Spelling by Syllables or by Morphemes?
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
2M ago
I have been following groups on Facebook as well as people on Twitter (X) for the last few years.  Specifically, I’ve been interested in spelling.  How do teachers teach spelling to students?  I’ve noticed several methods. -Have students announce syllables and then spell them -Have students announce morphemes and then spell them -Have students announce the graphemes in each base and then the affixes as more of a unit -Have them spell the word letter by letter -Have them recognize some morphemes in some words, but then spell the word by announcing its syllables. I’m wondering.&nb ..read more
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A Morphemic Spelling Activity
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
6M ago
  A couple of months ago I was invited to submit an article for Dystinct Magazine.  When I looked at the types of articles others had submitted, I knew that sharing an effective activity for teaching children to recognize morphemes in words would complement them nicely.  For those who haven’t heard of Dystinct Magazine before,  it is a digital magazine available on tablets and mobile devices with purchase of a subscription. “Dystinct was launched in 2021 as a resource for the families and educators of children and young people with learning difficulties….Dystinct aims to p ..read more
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Michel Rameau … profoundly sad yet profoundly grateful
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
9M ago
The above message has been posted at the Real Spelling Tool Box 2 site. The news of Michel Rameau’s death is being received with a great sadness by those who learned from him and knew him to be an extraordinary human being.  I can’t even fathom how many people have been transformed because of his work – because of him.   I was first introduced to Michel by Dan Allen, whose blog caught my attention.  I was especially intrigued by the matrices Dan had posted and the classroom discussions he described.  When I contacted Dan to find out where to learn more, he put me in c ..read more
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Tricky Words – Here We Go Again!
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
10M ago
Every time one group or another posts a list of tricky words, my interest is piqued.  What’s tricky about these words, I wonder?  But really?  I needn’t wonder.  Here’s a list of 21 (Tricky Words ) that I came across just the other day.  If you look at the words on this list, you’ll notice what I’ve noticed – these words are often misspelled because their spelling doesn’t match their pronunciation. And as usual, the word is getting the blame for that.  How many thousands of words have to end up on the ‘Tricky Words’ list before we start considering that there is m ..read more
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Start with the ‘ed’ suffix and see where it leads!
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
1y ago
Last week, my student brought a book with him.  He wanted to read a chapter aloud to me.  As he was reading, I noticed that he was hesitating at words like ‘started’ and ‘handed.’  When I had him cover up the <ed> suffix in those words, he quickly recognized the word and continued reading.  After the fourth or so time this happened, I said, “There sure are a lot of words with the <ed> suffix in this chapter!  Keep your eye out for them when you come to a word that doesn’t look familiar.” At the end of the chapter we went back to the beginning to skim throug ..read more
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When People Say, “Just Start,” What Does That Look Like?
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
1y ago
New opportunities have opened up for me! I am meeting with almost all of the 5th grade students at my elementary school (half the group on Tuesday, the remaining half on Thursday) for about 25 minutes each week. I am coming into their classroom and one of three grade level teachers is observing the lesson. I am also working with an 8 year old for 6 hours a week in my home! This week I talked about the spelling of ‘two’ with both groups.  Since I was meeting the 8 year old for the first time, I had him use manipulatives.  In this way, I could both check his math understanding an ..read more
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Even in my Dreams …
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
2y ago
Without getting deeply into the how and why of dreams, I’d like to share a classroom discussion that took place recently while I was asleep and in fact, dreaming.  Over the years, there have been many instances in which I have fallen asleep rehearsing how I wanted to introduce a word family or some specific characteristic of a word family to my students.  If I woke up in the night, I woke up to my brain having that discussion “live” with the students participating.  In the morning, I would realize that our brave discoveries–the ones I couldn’t wait to talk about now that I was a ..read more
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When is an ‘o’ a “Scribal O?”
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
2y ago
Not long ago in a Science of Reading Facebook group, someone posted a short video created by Reading Horizons in 2016 in which the idea of a ‘scribal o’ was featured.  The video explained that when scribes encountered words in which a <u> was adjacent to <m>’s, <n>’s, <w>’s, <u>’s, <r>’s, or <v>’s, they changed that <u> to an <o> to make the word easier to read.  You see, the script that scribes used had a lot of broad downstrokes, so sometimes it was difficult to distinguish one letter from the next when similarly formed letters ..read more
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When is an ‘o’ a “Scribal O?”
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
2y ago
Not long ago in a Science of Reading Facebook group, someone posted a short video created by Reading Horizons in 2016 in which the idea of a ‘scribal o’ was featured. The video explained that when scribes encountered words in which a <u> was adjacent to <m>’s, <n>’s, <w>’s, <u>’s, <r>’s, or <v>’s, they changed that <u> to an <o> to make the word easier to read.  You see, the script the scribes used had a lot of broad downstrokes, so sometimes it was difficult to distinguish one letter from the next when similarly formed letters were n ..read more
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Instead of peeking through the curtain, open the window and really take in the view.
Mrs. Steven's Classroom Blog
by mrssteven
2y ago
Someone asked a really great question in a Facebook group the other day.  They specifically wondered why the word ‘chocolate’ didn’t follow the “a_e” rule.  In other words, the pronunciation of the last three letters isn’t what is expected.  (Just in case you are unfamiliar with this rule,  many phonics programs refer to this as the “split vowel magic e rule” or the “split digraph magic e rule”.  The underscore represents a consonant. When students see this pattern and the ‘e’ is silent, the ‘a’ will have its long pronunciation.) The first two people responded with say ..read more
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