Onset and rime
Stage 2 students spell familiar and unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter–sound correspondence, regular and irregular spelling patterns, spelling rules and a range of other strategies. Stage 3 students apply Stage 2 strategies as well as spelling most common words accurately, using a variety of strategies to spell less common words.
Activities
When writing, provide a scaffold to assist students to deconstruct words into syllables and highlight particular sound patterns.
An alternative to teaching spelling rules is using onset and rime. Breaking down syllables into onset (the part of the syllable before the vowel) and rimes (the part of the syllable including the vowel onwards) may be useful to help students process syllables. Letter-sound correspondence appear more consistent when students look at rimes than when they look at letters in isolation.
Tracking the types of errors students are making allows the teacher to:
- identify the sound patterns that are common errors in the class
- group students with similar needs
- develop words suited to the needs of the students.
Activity 1 – word sort
Provide students with a copy of the following table or have it displayed in your classroom: (Nearly 500 words can be derived from the following 37 rimes).
Programming and Strategies Handbook (DEC) p74.
- Students are given blank cards and using the chart can experiment with writing their own list of words.
- Students compile cards under headings such as words that rhyme/are homonyms/ have similar diphthongs.
- Word Sort Activities such as Snap, Go fish and Memory are useful games to play once students have created lists of words on cards.
Teacher resource
Spelling patterns chart can be found at www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1046/patterns_chart.pdf
Activity 2 – word hunt
This is useful as a group/whole class activity.
- Using either digital or paper based texts that students are currently reading together, students hunt for further words that will rhyme/ have a similar consonant blend/ vowel patterns/ onset as their own list of current words.
- Use print based thesaurus/or digital for rhymes, synonyms, definitions or online dictionary.
Activity 3 – scaffolding
Break words into syllables using a scaffold.
Highlight vowel digraphs and less common digraphs when studying words to identify sound patterns after students segment words.
Provide a scaffold where students deconstruct words into syllables and highlight particular sound patterns.
Tracking the types of errors students are making allows the teacher to:
- identify the sound patterns that are common errors in the class.
- select and teach words suited to the needs of the students.
An example of a proforma with some examples is shown on the PDF below.
References
Australian curriculum
ACELA1779: Text structure and organisation: Understand how to use strategies for spelling words, including spelling rules, knowledge of morphemic word families, spelling generalisations, and letter combinations including double letters.
NSW syllabus
EN2-5A: Outcome 5: uses a range of strategies, including knowledge of letter–sound correspondences and common letter patterns, to spell familiar and some unfamiliar words (EN2-5A) - Understand and apply knowledge of language forms and features: understand how to use strategies for spelling words, including spelling rules, knowledge of morphemic word families, spelling generalisations, and letter combinations including double letters.
