness , which is developed mainly through verbal communication. Phonological awareness is an auditory process that children learn through distinguishing the phonemic (sound) structure of language. Practice in deconstructing words by syllables, blends, and phonemes helps students to decode words and learn how to spell.
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to understand the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and symbols (letters ). This is done through a progression of skills that lead to better spelling, reading, and writing. Children begin to gain phonemic awareness through listening and imitating what they hear as infants and toddlers. Rhyming and syllable counting are spelling strategies often used for beginning readers to help them understand similar sounds and to differentiate the phonemes in words.
Time4Learning provides students with phonetically organized chapters that focus on one sound/spelling skill so that students can explore one sound or blend at a time for mastery. Time4Learning’s language arts program combines decoding strategies with reading comprehension activities, reading fluency practice, and vocabulary, creating a relationship of skills leading to phonemic and phonological awareness.
Assessing Spelling Skills through Phonics
In addition to preparation for the weekly spelling test or spelling bee, parents should help children master their spelling foundation skills and understand the patterns that establish the construction and spelling of the English language. Weekly spelling quizzes and tests for beginning readers and elementary school students help assess learned spelling conventions. Each week should focus on one convention or phonics-based spelling rule at a time to help students gain mastery. Practicing a weekly rule along with a corresponding list of 5-20 words allows students to grasp the concept before moving onward and leads to better reading fluency, spelling, and writing skills.
Time4Learning provides a spelling glossary, and age-appropriate spelling lists for parents to use in preparation for weekly quizzes.
PreK and Kindergarten Spelling
Lower elementary students should focus on sounds and spelling through the patterning of consonant-vowel-consonant rhymes and short vowel sounds for phonemic awareness ( ie: hat, bat, fat, cat, sat). Also, beginning readers should be exposed to high frequency words and sight words.
High Frequency Words:The most commonly used words in print. ie: the, a, and, to, I
Sight Words: Popularized by Dolch, these are often called Dolch words. They may not follow spelling conventions and as a result may be memorized rather than decoded. ie: said, there, some, away
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1st Grade Spelling & 2nd Grade Spelling
1st and 2 nd graders may focus on increasingly difficult phonetic spellings such as the Vowel-Consonant-E rule , consonant blends , vowel digraphs , vowel diphthongs and r-controlled vowels for better decoding and syllable segmentation. Being able to decode words and recognize a pattern of rules provides a foundation for beginning readers to gain more accurate fluency, spelling, and reading techniques.
Consonant Blends: Consonants that when joined together still produce the sound of each consonant smoothly ie: flow, cradle, speed
Consonant Digraphs: Two consonants joined together to form a new sound ie: this, chalk
Vowel Digraphs: Two vowels joined together to make one sound, usually the sound of the first vowel ie: coat, team, paid
Vowel Diphthongs: A pair of vowels that when joined, create both sounds ie: boy, coil
R-controlled Vowels: Vowels that when placed next to the letter r, take on the r-sound as a blend ie: car, bird, her
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3rd - 6th Grade Spelling
Upper elementary students may concentrate on one spelling convention each week such as; when to double the final consonant before adding /ed/ or /ing/ (ie: Swim to swimming) or when to add an /s/ or /es/ to make a plural with continual review of blends, digraphs, diphthongs, homophones, homographs, homonyms and affixes. Focusing on segmenting syllables and decoding words by the root, helps students carry spelling skills over to reading fluency.
Affixes: A part attached to the root word, such as prefixes and suffixes (Uninmaginable)
Homographs: Words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and pronunciations. (bass, bow, close, desert)
Homonyms: Words that have the same spelling and pronunciation, but varying meanings (spruce as in to clean or spruce as in a type of tree).
Homophones: Words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings (here and hear, see and sea).
Syllables: The phonological organization and segmentation of words in parts (hap-pi-ly, en-ter-tain-ment)
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Middle School and High School Spelling
Middle school students should focus on more advanced conventions such as commonly misspelled words and subject-specific terminology (typology) , along with review of basic spelling conventions. Middle school and high school students may explore more complexities of spelling and vocabulary through studying the etymology of words.
Etymology: The history of language through the study of word origins and derivatives.
Typology : The study of words within a specific context ie: political terms (election, incumbent) , math terms (Pythagorean, isoceles) , biology terms (ecosystem, photosynthesis)
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Spelling through a Comprehensive Language Arts Curriculum
Spelling skills should develop as part of an overall language arts program focusing on, phonics, reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading fluency, grammar, reading and writing program. Skilled, fluent readers are the culmination of the successful learning of a broad array of pre-reading and reading skills. Irrespective of family background, learning to be a skilled speller is often not a trouble-free process. Spelling programs, personalized tutoring, reading workbooks, spelling games, and structured computer spelling programs can help teach or reinforce these skills.
Some children need spelling practice, while others need more intensive remedial spelling programs. Parents can help their children with the spelling process by providing high-quality educational materials, establishing a pattern of daily spelling and reading, instructing through guided spelling activities, creating a rich language environment, discussing a child's progress with teachers, and following up on their recommendations.
Time4Learning offers fun, computer spelling and reading programs, which help reinforce spelling skills at home through educational activities and learning games. Learn more about Time4Learning's computer reading programs, for PreK through 8 th grade students.
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