Name Game!

For those of you working with young children, the most important words you collect and work with will be their names (and the names of their friends, classmates, and family members)! This week, I hope to use our names to show you what a wonderful resource they can be for phonics and word study! While young children use them to learn the alphabet and also their initial and final consonant sounds, we will use them to do some advanced word study learning.

For those of you who have Eden as your case study student, you will need to learn about accented and unaccented syllables. Because Eden is a very good speller, this is where she is making a lot of her mistakes. (And this is where a lot of adults still make a lot of mistakes, too!)

So ... what are accented and unaccented syllables, you ask! Let's start with our names. I have a name -- well, actually two names -- that are constantly misspelled. My first name is spelled Meredith, not Merideth! My last name is Whittaker, not Whitiker! One reason that the e in Meredith gets misspelled a lot in that it is a vowel in an unaccented syllable that doesn't make a true long or short vowel sound. Instead it's more of what's called a schwa sound. It's the same thing with the a that gets misspelled in Whittaker. It doesn't make a true long or short vowel sound anymore!

Remember how hard it was for some of us to distinguish between long and short vowels a few weeks ago when I asked you to create the word sort? That's because a lot of you were selecting really cool long words that had multiple syllables, including unaccented syllables in which there wasn't really a true long or short vowel sound. (Folks who chose one-syllable words seemed to have very little trouble!) For advanced spellers, long words with unaccented syllables is where spelling often gets tricky!

So how do you tell what the unaccented syllables are in your name? Here's a trick from the authors of Words Their Way that you can teach students .... Put your hand lightly under your chin. When you say your name, feel for when you jaw drops. Try it with my name, "Meredith." Do you feel your jaw drop slightly when you say, /Mair/? That's the accented (or stressed) syllable. That is the part of my name that usually gets spelled right!! Your jaw doesn't drop for the final two syllables so they are both unaccented syllables. (Try it with Molly. Do you feel your jaw drop for the first syllable? This is the accented one.)

For this week's post, let's use our names to do some advanced learning and also some review. Here's what I'm looking for:

1. See if you can figure out what the accented syllable is in both your first name and your last name. (Buddies, make sure to check your partner's work and to help, if needed!) Do people ever misspell the vowels in your name? Is it in the accented or unaccented syllable?

2. Review the key terminology below by finding a name on our class roster that fits the category.

• Can you find 3 names that have consonant digraphs in them? (Make sure to write both the number and the actual names.)

• Can you find 3 names can you find that have consonant blends in them?
  

• Can you find 3 names that have a two-letter vowel team in them? (Check Chapter 5 if you need clarification. I'm looking for vowel teams, not just words that have two vowels in them.)

• Can you find 3 names that have r-controlled vowels in them?
  

• Give one name with a true long vowel sound in it.

• Give one name with a true short vowel sound in it.
  

BONUS (for an extra credit point!)

• I could only find one name with a split-vowel digraph in it. Can you find it? The first person to find this (judged by the time stamp on the blog) wins a bonus point!

Here are the names:

Alyssa Brooks

Caitlin Collins

Jessica Collins

Marlaina Cruz

Marcy Ebel

Kim Griffith

Terri Houdeshell

Heather Johnson

Jennifer Maclean

Erica Mathie

Zenaida Ortiz

Kelly Rigda

Jerica Schick

Brianna Schnur Meredith Whittaker

Susan Widener

Joe Yagielo

Good luck! Please consult Chapter 5, if needed!

Word Fugitives!!

Let's see if we can have a little fun this week (maybe more so than last week for some of you!) -- and also think about how meaning patterns in language can be useful for our students (especially those who are more advanced in their reading/writing/spelling)!!

Here are a few questions for you:

• Does anyone know what the word is that describes the momentary confusion that is experienced by everyone in a room when a cell phone rings and no one is sure if it is her/hers or not?!

• Does anyone know what the word is when you're hoping you get someone's voicemail but instead you get the actual person?!

• How about the term for always forgetting your umbrella?!

• Or the term for that frantic period in the morning that many families experience in the morning prior to leaving home when you're trying to get everyone ready?

• How about the term for when that traffic light knows just when YOU are approaching so it can turn red?!
  

These are things that happen everyday, but there are no words that describe them yet!! No one has really invented a word for them yet!!! That means they are "word fugitives" -- they are "wanted words" waiting for someone to capture them!!!

For this week's blog, I have for you a list of word fugitives that some people have been trying to capture! For example: The act of entering a room and forgetting why! (This one has been happening to me quite a lot recently!) Take a look at the word fugitives. Then I want you to work with a buddy and take the Word Fugitives Challenge!

NOTE: Blogspot won't let me post a document here, so you will find the Word Fugitives Challenge posted on ANGEL. Just open up the document that is called Word Fugitives in Module 8. See how many ideas and terms you can match up just using a meaning pattern, or a root word or chunk that you know! I bet you'll figure out #1 just by using the base word!

(Answer: The act of entering a room and forgetting why is "destinesia" because it's destination and amnesia put together!)

Just have fun with this and see how many you can match up!

Then report back: Which ones could you figure out? Which ones were challenging? Were there any that didn't have a meaningful root word you knew? How does this activity connect to helping kids to use meaning patterns in their reading?

Sorting Out Word Sorts!

This week, we're going to look back on all the words we've found so far for our blogs this semester and see if we can create a closed word sort with these words!

Here's what I'd like you to do. Let's imagine that we are working with a "Within Word" speller. (We'll learn more about the different stages of spelling in a later module.) This speller needs work examining long vowels.

• Choose one long vowel on which the student will focus. Go back through your words and try to find 10 words that fit this pattern. (You may need to brainstorm more words, e.g., superhero or grocery words that would fit if you don't find enough.)
  

• The key to a good word sort is setting up a scaffold of support for your student. So you'll want to choose a contrasting category so your student can contrast a pattern he knows with this new one. For long vowels, a good contrasting pattern would be the short vowel, e.g., contrast cat (short vowel) and cape (long vowel). Again, go back through your blog and try to find 10 words that fit this pattern.
  

• Choose a key word for each category to establish the categories clearly for your student. (Note: If you were actually doing this sort with a young reader, you'd likely want to start with one-syllable words.)

In your blog entry, make sure to include the following information:

• What long vowel phonics element did you decide on as the focus of your study?
• Does your sort focus on the alphabetic, pattern, or meaning layer of spelling? (Revisit the article on what teachers ask about spelling or our tags posted in the last module if you're still working out the difference.)
• What are the words you'll use (including the key word)? List them all and sort them into the two categories. (Or see if a friend can sort them!)
  
• What did you discover when you sorted your words into two categories?
  
• Can you think of a meaningful text you could give children in which they could follow the sort with a word hunt for the features you've focused on?
  

Have Derivational Patterns Taken Root For You? :)

In this week's blog, I want to recap a very important point from our readings: Children learn pattern by pattern, not rule by rule or skill by skill.

As we have learned, the rules for phonics are very unreliable because the letter-sound relationships in our language do not match perfectly and are quite complex. Does it really help to tell a student that when "two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" if that rule is only true about half of the time? Does it really help to tell a student to "sound it out" if they are working on a "ch" digraph where the "c" and the "h" actually make one sound together (rather than blending two sounds together)?

So as teachers, what we need to know and highlight with our students are the consistent patterns in our language. These are the patterns we have been learning about for the past two weeks. (And remember that a "rime" is a pattern that helps children attack vowels; this is different than a "rhyme"!) Over the past two weeks, you have hopefully added a great deal of "teacher knowledge" about letter-sound patterns!

We want older students who have mastered most of the sound patterns to begin focusing on meaning patterns in their spellings. For example, knowing that words like "photograph," "telephoto," and "photosynthesis" are based on the Greek word "photos" (meaning light) helps advanced students learn the meanings of words and enables them to spell them. (Joe and Marcy have given us a great start in the Week 5 tags by pulling out some of the key points about derivational patterns.)

This week, I want you to work a bit with root words and meaning patterns -- and hopefully have some fun, too! -- so you're going to play Brainburst! The directions are posted below:

Brainburst

Players compete to brainstorm as many words as they can that are derived from the same root in this game. Unique words are the only words that will earn points.

Materials

Different roots should be written on cards such as phon, dict, port, graph, scope, struct, spect and so on. (For this assignment, just choose two of these roots and play two rounds of the game!) Roots that have a wide variety of possible derivations should be chosen. Each player or team needs to have a piece of paper and a pencil. A standard dictionary and a timer are needed.

Procedures

1. The timer is set for 2 to 3 minutes and a card is turned over. Each team or player attempts to think of as many words as possible derived from that root. (E.g., for phon-, I'd begin my list with phonics, phonemes, telephone, etc.)
   
2. Players draw a line under their last word and count the number they have when the timer goes off.
3. The player with the longest list reads the list aloud. If another player has the same word, the word is crossed off of everyone’s list. Words that are not on another list are checked.
4. Each player reads aloud any words that no one else has called to determine whether he or she has a unique word. A dictionary should be used to help settle any disputes.
5. The winner of the round is the player or team with the most unique words.

Report Back

How did you and your partner do? Include the lists that you came up with and make sure to tell us the unique words from each of your list. Include in your post what you found out about the meaning of each root that you chose.

Take the Tongue Twister Challenge!

My hope is that, through your blogging so far this semester, you have begun to pay attention to all of the language that surrounds you and your (future/current) students everyday! As we have found, there are so many interesting words out there -- from dog breeds to superhero words to words we pass by every week at the grocery store!

As you collect words with your children, keep in mind that enjoyment, wordplay, and authentic purposes for literacy should always come first. So before we use superhero words to teach our students about letters and sounds, why not say the words out loud with students in our best superhero voices just for fun? (And maybe even say them with movement? POW!)

One great way to first play with words (and THEN learn about letter-sound relationships) is with tongue twisters. This week, I challenge you to have a Terrific Tongue Twister Tournament (with a friend or with a little one you know) -- and I also challenge you to have FUN with language!

Are you ready to take the tongue twister challenge?

Find someone who will be willing to take the tongue twister challenge with you!

Choose one of the tongue twisters below and ... start the clock! In ten seconds, how many times can you read it?

Then have your partner try to read it as many times as possible! Who read it more times?

Try out one more tongue twister, repeating the directions from above.

Which Dishwasher?

Which dishwasher washed which dish?

Which dishwasher washed which dish?

Which dishwasher washed which dish?

Half-foot Heifer

I have a heifer with half a foot. Have you a half-foot heifer?

I have a heifer with half a foot. Have you a half-foot heifer?

I have a heifer with half a foot. Have you a half-foot heifer?

Two Torn Tutus

Sue took the two torn tutus to the tutu tailor and told the tailor to sew the tutus today.

Sue took the two torn tutus to the tutu tailor and told the tailor to sew the tutus today.

Sue took the two torn tutus to the tutu tailor and told the tailor to sew the tutus today.

Wright Writes Wrong

William Wright was a writer. Wright had a right to write, but Wright's writings were rarely right. What Wright wrote was wrong. What was wrong with what Wright wrote was Wright's weak words.

Report back:

How did it go? What was fun (or maybe not fun!)? Which tongue twisters were the hardest? Tell us about at least one phonics element (see Module 4 Discussion forum) that students might discover during the Tongue Twister challenge! Can you think of a way you might use this activity with your current/future students?

Create a tongue twister for your Blog Buddy using one of the phonics elements listed in last week's discussion forum (or find a good tongue twister online, if you find it too challenging to create your own). See how challenging you can make it! Buddies, see how many times you can say the tongue twister in 10 seconds and make sure to report back in your comment about it!

Grocery shopping ... for words!

This week your mission is to pay attention to the words you see at the grocery store! Whether you're in the candy aisle, the pasta aisle, the bread aisle, the produce section (where we all should be!) or whatever aisle is your favorite, your job is to see if you can find 5-10 words that are related to the letter-sound pattern (e.g., consonant blends, r-controlled vowels) that you posted about in ANGEL this week. (And feel free to recruit your children, friends, significant others to join you on this mission!)

In your blog, make sure to address the following:

• What are the words that you found?
  
• Go to the "What children will discover" section that is connected to your letter-sound pattern in our textbook. (For example, if your pattern is "consonant blends," look at p.111.) Would children make any of the same discoveries mentioned in the text with your words? Can you think of any additional discoveries they might make?
  
• Finally, choose one of your words and see if you can break the syllables into onsets and rimes (see pp. 113-114 for help). Keep in mind that learning about onsets and rimes is not for the purpose of becoming a linguist (!!) but for building your teacher knowledge so that you can help children to tackle letter-sound relationships for vowels! Buddies, please check each other's work and offer support, if need be!

I know this is a bit more involved posting than usual, but there's a lot of important information that you need in Chapter 5, and this is a hands-on way to make meaning about some of these phonics elements! If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section of my blog, and that way everyone else can see my answer in case they are wondering the same thing.

Happy Shopping!

Superhero Words!

This week we are on a mission to find five great superhero words that our students might find fun and interesting -- and might also lead to some interesting conversations about what words mean and where they come from. (See this link if you'd like more information: http://www.ncte.org/journals/cnp/excerpts/superheroes.)

Here are some superhero words that one literacy researcher collected from children during their word study work: psychic, mindreader, ripper, jaws, telepath, and carnage.

At least one word of your five needs to come from a resource beyond Google. This resource could include (but is not limited to) the following: talking to a child, talking to someone you know who loves superhero movies, watching a short clip on youtube, or reading a superhero comic.

In your post, make sure to include your five words and how you found them. Why might these be interesting words for students? Could you use them in an authentic literacy activity described in Chapter 1 (e.g., shared writing, interactive writing, personal writing, science inquiry)? Could you use them to build phonemic awareness and/or graphological awareness, as described in Chapters 3-4? Describe how this activity might go.