English may not be the hardest language to learn, but it is difficult to perfect. There are so many confusing aspects surrounding the composition of words that adults still struggle with concepts like to, too, and two and knowing when to use them correctly.
Imagine you’re a student. You hear words one way at home. You hear words a different way at school. If you’re an English Language Learner, you hear completely different languages depending upon where you’re listening. Now imagine coming into my class in the fourth grade and no one has ever explored words with you… Sad, huh?
By exploring, I mean understanding the etymology and paradigms that occur in our language. For instance, there is no ham in a hamburger, French fries are not France, and there is no egg in eggplant. I remember a joke from when I was a high-schooler that said, “Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways? If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?” Yes, we need to explore words in order to understand them. We need to understand how prefixes and suffixes change the meanings of words. We need a bank of prefixes that we recognize like a-means without when added to a word, gno-means know, il-means not, and i before e except after c doesn’t always work! Neither does ‘if two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking’. If we teach the rules, we should be teaching the exceptions as well.
This year we are decoding. We are throwing sight words out of the window. The order of comprehension as I learned in undergrad by the awesome Dr. Kay Gowan is ordered in this fashion:
Phonological Awareness à Phonemic Awareness à Phonics àFluency à Vocabularyà Comprehension
1. Do you know letter recognition? Do you know blends and digraphs when you see them?
2. Are you able to manipulate the sounds of letters so that your sounds match the letters?
3. Do you understand the rules for letter-sound relationships? Do you adjust to blend sounds?
4. Are you able to read with speed, accuracy, and automaticity when you see familiar words?
5. Do you recognize word parts, words in context, and constantly build vocabulary knowledge?
6. Are you able to show understanding of what you’ve read through synthesis, analysis, and evaluation?
Knowing sight words are good. Knowing word skills by heart is even better. Let’s break ‘de-code’!
Imagine you’re a student. You hear words one way at home. You hear words a different way at school. If you’re an English Language Learner, you hear completely different languages depending upon where you’re listening. Now imagine coming into my class in the fourth grade and no one has ever explored words with you… Sad, huh?
By exploring, I mean understanding the etymology and paradigms that occur in our language. For instance, there is no ham in a hamburger, French fries are not France, and there is no egg in eggplant. I remember a joke from when I was a high-schooler that said, “Why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways? If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?” Yes, we need to explore words in order to understand them. We need to understand how prefixes and suffixes change the meanings of words. We need a bank of prefixes that we recognize like a-means without when added to a word, gno-means know, il-means not, and i before e except after c doesn’t always work! Neither does ‘if two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking’. If we teach the rules, we should be teaching the exceptions as well.
This year we are decoding. We are throwing sight words out of the window. The order of comprehension as I learned in undergrad by the awesome Dr. Kay Gowan is ordered in this fashion:
Phonological Awareness à Phonemic Awareness à Phonics àFluency à Vocabularyà Comprehension
1. Do you know letter recognition? Do you know blends and digraphs when you see them?
2. Are you able to manipulate the sounds of letters so that your sounds match the letters?
3. Do you understand the rules for letter-sound relationships? Do you adjust to blend sounds?
4. Are you able to read with speed, accuracy, and automaticity when you see familiar words?
5. Do you recognize word parts, words in context, and constantly build vocabulary knowledge?
6. Are you able to show understanding of what you’ve read through synthesis, analysis, and evaluation?
Knowing sight words are good. Knowing word skills by heart is even better. Let’s break ‘de-code’!