Spelling: Patterns and Exceptions 1 On Your Marks! · PDF fileSpelling: Patterns and...

1 © Pearson Education 2013

Spelling: Patterns and Exceptions

1 On Your Marks!

Objective

To learn and practise spelling patterns for more complex prefi xes and suffi xes, words or word-parts with variable spellings, and spellings with variable pronunciations

Introduction

This teaching guidance, rather than repeating the same approach for spelling different words and word-parts, aims to provide an array of tools to support the learning of spelling exceptions as well as words that conform to spelling patterns.

2 Get Ready

Prior knowledge

Much of the advice for spelling can be given to students of any age, but there is an assumption of prior knowledge. Children are expected to be able to:

• hear and remember sentences accurately enough to transcribe them, e.g. in a dictation, and understand that spelling is a part of that accuracy;

(Dictation for spelling is fi rst mentioned in the Y1 NC POS.)• add prefi xes and suffi xes to root words;

(Simple prefi xes and suffi xes are introduced in the Y1 NC POS; the term ‘suffi x’ is introduced in Y2; the term ‘prefi x’ is introduced in Y3.)

• understand the concept of homophones, and already know and distinguish between some;

(This should begin in the Y2 NC POS and expand in Y3-4.)• understand the fact that some words do not follow rules and are not

phonically plausible, and so must be learnt; (This should start with common exception words in Y1.)

• recognize frequently misspelt (or ‘tricky’) words with increasing ease;

(This is referenced in the Y3-4 NC POS.)• recall their phonic knowledge. This is extremely helpful in

advanced spelling as, when encountering new words, phonic skills often combine with knowledge of a convention. This is most

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easily illustrated with the -ing rule that involves doubling the fi nal consonant: we do this only when the preceding vowel sound is short, and if children cannot identify a short vowel sound, they will fi nd the rule hard to master.

Phonics is also useful in making at least a ‘good go’ of a completely unfamiliar word. This is touched upon later. (Phonics should be thoroughly explored in Foundation Stage and Y1, with Y2 children being increasingly familiar with a range of alternative graphemes for most phonemes. The process of segmenting a word and selecting many graphemes accurately is in the Y2 NC POS.)

3 Get Set

Resources

• The diagnostic check PDFs for each spelling unit.• This Spelling teaching guidance• The video for each spelling unit• The game sequence for each spelling unit. (see below)• The assessment PDF for each spelling unit.

Activities

The advice for activities below is organised into the following aspects of spelling. Within each section is contained advice that can be tailored easily to each unit.

• Following the Pattern• Spelling Exceptions• Learning from Their Mistakes!

Following the Pattern: learning rules and conventions

1. The Investigation Begins!

When children investigate and discover a spelling rule for themselves, it is considerably more memorable than being told the rule by an adult. It takes a lot more time, but it is time well spent: not only will they remember the conventions, but they will also learn skills of teamwork, hypothesising, testing and re-testing.

Take two lists of words, compare them and, in so doing, try to work out what is happening. One of the simplest examples involves one of the –ing suffi x conventions. In this example, the two lists may look like this:




Hiss HopRock SkipKick LapHack LetList KnotDust Sit

First, have the children add –ing to each of the words:

Hissing HoppingRocking SkippingKicking LappingHacking LettingListing KnottingDusting Sitting

Adding -ing where no change to the root word is required: Y1.Adding -ing where root word needs modifi cation: Y2. However, many children need to continue to practise this throughout KS2.

Children should try to identify the difference between the two lists with the addition (in this example, the doubling of the letters before -ing in the second column). They should then try, in small groups, to come up with a rule to explain the difference (in this example, that there should always be two consonants before –ing, which may mean doubling a letter). Then they have to test the rule with new words. Have groups present their fi ndings at different points, and identify the growing theories.

Keep the investigation open: if a child comes up with a word, even months later, that doesn’t fi t the rule then it can go onto an ‘exceptions’ list (and there are many exceptions to many of the rules in English spelling). If the exceptions list starts to look too full, decide as a class whether or not it is time to re-investigate the rule, adapt it or discard it, as the evidence directs.

This ongoing process is less likely to apply to the simple example above, but once spelling rules become very complex, it becomes particularly appropriate. For example, the rules governing the -ence or -ance and -ency or -ancy endings are complex, and your class may fi nd that there are so many exceptions that they decide that the rules do not work:

Emergence ObservanceInfl uence AmbulanceInsurgence IgnoranceEssence Finance




However, the process will make them better spellers (and better investigators too!).

2. Morphing Around

These morphology activities can be introduced as soon as children have encountered a handful of prefi xes and suffi xes (or even just suffi xes, if they have come fi rst) i.e. in Y1 and Y2. They are variants on the idea of building words by adding prefi xes and suffi xes to a list of root words. The four suggestions described below are easily adapted and should lead to a broad range of games.

a) Morphemes on Display

Display root words and known prefi xes and suffi xes on the board, in separate columns. Children should then work in teams to build words from these ‘morphemes’, and then state the number of real words they think they have created. Teams must then challenge wherever they think a word is not real, and dictionaries are called into play. A point is awarded for each real word built, and for each correct challenge.

This game will quickly become more complex, as more and more suffi xes require adjustment to the root word: correct adjustment earns additional points.

Do not miss the opportunity to explore the unreal words children make: “If ‘wishable’ were a word, what would it mean?” Test the rule, too: “Wishable isn’t a real word, but if it was, why would it be wishAble and not wishIble?” (Y5/6). This will work just as well with Y3/4 prefi xes, making real words such as ‘impossibly’, and in Y1/2, exploring -ing, -ed, -er and -est suffi xes.

b) Human Morphemes

Children carry root words or prefi xes or suffi xes displayed on card or mini-whiteboards. They circulate and try to build real words in twos or threes, and then others challenge their combinations. Again, correct adjustments to root words earn extra points.

c) The Word-a-Tron

Again, children hold cards or mini-whiteboards displaying root words or prefi xes or suffi xes, but for this game they remain stationary (see note on Y1 and Y2 in Human Morphemes, above). You will need the children’s names in three different pots: one each for those holding root words, prefi xes and suffi xes. Someone pulls a name from the prefi x-pot, a name from the root-word pot and then a name from the suffi x pot. Only when




all three names have been called and the children are at the front of the room do you call “SHOW” and they show their morphemes.

The class then votes as quickly as possible on whether or not they think the morphemes have created a real word. Anyone able to describe any adjustments that must be made to the root word gets extra points. Again, theories on possible meanings of nonsense words should be explored, as should correct application of a rule, even in nonsense words.

d) Morphemes: The Card Game!

Once the class, or a group within the class, has begun to get the hang of the word-building activities described above, it is possible to turn this into an independent activity (to do during guided reading, for example).

All the variations of ‘Morphemes: The Card Game!’ should involve cards displaying different morphemes, in three colours to indicate prefi xes, suffi xes and root words (see note on Y1 and Y2 in Human Morphemes, above).

Participants may be dealt a hand of three or six mixed cards, and then cards are swapped with unseen cards from the deck until one player calls a stop, declaring that she or he has a real word. If adjustments to the root word must be made, these should be stated, and others may challenge the new word – leading to purposeful dictionary work.

Alternatively, the cards may be divided into stacks of the same colour, and one of each colour turned over at a time. The cards may be collected if a real word is created (this game is ideal for playing solo). A similar format is to play Morpheme-Snap, in which the stacks are given to pupils, who turn over the cards one at a time. The usual rules about dictionary-based challenges and stating adjustments to root words apply.

Games such as these may continue over the years, as more morphemes are learned and vocabularies expand. Many Y6 children benefi t from continuing to apply -ing and -ed rules (from Y1 and Y2) while also working with newer morphemes, such as -cial and -tial.

3. Spot-Check!

Once a rule has been investigated, use every opportunity very briefl y to check and reinforce it. Whenever children have a free minute or two, ask, for example, that they add -ing to ‘run’ or ‘like’ (Y2 examples, but keep practising this throughout KS2!). Do just two or three words at a time, and think of the process as twofold: children practising the rule and thereby making it stick, and your formative assessment of who has ‘got it’ and who




needs more help. Then get on with the lesson!

Spelling Exceptions

Asking children simply to learn lists of irregular words rarely seems to help the words stick, especially for children who really struggle with spelling. If you’re working towards a test, ‘look-cover-write-check’ activities often do lead to short-term accuracy – but this is then easily forgotten within a fortnight. The key to supporting children’s retention of these spellings is repetition in context.

Context is crucial to really learning how to spell a word. If a child can’t yet use a word in his or her real writing, or doesn’t yet read texts that include such words, then they probably shouldn’t be learning to spell that word yet. They can, of course, but it is unlikely to stick! Try hard to fi nd contexts that feel relevant for the children in the class.

1. The Investigation Begins!

Involving children in the planning stages of using new and possibly challenging spelling vocabulary in lessons is a good way of getting them to engage with it. Plan ahead with children: in which subjects, and which genres of writing, would each word or set of words be more appropriate?

With older or more able younger children, this could then be investigated through detective work within any reading situation. Ask: where can they fi nd these words, and in what sorts of text? How are the words used?

Y1 common exception words occur frequently, so this process may begin as soon as children can read independently and have maturity to notice words in this way. The Y2 exception words are typical within age-appropriate texts, as are most of the homophones and near-homophones. Similarly, the homophones and other words to be learned for Y3/4 will occur in material accessed by children reading at age-appropriate levels.

The more extensive Y5/6 word list and the list of frequently confused words are likely to throw up more challenges (eligible and illegible; dissent; bridle and so on)due to the reduced frequency of use. Ensure than the ‘detective’ capable of fi nding these is amply and publicly rewarded!

2. Golden Words

Organise the words required for the year into small subsets of three to ten (depending on year group, ability and the diffi culty of the words; this is the only adaptation required to make this appropriate for writers from Y1 to




Y6). If possible, and where appropriate, think about the make-up of each subset: aim to group words that will, in practice, often be used together, so children are more likely to be able to use them in the current topic or text type being studied.

Prominently display one subset per week, fortnight or literacy unit, with the heading, ‘These are your Golden Words: try to use them in your writing!’, or similar. This is not a memory test: children are copying the correct spelling from a display. To this end, you may fi nd you need more than one display in the room, and children may prefer or need their ‘Golden Words’ on small cards in front of them.

This process can be differentiated where necessary (e.g. colour-coding the words and linking the colours to groups or, better, to what children must, should and could learn).

In any writing, anywhere across the curriculum, children should try to use the ‘Golden Words’ and, when and where they do, underline or highlight them (ideally with a special ‘Golden Words’ pen: this makes many children want to use the words). With the words marked like this, they are easy to self- and peer-assess, and for you to monitor.

Rewards can be given for frequent and accurate use of the words (again, bearing in mind differences of year group, ability and diffi culty). The real success is measured, though, by children’s ability to spell the words later in the term, from memory, in the context of their actual writing.

3. See It; Believe It!

The real strength of the above activities is their applicability to children’s own work. However, simple visualisation techniques can also be effective, especially for particularly challenging words or when supporting a group of pupils who are fi nding other methods ineffective.

Display individual words on eye-catching posters in prominent places around the room (under the clock, on the door, above your board, below your board, on the window and so on). It’s a good idea to have children make the posters, and to use different colours and styles to make them more obviously memorable.

Leave the posters up for a period of time (at least a week). Draw attention to them incidentally and often, such as when the children are lining up for assembly or collecting resources.

Periodically, test the children when they can’t actually see the posters, asking them, “What’s under the clock / below the board / on the window?”




Encourage them to picture the poster in its position.

Try this outside the classroom, and then eventually with all the posters removed. Always remind the pupils to think of the poster’s position in the room, to picture the word in its location.

If a child has solid parental support for spelling, this technique might be employed for a few words in the home (e.g. on the bathroom door, by the bedside, on the fridge). In this instance, the words can be tailored to the individual: words that he or she is getting wrong consistently.

4. Vanishing Tricks

At the front of the classroom, have one tricky spelling displayed very briefl y and then fade or rub it out letter-by-letter, at different speeds. Ask the children to ‘see’ the word once it has gone.

A similar technique is very popular with Foundation Stage children, but could be used throughout KS1 and even KS2: write the word on an infl ated balloon, then let the air out gradually until the word is illegible.

5. Sensory Shapes

People learn most effectively in different ways: some through listening, some through looking and some through doing (most learn best through a combination of all three). If children in your class seem to enjoy learning visually, they may respond well to picturing the letters of a word changing colour and texture – growing fl uffy, say, or turning into neon yellow tubes. This may be particularly helpful for learning the tricky bit within an otherwise reasonable spelling, e.g:• the ‘e’ in ‘they’ (Y1);• the ‘b’ in ‘climb’ (Y2);• the ‘a’ in the middle of ‘separate’ (Y3/4);• the ‘ui’ in ‘nuisance (Y5/6).

Similarly, having children draw around magnetic-type letters, or using tracing paper to become familiar with the outline of a word, may help with some tricky words (this technique may also help the ‘doers’ in your class). Emphasising that the outline of the word ‘what’ has a sharp upright shape, for example, can be a useful nudge to children regularly spelling it without an H (in any year group).

Posters that make a big visual point of silent letters, unstressed syllables or other spelling stumbling-blocks (e.g. “A, I said” for Y1; “Listen, can you hear the T?” for Y2; “O! Chocolate!” for Y3/4 and “Eight metres in height” for Y5/6) can be very successful in improving spelling, especially




if the pupils themselves make the posters for their own highest-frequency errors. This leads us into mnemonics.

6. Many Nincompoops Exclude Mnemonics!

Children can be taught memory tricks for diffi cult words or parts of words as they need them. This has long been applied to words such as ‘said’; ‘because’; ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ and the ‘ould’ family.

An even better exercise is to teach children, as soon as you judge them able, to generate their own mnemonics for words they are fi nding hard to ‘make stick’.

Remember that any mnemonic is good, if it works. If the mnemonic is harder to remember than the spelling, it’s no good at all!

There are several mnemonic devices you can suggest. For example:

a) Acrostics Get It Across!

For example:

Sam Big We We Rhythm OhAte Elephants Heard Heard Has yoUIce-cream Can’t A Every Your LuckyDaily Always Train Noise Two Duck! Use Hips Small Moving Exits

b) Words Within Words

‘“What” has a “hat” in it and “when” has a “hen” in it’ – make these word-parts memorable by having children draw hats and hens around the appropriate parts!

c) Tricks for the Tricky Bits!

Saying all the sounds can also work for words like ‘pe-o-ple’, ‘Wed-nes-day’ or ‘b-e-a-u-tiful!’

Making up rhymes or funny images to recall tricky spellings can also be fun. They could expand on the spelling - for example:‘It is necessary for a shirt to have one collar and two sleeves’, or‘Lunch was necessary: one cola, two sandwiches!’They could also compare similar words – for example:




‘Never separate a paratrooper from his parachute!’‘That juicy bruise is an unsuitable nuisance.’

Children should generate their own tricks for their own errors, ideally working in small groups. These can easily lead to displays that will be of genuine help to the class.

7. A Play Day!

Word games are great for developing spelling vocabulary, and are rarely seen as ‘work’!

Hangman is a classic, as are word-based board games that use letter tiles or dice – especially if children are taught to break the rules and use dictionaries! You might have key spelling vocabulary displayed as the game takes place and award additional points if these words are used. (If you are concerned about introducing the ‘hangman’ device, play ‘Smiley Man’; you just need eleven or twelve agreed elements to draw, such as both eyes, both ears, both eyebrows, a nose, mouth... and three hairs!)

When approaching new and challenging vocabulary, a bluffi ng game is engaging and stretching. Allocate one word to each group. The children must look up their word’s defi nition and present it, alongside two fake (but convincing!) defi nitions, to the other groups. Points are awarded to groups for selecting the correct defi nition from the three, and for successfully fooling other groups. (Age is not a barrier to this game; just the ability to use a dictionary. Many children will acquire dictionary skills sooner when introduced to a game such as this.)

An entirely different sort of game (suitable for all ages, based on your formative assessment) can be played with the whole class, or with a small guided group, whenever you have a few minutes. You’ll need a small ball or beanbag that can be safely passed and gently thrown. State a word to be spelled out and toss the ball to a child. The child catching the ball must give the word’s fi rst letter, then toss the ball to another child – the catcher must give the second letter, and so on. If someone is hopelessly stuck, allow him or her to ‘phone a friend’ (someone nearby gives a whisper, but the answer still comes from the ball-holder). When the class is used to this game, the child who successfully completes a word may call out a new spelling word challenge, and pass the ball on.

8. Wonderful Word Families!

Making links between etymological families of words is a well-known and effective strategy: perhaps most obviously, it makes sense to learn ‘would’, ‘could’ and ‘should’ together. This approach can also be used with




more complex families.

For example, children could research and investigate texts for words using the ough letter string and sort them by sound: ‘sounds like uff’, ‘sounds like ow’, ‘sounds like off’, and so on. A poster displaying the class’s fi ndings might be built upon over time, as new ough words are encountered. The ough letter string is so perplexing and so very high-frequency, that such a poster could move usefully with a class as they progress through year groups; alternatively, children could have their own ough chart that they take with them through the school.

Once a reasonable number of different word-families has been researched, you can take a physical approach to the task by giving every child a slip of paper displaying a word and telling them all to fi nd other children in the same word family.

With the youngest children, this could simply be a matter of words ending ick, ide, og, and so on. When exploring harder letter strings like ough or ea, you might have subsections of the family, depending on the sound the grapheme makes; much later, you can use really challenging families, such as words with ‘silent letters’, unstressed syllables and irregular past tense verbs.

9. Word Detectives

If a word is spelled awkwardly and apparently inexplicably, have the class investigate its etymology. Finding out why a tricky word is so tricky really helps some children to remember it.

For example, children could learn about the Old English ‘wolde’ and ‘sceolde’ from which ‘would’ and ‘should’ evolved. By playing with their pronunciations and learning that these were past-tense forms of the Old English for ‘will’ and ‘shall’, children will understand the reason that those tricky Ls are there!

Detective work like this can help embed some tricky spellings in the memory… as can the knowledge that ‘could’ had the L added several hundred years later, just to fi t the ‘would’ / ‘should’ model!

Even the youngest children may benefi t from hearing that ‘what’ comes from the Old English ‘hwaet’, with the ‘h’ fi rst; or that ‘said’ would probably once have been pronounced as it looks, as in ‘sayed’ (the past tense of ‘say’).




10. Horrible Homophones

A traditional approach to learning homophones is to explore them together, and perhaps try to apply them in sentences together. For example, you could display sentences such as, ‘Where is the coat I want to wear?’ or ‘They’re with their friends, over there’, and so on.

If this approach is working, stick with it! If, however, you are fi nding that at least some children struggle with homophones, try teaching words that sound similar completely separately from one another. For example, teach ‘where’ with ‘there’ and ‘here’, as they are all a part of the ‘here’ spelling family, instead of with ‘wear’. Teach ‘they’re’ with other contractions, like ‘don’t’ and ‘we’ll’, instead of with ‘their’. Then teach ‘their’ as a mnemonic if necessary, saying it so that you hear the ‘i’, or coming up with an acrostic.

Learning from Their Mistakes!

The single most important aspect of teaching spelling remains formative assessment: addressing the highest-frequency errors in a child’s own writing.

This is genuinely individualised spelling support. It will do the most to turn a child into an effective speller, and may even free some children to concentrate on composition. In addition, any parental complaints that the spelling words are ‘too easy’ may be easily answered if the words constitute the child’s own errors.

1. Spell-Saving Stickies!

As part of marking children’s writing, choose to focus on just a few misspelled words per child, bearing in mind that the harder a child fi nds spelling, the fewer words they are likely to be able to take on at one time. Use professional judgement regarding which errors you choose: if a child is spelling ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ incorrectly, don’t worry yet about an inaccurate ‘necessary’ – celebrate the ambitious attempt!

Once you have selected the word or words, highlight them in a special way for the child’s specifi c attention: use a particular style of underlining, or a particular colour. In correction time, during independent guided-reading time or possibly as homework, it is the child’s job to fi nd the correct spellings of the words marked in this way, and to put them on individual sticky-notes at the bottom of the piece.

For each new piece of writing, the children must move their sticky-notes to the top of the new page and try to use their identifi ed words in their work.




Sticky-notes may be replaced with bookmarks or almost anything, as long as the children can see the correct spellings of their highest-priority words as they write. Any system that allows this process to continue across the curriculum will help, as spelling words correctly in literacy, but not in other subjects, is an all-too-familiar pitfall.

Every time they use one of their words, they should underline or highlight it on the page, and put a tally-mark on the sticky. When they have reached a pre-determined and fairly large number – 20, 30 or even 50 – they report to you.

Quickly check over the accuracy of the new spellings and, as a reward for correct work, give a sticker, ‘golden time’ or bonus house points – but, if the correct spelling has been forgotten, the child gets the word back again. Only when each word has been re-learned in this way should you give the child new target words.

Only if you judge the child unable (for reasons of age or current ability) to fi nd correct spellings and / or to write them onto the sticky-notes reliably, should you do it for them. As far as is possible, hand the entire task over to the individual child, as it is the child’s ownership of the process that makes it successful.

This process is founded on the principal mentioned earlier: the key to supporting children’s retention of these spellings is repetition in context. Having children write out their errors ten times may work, but is not nearly enough for many children – especially for the least able spellers.

2. Testing Tête-à-Tête

Learning pre-ordained word lists at home for a test on Friday is seldom described by teachers as a successful technique: most such spellings are lost within a fortnight.

However, the process may be adapted profi tably to each child’s needs through expanding the ‘Spell-Saving Stickies’ advice.

Select a larger number of errors from a child’s writing, possibly across several pieces, and this time have the child transcribe them into a spelling journal. This will become the list the child must learn, whether that is through creating mnemonics, visualisation or any other method.

Then, periodically, children should swap spelling journals and give each other spelling tests.

However, bear in mind that this peer-review testing process is not as




effective as using words in the context of real writing. It shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for your own tests, either, but it may be a useful addition.

Practising with the Bug

Children can practise the required spellings by playing the game sequence for each spelling unit in their year group. These games will broadly follow the mini-objectives set out in the Pearson Primary English ladder.

4. Go!

Spelling in shared and independent writing

Never forget the power of linking spelling and handwriting. This is particularly powerful with higher-frequency words – writing these, especially in the heat of composition, becomes embedded in children’s motor-memories. Allowing ‘sed’, for example, to pass for ‘said’ in Y1 is storing up problems for later. ‘Said’ is such a high-frequency word that the child may well develop a motor memory for ‘sed’, so that even after learning the correct spelling, they may slip back into the incorrect spelling when focused upon the composition of their story or recount. Encourage children to use combinations of words with contrasting rules or irregular spellings in their own writing as often as possible.

The old standby of dictation can be very powerful for practising – and learning the meaning of – new spellings. It also practises handwriting and even helps to develop a better sense of sentence structure. (To achieve this last effect, dictation must be given in complete sentences only, and when a child asks to hear one little bit yet again, you should re-read the entire sentence.) Dictation of sentences is part of the Y1 Programme of Study; adapted, it can provide excellent practice throughout KS2.

If you compose topic-based dictations, you may be hitting three or four birds with one stone. If you have your most able children compose the dictation, you will also be challenging and stretching their capabilities.



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