Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ™

 Pam Kastner discusses the connection between spelling and reading. She emphasizes that teaching spelling is teaching reading, as spelling is a higher linguistic skill that requires complete and accurate recall and memory for words. Spelling helps students understand the internal structure of words and improves their reading abilities. She suggests using instructional routines that integrate phonology, orthography, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics to teach spelling effectively. 

Takeaways

• Teaching spelling is teaching reading, as spelling is a higher linguistic skill that requires complete and accurate recall and memory for words.
• Spelling helps students understand the internal structure of words and improves their reading abilities.
• Effective spelling instruction should be explicit, systematic, and teach spelling patterns from least complex to most complex.
• Instructional routines should integrate phonology, orthography, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics to teach spelling effectively. Direct and systematic spelling instruction is essential for students' language development.
• Spelling inventories are valuable tools for assessing students' understanding of language and identifying areas for targeted instruction.
• Spelling can be used as a teaching tool, allowing students to learn from their errors and improve their spelling skills.
• Spelling instruction should be aligned with the research and evidence-based practices to ensure its effectiveness.

Resources

From 3/4/2022

In this episode, Jessica Farmer shares tips for teaching heart words. She explains the importance of blending and introduces the concept of continuous blending. Jessica defines heart words as high-frequency words with irregular or temporarily irregular spellings. She emphasizes the need to follow a scope and sequence and provides a routine for introducing new heart words. Jessica also discusses the process of orthographic mapping and suggests engaging activities for teaching heart words. She concludes by recommending additional resources for teaching heart words.

Takeaways

• Blending is the process of putting sounds together to form words, and continuous blending is a method that connects phonemes without breaking between the sounds.
• Segmenting is important for spelling, while continuous blending is effective for decoding words.
• Heart words are high-frequency words with irregular or temporarily irregular spellings, often involving vowel sounds.
• Teaching heart words should be done in a systematic and routine-based manner, following a scope and sequence.
• Engaging activities for teaching heart words include coloring by sounds and unscrambling the spelling.

Resources 

Julie VanLier and Dr. Svetlana Cvetkovic discuss their experiences and successes teaching phonics.  They both highlight the importance of a speech-to-print approach and the impact it has had on their students' reading and spelling abilities. The conversation also delves into the principles of speech to print and the scope and sequence of instruction.  They emphasize the importance of interleaving, where concepts are revisited over time. The integration of phonics into all aspects of reading and writing is key, as well as the use of authentic text. Overall, their approach focuses on engagement, flexibility, and integration to ensure student success in literacy.

Takeaways

• Teaching phonics using a speech-to-print approach can lead to significant improvements in students' reading and spelling abilities.
• The principles of speech to print include the understanding that one, two, three, or four letters can spell a sound.
• A sound can be spelled in many different ways, and the same spelling can represent different sounds.
• The scope and sequence of instruction in a speech-to-print approach involves teaching students the different sound-spelling patterns and helping them understand the logic and patterns of the English language.

Key Tenets of Speech to Print 

1. Sounds can be represented by 1, 2, 3, or 4 letters. 
2. Sounds can be spelled different ways.
3. Spellings can be pronounced in different ways.

Resources

From August 12, 2022

Talking with Dr. Julia Lindsey is like popping into the classroom next door to chat with your best teacher friend after school. On this podcast, Julia shares what evidence says that young readers need to know to help them decode words efficiently. We discuss foundational reading skills, starting with oral language and print concepts through multisyllabic word reading. Instructional swaps take this conversation to the classroom where Julia tells us what to swap to improve instruction. Efficient and effective instruction is critical when teaching decoding.