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Metaphonics: Making Sense of Decoding and Spelling UCR 2000 Trainin G, Presented at the California Educational Research Association Ontario CA, November, 2000. Qualitative View The alphabetic principle Phonological awareness and phonics focusing on basic skills
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Metaphonics: Making Sense of Decoding and SpellingUCR2000Trainin G, Presented at the California Educational Research Association Ontario CA, November, 2000
Qualitative View The alphabetic principle Phonological awareness and phonics focusing on basic skills (Foorman, 1998; Scanlon & Vellutino, 1996; Stanovich, 1993) Quantitative view Language experience Whole language: teaching through multiple experiences with literature (Goodman, 1994; Clay, 1992) The reading wars
A new approach: Word Work • The program combines strengths of the Whole Language and Basic Skills approaches, and offers advantages over both. • It is not a blend of previous methods, but is a new approach based on the metaphonics principle: Learning to decode and spell by understanding letter-sound relations rather than by rote practice. • The curriculum emphasizes conceptual understanding; • Instruction is active, social, and reflective, combining direct instruction with small-group problem solving; • Practice and assessment depend on actual reading and writing performance. • (Calfee, 1998)
Program features • Lesson fit a thin "slice of time," if possible early in the morning when everyone is fresh, four days a week, totally dedicated to the study of words. generally 20-40 min. • Some direct instruction of small groups. Instruction focuses on student activities and full engagement through doing, reflecting and explaining. • The program helps in building a vocabulary and verbal exchange that support metacognition as it connects to language learning • Review at the beginning of each week. A basic principle in Word Work is to build connections across interruptions, to cumulate curricular elements.
Reading/Writing Community Word Work Curriculum Map Making Sounds Making Words Short Vowels Making Words Long Vowels Compound Words Projects
Metaphonics curriculum elements • Making Words/Short Vowels: introduces students to the construction of consonant-vowel-consonant sequences words. Short vowels are glue letters. • Making Words/Long Vowels: covers the Anglo-Saxon vowel marking system for the two major pronunciations of the five vowels. Introduces the major suffixes: -ed, -s, -ing, -er, -est. • Compound Words: teaches the concept that long words are combinations of short words. It is simple, but lays the foundations for the more complex root-affix patterns. mak make making unmake remake
Core Model Lesson Plan: Building Words: Long Vowel A Review JvOrganization: 8-12 studentsDirect instruction ¬ Time: 10-12 min 4Materials: Butcher paper Letter cards A E & consonants ?Review: [Review: start with CVC word. Add -e and review buddy rule.] The glue letter also reaches around when we add -ed and -ing. Why? [Discuss.] Today we learned two more endings, -er and -est. Can somebody show us how to add those onto the end of the word? And when we want the vowel to remain short, we must double the consonant. That way the glue letter doesn’t reach its buddy. It still says its short sound. BCheck: What would these words say? [Have students read words aloud. Mix short and long vowel sounds, and different endings. Concentrate here on reading and recognizing the patterns rather than producing them with letter tiles.] [ Connect: We have been working on the long A sound. The people who lived a long time ago and invented English spelling decided to use what letter to show this sound? [Make short /a/ sound and write letter on board as part of word “tap”. See back.]. This word says “tap.” How did those people decide to show the word “tape?” [Discuss and write on board.] What about “taping?” And how do we change “tape” to “taped?” Can someone explain how the A knows to say its name? [Looking for a buddy...] We’ve talked about “tap,” “tape,” “taped,” and “taping.” But how do we write words like “tapped” and “tapping?” That’s what we’re going to talk about today. zOrganize: First, let’s feel what sounds are in the word “tapping.” [Repeat word articulating clearly.] What do you feel at the beginning of the word? At the end of “tap?” [Tongue tapping, lips popping. Use neck cards.] What is the vowel in /tap/? Is that the short or long sound? What ending do we need to add? [Use -ing neck card. Demonstrate that this vowel must say its name b/c of buddy rule. Solicit ideas for how to spell “tapping.”] I'll give you a hint. How many letters can the glue letter reach around? And if there are two letters, will the glue letter say its name or sound? If we were to add another letter, what letter would we choose? [The same one that's already there so we don't add any new sounds.] Let's try it now. [Add extra P. Ask glue letter to explain why it says short sound.]
e p p p t t t s e ing ing p t t e e e e Word Building: Endings s ing er ed
Talking about Articulation Teacher asks: “What did your mouth do to make the first sound when you read the word ‘pat’? Let’s say that first sound. What was it? Yes, /p/. What are you feeling in your mouth when you say that sound?” Students respond: “It’s a popping sound!” “The air pops out. My lips are closed and the air pops them open a little.” “My tongue is resting on the bottom. I am making this sound in the front of my mouth, and I don’t turn on my voicebox.”
Talking about Metaphonics Teacher asks: “I noticed that you spelled ‘dime’ d-i-m-e. How did you know to build fit that way? Students responds: “I stretched it out so I could hear the sounds better. The first sound /d/ is a popping sound I make in the middle of my mouth. My voice box is vibrating, and my tongue is touching the roof of my mouth, so it has to start with a ‘d.’ The ‘i’ is saying its name, so buddy ‘e’ is at the end to remind it to do that. The last sound I hear is /m/. That’s a nosey sound and my lips are together, so it’s an ‘m.’ Dime!”
Design Experiment Combine the rigor of systematic experimentation with the realities of the classroom to inform practice and contribute to theory. Key Components: • Realistic Environment • The regular classroom • Systematic Variations • Carefully designed curricular contrasts • Systematic Observations • Frequent classroom visits, rapport with teachers • Assessment • Connected to variation- provide feedback to the teacher • Longitudinal- every two weeks (total of 4 months) • Flexibility- changing curriculum to fit the situation