vocabulary development
Vocabulary development involves learning the meanings of new words and morphemes through direct and indirect instruction and developing tools to discover the meaning of an unknown word.
orthographic mapping
Programs
Vocabulary and Spelling Programs
- Robust Vocabulary Instruction" ... Whilst words are learnt from context, one of the problems is that later vocabulary learning shifts from oral to written contexts ... "
- Spelling Mastery"Spelling Mastery is a six-level Direct Instruction series that teaches students dependable spelling skills by blending three approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach and the morphemic approach. Each approach has advantages and possible disadvantages. Spelling Mastery is designed to maximize the advantages of each approach and minimize the disadvantages ... "
- Spelling through Morphographs"Spelling Through Morphographs is a one-year program designed to teach spelling to older students (4th grade and older). Students learn that words are composed of morphographs, which roughly are prefixes, suffixes, and bases or roots. The program presents rules for combining the morphographs and provides extensive practice in applying these rules. The program uses specific strategies that encourage students to think their way through spelling rather than to memorize weekly word lists. These strategies, combined with repeated practice and application enable students to spell unfamiliar words and to remember familiar words more successfully than they would by using other methods ... "
- Spell-It"Spell-It is a flexible program* that assists teachers to plan and implement spelling instruction based on assessment of students’ current knowledge. Spell-It teaches the rules, conventions, structure and logic of the English language, to enable teachers to plan effective spelling lessons based on the needs of their students. Originally written by Joy Allcock from New Zealand, Spell-It has been adapted for use in Australian schools ... "
- Spelling Through Morphographs"This program gives older students the tools to become successful spellers and transfer their spelling knowledge to vocabulary!"
- PLD"PLD provides an Australian, evidence-based approach to Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) for primary school educators. Aligned with the Science of Reading, PLD’s SSP approach extends from the junior primary years through to upper primary years and thereby facilitating a whole school approach ... "
Lesson Resources
Spelling Lesson Resources
- Support for Spelling"Teachers want their pupils to become fluent and effective writers; accurate spelling is a means to that end. Competent spellers need to spend less time and energy in thinking about spelling to enable them to channel their time and energy into the skills of composition, sentence structure and precise word choice ... "
- Spelling Bank"This booklet contains lists of words and ideas to help in the teaching of the Key Stage 2 spelling objectives set out in the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching. They are drawn from the Word Level strand, predominantly from the section entitled ‘Spelling Rules and Conventions’, but with a few from the ‘Vocabulary Extension’ objectives ... "
- Spelling"...The word-lists for years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 are statutory. The lists are a mixture of words pupils frequently use in their writing and those which they often misspell. Some of the listed words may be thought of as quite challenging, but the 100 words in each list can easily be taught within the four years of key stage 2 alongside other words that teachers consider appropriate...."
- Morphology: An Exploration of Bases and Affixes to Build Spelling, Vocabulary, & ComprehensionKnowledge of morphology is useful for academic vocabulary development, both for comprehension and writing. One in three words you see for the first time is linked morphologically to something you already know ...
Resources
Resources
- Vocabulary in Action poster: A tool for teachersThe EEF’s Vocabulary in Action poster offers a straightforward, simple summary of key techniques we can use to develop our approaches to direct vocabulary teaching.
- Vocabulary"Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process and is critical to reading comprehension. Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. Other words are learned through carefully designed instruction ... "
Readings on Spelling
Readings and Videos on Spelling
- How Spelling Supports Reading"Much about spelling is puzzling. Our society expects that any educated person can spell, yet literate adults commonly characterize themselves as poor spellers and make spelling mistakes.
- Why America Can’t Read"Advanced research in cognitive science including brain scan science is demonstrating that explicit spelling instruction may be the missing link to reading success in America where 65 percent of fourth-graders read below proficiency levels ... "
- Exploring Australian Students’ Spelling Skills - Spelling Skills Report 2021"Proficient spelling is a fundamental literacy trait. In standard English, spelling requires awareness of speech sounds (phonology) and knowledge of how to visually represent those sounds into meaningful units (morphology) using conventional alphabetic letter patterns (orthography) ... "
- How Words Cast Their Spell"In 1773, Noah Webster stated that “spelling is the foundation of reading and the greatest ornament of writing.”1 He was right. Good spelling is critical for literacy, and it makes writing much easier—allowing the writer to focus on the ideas to be conveyed, not the letters needed to put those ideas on paper ... "
- Close Encounters with Students' Spelling: What They Tell Us About Language LearningWhen they write and spell, students show us what they know and believe about spoken and written language. If we, as educators, look with an informed eye, we can readily see what needs to be taught and what that student needs to learn. Join us for this enlightening presentation during which Dr. Louisa Moats will share her unique insight and expertise as we take a close look at writing samples and explore what they tell us about students’ instructional needs.
- From Sounds to Spelling"Several high profile research projects have confirmed that explicit sequential teaching of phonics is the primary means of teaching children how to read and spell ... "
- Close Encounters with Students' Spelling: What They Tell Us About Language LearningThis webinar is presented by Louisa Moats. "When they write and spell, students show us what they know and believe about spoken and written language. If we, as educators, look with an informed eye, we can readily see what needs to be taught and what that student needs to learn. Join us for this enlightening presentation during which Dr. Louisa Moats will share her unique insight and expertise as we take a close look at writing samples and explore what they tell us about students’ instructional needs."
Spelling
Teaching Spelling
- The Dos and Don’ts of Teaching Spelling"In the same way that a child’s spelling ability tends to lag behind their reading ability, it seems that the understanding of how to teach spelling seems to lag behind the understanding of how to teach reading ... "
- Lyn Stone's Spelling WebinarsThis is a series of free webinars which will help all teachers understand our own English orthography.
- Activities for Practising Spelling: Toxic to Helpful"Based on many years researching and practising spelling activities with struggling students, Lyn Stone’s forthright suggestions about what really works, and maybe more importantly what doesn’t, will provoke lively debate amongst those trying to help children to become better spellers ... "
- Teaching Spelling Using a Structured Literacy ApproachThis presentation, delivered by Dr Louisa Moats, covers: the latest research about how children learn to spell; how spelling supports reading; how spelling can be used as a diagnostic tool; and a comprehensive approach to teaching spelling that complements reading instruction.
Morphology
Morphology
- Morphology Scope and SequenceJasmine Fleur Shannon has put together this morphology - the study of words and their parts - scope and sequence for F-6.
- Advances in Understanding the Role of Morphemes in Literacy DevelopmentThis special issue of the Journal of Research in Reading is free.
- Online Etymology Dictionary"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago."
- Mini Matrix-Maker"Mini Matrix-Maker will automatically build a word matrix for you from the set of word sums in your word family ... "
- The OK Book"Word Inquiry through picture books: You might not be an excellent word inquirer...yet. That’s OK. Be a noticer, thinker, and practicer and you will become a word knower!"
- Morphology MattersBuilding Vocabulary Through Word Parts
- Morpheme trees, morphemes in word matrixes, greek/latin roots."As children progress through the grades, the text they read tends to become more challenging and complex, with more big words. To be effective at reading big words, it helps to understand word parts, including syllables and morphemes. Syllables are the units of sound we can use to divide words (e.g., com-pu-ter). Morphemes are the units of meaning we can use to divide words (e.g., inter-nation-al). These activities help students develop familiarity with syllables and morphemes."
- Teaching Morphology - Resource Kit" ... It is important that children are taught the interrelation between morphology, phonology and
etymology, as when we combine all three areas, it teaches children how our writing system works (Bower & Shanahan, 2021). Morphological instruction however, should never replace a
structured synthetic phonics approach and the other essential elements in the Science of Reading ... "
Books
Books about Vocabulary
Oxford School Dictionary of Word Origins by ISBN: 9780192733740Publication Date: 2013-05-02This new paperback edition of the Oxford School Dictionary of Word Origins gives an engaging insight into the origins of the everyday language we use. It provides additional language support and information through funny and absorbing word histories, feature entries on especially curious,"yucky", and "mind-boggling" words, and a full thematic section on words from the worlds of food, fashion, dinosaur names, invented and onomatopoeic words and much more. John Ayto, top word expert, entertains all ages from eight to eighty with this informative and humorous dictionary and languagereference tool. Free downloadable learning resources, word games, puzzles, and much more are available for additional online support at www.oxforddictionaries.com/schools.
Once upon a Word by ISBN: 9781646112593Publication Date: 2020-02-25Where do words come from?―Teaching kids ages 9 to 12 vocabulary through word origins The English language is made up of words from different places, events, and periods of time. Each of those words has an exciting story to tell us about where, when, how, and why they came about. Once Upon a Word is packed with easy-to-understand definitions and awesome word origin stories. With this dictionary for kids, you can understand the history and meaning of English words, improve your vocabulary and spelling, and learn to play with language. Explore how weird words like gnome, fun words like zombie, and common words like caterpillar came to exist. Discover why some words sound funnier than others (like cackle, sizzle, and twang) and why some groups of words start with the same few letters (like hydrate, hydrogen, and fire hydrant). In this dictionary for kids, there's a whole world of English words to uncover! This unique dictionary for kids includes: Roots & branches―Learn about the building blocks that make up words, called roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Kid-friendly definitions―Look up definitions designed for your reading level in this dictionary for kids. Word tidbits―Find out where your favorite food words got their start, from bacon to marshmallow, spaghetti, yogurt, and beyond. See how the English language evolved with this colorful dictionary for kids.
Books about Spelling
Books about Spelling
Super Spellers by ISBN: 9781625311023Publication Date: 2017-09-19Many teachers are frustrated with not only how spelling traditionally is taught, but also with finding time to support young spellers with explicit strategy instruction. So Mark Weakland has developed Super Spellers, an approach to teaching spelling in a way that is research-based, focused, developmentally appropriate, and tied to authentic reading and writing. Mark does not advocate for adopting a new "spelling program"; instead he shows you how to transform what you're already doing. He's made spelling instruction approachable and completely doable. Super Spellers first helps teachers understand what their students need through frequent formative assessments. The book then focuses on the scope of spelling instruction and goes deeper into teaching more words and directly teaching spelling strategies to increase students' word-solving skills. Once kids are comfortable and competent spellers they become super readers and writers, too. In addition to step-by-step guidance, each chapter features an "If you only have 10 minutes" segment with suggestions for things you can implement immediately and a list of PD questions. The appendix contains word inventories, a sample scope and sequence, examples of spelling list transformation, and word ladder activities.
Spelling It Out by ISBN: 9781107557659Publication Date: 2016-07-18Spelling can be a source of anxiety for school children and working professionals alike. Yet the spelling of words in English is not as random or chaotic as it is often perceived to be; rather, it is a system based on both meaning and a fascinating linguistic history. Misty Adoniou's public articles on the processes of teaching and learning spelling have garnered an overwhelming response from concerned parents and teachers looking for effective solutions to the problems they face in teaching English spelling to children. Spelling It Out aims to ease anxiety and crush the myth that good spelling comes naturally. Good spelling comes from good teaching. Based on Misty Adoniou's extensive research into spelling learning and instruction, this book encourages children and adults to nurture a curiosity about words, discover their history and, in so doing, understand the logic behind the way they are spelled.
Spelling for Life by ISBN: 9780367645694Publication Date: 2021-03-01"There is a myth that English spelling is unnecessarily complex, and it is spread by those who don't understand the writing system. Spelling for Life offers lucid, accessible tools which help to reveal that, when explicitly and systematically taught, spelling is scientific, law-abiding and even elegant. Using a synthesis of theory, research and teaching experience, the fascinating nature of English spelling is systematically teased out. The examples and exercises throughout offer an encouraging, accessible way to implement the program of study and strive to reveal the beauty of spelling. Spelling for Life enables teachers and students to: learn what the common spelling coping strategies are gain insights into undoing poor spelling habits work together to reveal patterns not only in regular spelling, but also in words which on the surface seem to break the spelling rules practise successful spelling strategies, progressing from simple to complex words rapidly and with confidence. This new and improved edition includes updated spelling techniques as well as new chapters on orthographic mapping, spelling assessment, teaching consonant clusters well and suffixing rules. Aided by example lessons, formative assessments, unique tools, a scope and sequence and extensive practice lists, this highly acclaimed overview of spelling succeeds in developing theory and practice in the writing system for teacher and student alike"--
