When we teach students how to read, we help them climb the literacy hill. We have to do this in the most effective way possible, so they climb the hill quickly enough to keep motivation on a high and there is momentum because learning to read is not the end goal. Using their skills to understand other areas of the curriculum and take in knowledge to connect dots throughout their time at school is the bigger goal, and if it takes a while to learn to read, their engagement, motivation, and self-esteem can suffer, which can lead to students not flourishing.
Making links so the learning sticks helps students see and feel success. In the beginning, teaching students how to link initial sounds to letters on the page creates a firm foundation, and this is where all beginning instruction should start.
Today, a student came across the word hear and could read it perfectly well and didn't stumble as she read the sentences in her book, but when it came to spelling the word a little later on in the session, she struggled to get past the first letter <h>. When we encounter words such as hear we must make links beyond sound-spellings to create solid spelling foundations. We sounded out the word hear into two distinct parts /h/ /ear/. You may segment this word into different sounds depending on your accent or dialect.
My student can segment words, read well, and discuss
words and stories, so we are working on developing
good spelling habits.
I asked my student to write what letters she knows in the word hear. So she segmented the word again, and my student put the letter <h> on the page because it was the only letter in the word she knew.
So when this happens, we need to help students make other links because the sounding out tool is working well in her toolbox, but she needs to use different tools to sharpen her spelling.
So what do you use to hear? She looked at me as any seven-year-old does when you ask a question like that and said, ears (Tilted head and look of I'm sure you know the answer, so why are you asking me this!)
So I added letters to her <h> and said the end of the word hear is the word ear.
(I get a look of amazement, and I see why you asked me that question face) We reread the word, pointing to each part <h> <ear>, and I asked her to write the word ear above the word hear. We then discussed the letters in both words, and instead of sounding out the word, my student said the letter names <h> <e> <a> <r> each time she formed the letters to write the word.
If students can sound out words but can't use that knowledge to spell, we have to make other links. When we link the word ear to hear and discuss, we further help spelling development as we differentiate between the homophones, hear and here. Students now have a story to go with the spelling hear — I use my ears to hear. I hear with my ears.
The reason we now use letter names is because the sound symbol link only sometimes works for spelling. If I ask an adult how to spell a word, they will tell me the letter names, and they do this because it is more effective for spelling words beyond initial sound words such as cat, tent, and lemon. Literate students and adults always spell words with letter names because they have moved past sound-spelling links for spelling. They don't use sound at all except if they can't read a word or spell it, and then they return to the sounds.
Any parent of a preschool dinosaur lover will tell you this. The book series Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs even has a phonetic spelling glossary on the end pages to save tired parents from sounding out those tricky names.
We then moved on to the past tense, and I said so I heard that you went to Kalbarri for the holidays? How was it? So we chatted about Kalbarri for a while and then moved on.
The word heard is linked to hear. What letters are in heard? Have a go.
So my student sounded out heard into three sounds /h/ /er/ /d/ because she has been well trained to use this as her primary strategy. We then drew three lines on the paper, and I said, heard is the past tense of hear, and we hear with our ears.
My student made the link and put <h> <e> <a> <r> <ed> on the page. We linked back to the word said that she was stuck on a while ago that is now firmly stuck as a spelling habit and discussed. The word said is past tense and doesn't use the regular <ed> ending to form the past tense. There is only <d> to mark the past tense. Heared isn't correct but heard is. As the word heard also contains the word ear, we can use the spelling of the word ear to differentiate it from the homophone herd. Link words to show spelling stays the same even though pronunciation changes — ear, hear, heard.
We added hear and heard to a couple of sentences to think about meaning.
I heard you went on holiday.
Did you hear that there is going to be a storm tonight?
I heard that you are going to the zoo with school.
I can hear your dog barking at your cat.
The words hear, and ear are linked because the ear is the organ we hear with. This link isn't finding a word within a word; it is just convenient that the organ (the bit we hear with) is within the verb hear. The words are not linked at all from an etymology point of view. The words ear and hear come from different roots. But sometimes, when appropriate, linking words in the same etymological family works well, too.
Check out this resource to support students as they make connections that will encourage decoding and spelling development.
Includes
Teaching notes
Word lists for reading and spelling
Printables for classroom, intervention and home use
Quiz for decoding practice
Missing word sentences to develop comprehension
Word matrices and cards for word building so students can build their own word family with your instruction.
Making links for students is about more than making sound-symbol links or looking at word histories. When we make connections, they have to be in a context that students understand so they can make big strides in connecting the literacy dots.
Go here to see my list of spelling resources I use frequently.
David Crystal's book Spell it Out is truly brilliant, and his remarks about teaching at the end of the book are commonsense and practical.
Other resources that will upskill your spelling instruction that I use and need to add to the above blog post.
This is a subscription site that has oodles of information about spelling. It is not a teaching sequence, nor does it have resources for the classroom, but using it as an online reference will help your knowledge of how the English language spelling system works.
This online etymology dictionary is a good place to start studying words, and it's free!
The Oxford English Dictionary has many resources if you want to know more about words. A subscription gives you the best access. Check out your library to see if they have a subscription that you can get for free with your library card.
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