The Structure of English Orthography Important Terms Orthography

The Structure of English Orthography

Important Terms § Orthography: writing system. Orthographic knowledge refers to the knowledge of how words are spelled. § Graphemes: letters or groups of letters that represent individual sounds. § Phonemes: Individual sounds in oral language.

Sound and Pattern Layers

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences § Consonant Graphemes § Digraphs: 2 letters that represent 1 sound (ch, ph, sh, -gh, th, ng, wh, -ck, -ge) § Trigraphs: 3 letters that represent 1 sound (-tch, -dge) § Doublets: doubled consonants in one-syllable words (ff, ll, ss, zz) § Blends: 2 or 3 graphemes clustered before or after a vowel within a syllable (bl, st, pr, str) § Silent Letter Combinations: -bt, gn-, kn-, -mb, -mn, ps-, rh-, wr-

Practice § Identify the consonant blends and consonant digraphs… § Shirt § Steak § Whole § Strength § Zilch § Track § Psycho

Oddballs! § The letter Uu has 3 roles: 1) consonant when it corresponds to the /w/ sound (quack; language). 2) single vowel (cut) or vowel team (suit; taught; blue). 3) marker to keep the g from softening (guest; plague). § The letter Ww can serve as 1) consonant (wait; aware). 2) vowel team (saw; cow). § The letter Yy has 3 roles: 1) consonant (yellow). 2) single vowel (by; baby; gypsy). 3) vowel team (toy; buy; may). § The letters Cc and Gg: hard (when followed by a, o, u) soft (when followed by e, i, y). There are some rule breakers (give; get).

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences § Vowel Graphemes § Single Vowels: short (bat, leg, hid, top, mud, gym); long (secret, baby, table, digraph, cry, robot) Note: the long single vowel are open syllables § Vowel-Consonant-e (Vce): tape, cute, here, fine, rope § Vowel Teams: long (ee, ea, ei, ie, ey; ai, ay, eigh, ey; ie, igh; oa, ow, oe, ough; ue, ui, ew, ough); short (ea); oo (book); diphthongs (ou, ow; oi, oy); au, aw, augh (raw) § R-Controlled: -er, -ar, -or, -ur, -ir

Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping § Once we understand letter-sound correspondences, we can match letters and letter groups to the sounds they represent. § Methods for teaching phoneme-grapheme correspondences include: § Word sorts § Word building § Grapheme manipulation § This is where developmental stages and differentiated instruction come into play!

Let’s Explore A Few Rules… § The spellings of phonemes are affected by its position in a word, letter sequences in the word, and stress patterns in syllables. § Examples /k/: § § § Count Cab Cull Comb Cusp kick keg keep kind kiss stack mock fleck buck wick quest queen quit quaint quote What do you notice about the spellings?

Short Vowels and Consonants § “Syllables with short vowels crave the protection of consonants. ” Look at the examples below and see if you can figure out what this means… § § stiff, cliff, staff, buff, scoff spell, fill, shall, dull mess, kiss, toss, fuss jazz, fizz, fuzz § blotch, fetch, scratch, crutch § squelch, mulch, zilch § pooch, screech, ouch § dodge, wedge, lodge, budge § wage, huge, scrooge, gouge § college, bandage, village, steerage

Common Vowel Spellings § See the chart below for common vowel spellings based on position in a syllable or word… Vowel Middle of Syllable End of Word Examples Long e ee, ea y creep, eat, baby Long a a_e, ai ay race, rain, ray Long i i_e, igh y ice, sight, spy Long o o_e, oa ow vote, boat, bow Long u u_e ew, ue rude, dew, blue Diphthong oi oy spoil, soy Diphthong ou (ow before n, l) ow cloud, clown, cow aw/au aw before n, l aw fraud, dawn, saw

Spelling and Pattern Recognition § “Orthographic patterns are internalized through exposure to multiple examples, opportunities to sort and compare words, and explicit instruction in the most dependable patterns. ”

Syllables § There are 6 types of written syllables… Syllable Type Examples Definition Closed beverage jungle A syllable with a short vowel, spelled with one letter, ending in 1 or more consonants VCe compete bravely A syllable with a long vowel, spelled with one vowel, once consonant and silent e Open table crazy A syllable with a long vowel sound, spelled with a single vowel letter Vowel Team mouthful speedily Syllables with long, short, or diphthong vowel sounds that use a letter combination for spelling Vowel-r hornet star ter A syllable with a single vowel letter followed by r. Consonant-le bible single An unaccented final syllable containing a single consonant, l, and silent e.

Syllables: When to Double Consonants § Closed syllables must end in at least one consonant. The vowel that comes before the doubled consonants must by short. § Examples: sup/per su/per hum/mer hu/mor wa/ger wag/ger

Suffixes § See pages 107 -109 for rules and exercises for adding suffixes