Tag: spelling instruction

The Benefits of Utilizing Word Ladders to Teach Literacy Skills – Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing, Fluency, Comprehension

Word Ladders were first created in the late 1800’s by Lewis Carroll, as a two-person game. The original game was called Doublets. Players were given the beginning word and the ending word, like head – tail. Each player had five moves to change the first word into the last word. Players were only allowed to change one letter of the previous word to create their next word or move toward the target word.

There are a few differences between the original word ladder game played in the late 1800s and the Word Ladder curriculum developed by Dr. Timothy Rasinski. One difference is that only the beginning word is given. Another difference is that Rasinski ladders usually require more than five moves. Another difference is that solvers of the “puzzle” must use a clue and the previously developed word to discover the next word in the puzzle. Another difference is that Rasinski’s Word Ladder allows for different amounts of letter changes, instead of a set amount. The clue states how many letters need to be added or subtracted to the previous word of the puzzle to form the new word. Another difference is that there may be different amounts of letters within a word in the same puzzle. The puzzle shows solvers how many letters are in the word that they are solving for. Rasinski’s Word Ladders are published as literacy curriculum for students in Grades K-6. Each ladder has a focus or topic.

The benefits of using Word Ladders are many. Word Ladders usually help to increase student knowledge of spelling—encoding of words. Students must think about the letter order of possible words. Students must link graphemes to phonemes and analyze written letter structures within possible words, as they discover the next word. Another benefit is vocabulary. The clues require students to think about different words that are described in the clue. Students must retrieve possible words from their lexicon. Student collaborations about possible words usually help students to retrieve the necessary words. These conversations also help to link other possible words to words of similar meaning. Students also benefit from learning the meaning of words that are unfamiliar to them. The conversations grow, broaden and deepen student lexicon. This growth assists in student comprehension of both oral and written communication. This growth also strengthens student ability to write more complex sentences.

Many students will be frustrated until they understand how to complete the puzzle. Modeling or completing the process of the solving the ladder puzzle together a few times usually creates a student interest of completing the task independently or in collaboration. Matching student ability with the right grade level curriculum will also decrease student helplessness of solving the mystery. I usually use them as a whole class exercise. Students are allowed to collaborate and we usually go over the puzzle, so that every student feels included. When a student asks, I will give clues – leading questions or statements – that might help them to accurately solve the current clue.

Rasinski’s Word Ladders may still be used as a game. Students are usually motivated to solve the clues within each ladder to complete the puzzle. Many students like the competition of seeing who can solve the puzzle first. The puzzles may be a hard challenge for struggling students, when given as a whole class assignment. Allowing student collaboration usually eases the frustration. Some of that will depend how the puzzle(s) are used.

Teachers use Rasinski’s form of the puzzle to strengthen student spelling, written comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, oral language and or motivation to participate in literacy activities. These puzzles might be used in the regular class at grade-level to increase student knowledge of the previously noted. These puzzles might also be used as an intervention for student who are struggling with vocabulary knowledge or the other mentioned benefits.

Why Teach Spelling?

Spelling knowledge is a gateway to higher student achievement in literacy. Individuals begin learning how to spell, as they begin manipulating sounds. Individuals begin to encode words as they begin writing symbols that represent sounds. Individuals are not initially wired to encode words they must be taught how the sounds are represented in print – for any language.

Spelling instruction enables students to become better skilled at decoding and encoding written words, which usually increases student reading fluency. Students also increase their lexicon, building depth and width of knowledge about different subjects. Students also increase their ability to write and use higher level words within their writing. Students also build or strengthen their synthesizing skills and become more self-assured.

Spelling instruction should encompass several different components that are known to increase student retention of how individual words are spelled. These different components assist students in completing “word studies” of how words are encoded. Spelling instruction should increase in complexity as students grow academically—moving in a systematic, sequential manner. Spelling instruction should include the following components:

• Phonology – “the study of spoken sounds (phonemes)—rules of how sounds are encoded, such as why these sounds follow this pattern to form this sound(s). Individuals should have phoneme awareness skills before learning how to read. This is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulated individuals sounds in spoken words. Phoneme awareness is part of phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to process and manipulate letter sounds, rhyming words, and segmenting of sounds within words. The study of phonology usually increases student ability to spell, pronounce, and comprehend written words” (Ray, 2019).

• Morphology – the study of the smallest units of meaning. Word analysis helps students understand how the smallest units of meaning dictate a word meaning. The word meaning determines spelling pattern. Morphology increases student lexicon and comprehension abilities of both oral and written language.

• Syllabification or syllable knowledge – how words are divided into different chunks or parts. There are six major syllable types in the English language. Understanding how words are divided into syllables usually increases student decoding and encoding skills. Syllable knowledge also increases the accuracy of language pronunciation and comprehension.

  • Orthography – the rules of how letters form written words. The internal structure of a word in print. Encoding words requires knowledge of how the letters and letter patterns of a word dictate its sound and meaning. In some cases, the same sound within words is generated by different letters, for example the long /ā/ sound is generated using these different letters or combination of letters:
  • -eigh (weigh)
  • ai (rain)
  • a – e (cake)
  • a
  • ei (vein)
  • -ay (stay)

Another example is the letter k that uses different single or combination of letters to create the /k/ sound, for example:

  • c (cut)
  • ck (back, chick)
  • k (kick)
  • ke (bake)
  • Orthography Mapping – “the mental process we use to store words for immediate, effortless, retrieval. It requires phoneme proficiency and letter-sound proficiency, as well as the ability to unconsciously or consciously make connections between the oral sound in spoken words and the letters in written words.” (Redding, 2023, slide 6). Instruction in orthography usually leads to faster retrieval of how words are spelled, which typically increases student reading fluency rates. Students memorize the letter layout of words and store them to be retrieved for later use—sight words.
  • Etymology – the study of word origins. English is deprived of many different languages that may have different rules of how letters are ordered within a word to create the same sounds. For example, words of the German or Latin language use different letters to form the same sounds of different origin. Some languages are more transparent than other languages. English is less transparent than other languages.

Students often resist being taught purposeful lessons about how to accurately encode letters into the “right” word. Students usually show less resistance to spelling instruction when it is embedded within other lessons.

Spelling should be taught systematically and explicitly. Students begin learning how to spelling written words through oral language. Students increase their knowledge of how to spell words when they begin bridging their oral language to written letters or combination of letters.

References

Redding, N. (2023). The importance of spelling instruction. Presentation International Dyslexia Conference (IDA).

Ray, J (2019). Structured literacy teacher, instructional knowledge. The Literacy Brain. https://theliteracybrain.com/category/structure-literacy-instruction/page/2/

Rosenberg, D. (2023). The forgotten skills needed for literacy success: spelling and handwriting. Presentation International Dyslexia Conference (IDA), Wilson Language Training.

The Necessary Components of Learning How to Spelling

Writing is often hard for students. Writing in general requires a higher level of cognitive skills. Writing requires students to synthesize known information. This is easier to accomplish orally. Individuals often speak (especially young children) at a higher cognitive level than they can write. Oral language is usually developed naturally through one’s environment, whereas writing words on paper requires instruction. Students often orally convey their thoughts in fragments, whereas most thoughts on paper must be put into complete sentences. One piece of the writing pie is correctly spelling or encoding words on paper. Students will often use lower-level words that they might be able to spell correctly. Students who struggle in spelling words correctly usually avoid writing words on paper. This is when creative instruction needs to be brought in play.

English is not a transparent language; it has stable rules and many exceptions to those stable rules. In transparent languages like, Finish or Italian the graphemes and phonemes are more consistent, with little expectations of the graphemes changing sounds within words. English is derived from multiple languages. Most American English words are derived from Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon languages. These languages have stable rules that can be learned through studying letter-sound correspondences, syllable patterns and morpheme patterns. When a student knows where the word is derived from and the “rules” of that language assist in spelling the word accurately.  Webster brought more constancy in how we spell American English, while he creating the first instructional spelling books in the early 1800s.

Spelling requires students to know about phonology, orthography, and morphology to correctly encode a word. Phonology is the study of the sounds of letters that develop words. Students need to know the one-on-one grapheme-phoneme correspondences of the 26 letters in the English alphabet. During the study of phonology students begin learning how each letter may change its sound depending upon where the letter is placed in a word. Students should know these norms by Grade 2. They will use this information throughout their lifetime.

Orthography is the “rules” of how words are spelled within a language. The rules dictate if a letter will remain a one-on-one correspondence or change based on other letters within a word. Orthography is the visual representation or graphemes that represent words spoken orally. Students should have background knowledge of the “norms” of how letter placement creates the sounds of words. Orthographic knowledge increases student lexicon, which increases student reading fluency.

Morphology is the study of the meaning of the smaller parts of words, such as re- meaning again and -ing meaning an action. These different parts usually dictate its meaning. Students need to know the meaning of how something is spelled as American English has many words that are spelled differently, but sound the same (homophones).

Phonology, orthography, and morphology should be taught simultaneously. Phonemic awareness or oral language ability is the prerequisite in which these vital elements of learning how to decode and encode words is built upon. Some students will need to review some or all of the parts of phonemic awareness to effectively learn how to decode and encode words. Decoding is an easier skill for most students to grasp and use, than encoding words. Each of these components of learning how to spell words correctly increases with complexity as students mature. Teaching lessons about semantics along with lessons of morphology, usually increases student ability to effectively spell words that convey a more accurate meaning. These components are part of the Structured Literacy Method of effectively teaching students how to read and write.

References

Redding, Nancy. (2023). The Importance of Spelling Instruction. Presentation International Dyslexia Conference (IDA).

Rosenberg, Dee. (2023). The Forgotten Skills Needed for Literacy Success: Spelling and Handwriting. Presentation International Dyslexia Conference (IDA), Wilson Language Training.

 

 

 

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