Chapter 4-Cracking the Alphabet Code & Chapter 5-Learning to Spell

Chapter 4 was based around the teaching of phonics. To start the chapter Tompkins said, "English is an alphabetic language, and children crack this code as they learn about phonemes (sounds), graphemes (letters), and graphophonemic (letter-sound) relationships." The "alphabet code" consists of three separate but closely related entities: phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. Usually all three abilities are not fully learned until third grade or higher. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that our language is comprised of a sequence of separate sounds placed together. Within phonemic awareness, there are a variety of ways that students learn. As provided by the book, students become phonemically aware by: identifying spelling, categorizing sounds in words, substituting sounds, blending sounds, and segmenting sounds. In order to teach phonemic awareness the teacher should of course always make sure the activities are planned, engaging and age appropriate for the grade being taught. Phonics is the set of relationships between phonology (the sounds in speech) and orthography (the spelling system) (Thompkins, p.107). When it comes to phonics, the origin of the language has an effect on the pronunciation of such words. Phonics is split into two categories: phonemes and graphemes. Phonemes are then split and classified as either a consonant or a vowel (this knowledge begins to grow in kindergarten and usually is complete by third grade). When it comes to teaching phonics, this chapter provided three most successful ways: sounding out words, decoding by analogy (using known words to discover new, unknown words), and applying phonics rules. Children will begin to apply phonics into many literacy activities such as read a-louds, and group times. Students will begin to put sounds together and will be led to spelling out sounds and eventually will be spelling/writing whole words through

the use of application activities in the classroom. As children grow more phonemic awareness, they begin to put what they know together to spell words. Through the growth of a five-step process, children over time learn to successfully spell. Step 1: Emergent Spelling At this stage, children are simply making marks, scribbles, and lines that they associate with no specific phoneme. At first there is a lack of directionality but by the end of this stage the children understand to write left to right. Children in this stage learn the use of upper/lower-case letters. Step 2: Letter Name-Alphabetic Spelling At this stage, children grow an understanding of how to represent phonemes through words with letters. They grow the knowledge of the link between letters and sounds. Throughout this stage children begin to learn consonant and vowel sounds. Step 3: Within-Word Pattern Spelling This stage occurs when children can successfully spell most one-syllable, short vowel words. During this stage the children will gain knowledge and ability to spell long vowel patterns and r-controlled vowels. Step 4: Syllables and Affixes Spelling Children begin to apply their knowledge of spelling one-syllable words to spell longer words and compound words. At this stage children are introduced to some prefixes and suffixes. Step 5: Derivational Relations Spelling

Children discover the interchangeable relationship between spelling and the meaning of the word. Children at this stage focus on consonant alternations along with vowel alternations.

When it comes to teaching spelling, many teachers believe weekly spelling tests will teach their students all they need to know but it goes beyond that. Teachers should implement various reading and writing activities to promote spelling. If the student can read well, they most likely will be successful when it comes to spelling. Within the setting of your classroom, the teacher should have posters implementing the alphabet and things such as a word wall will high frequency words and words that your students have learned and may learn throughout the year. In my current practicum placement many activities take place throughout the day that are emphasizing and teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. Through songs the students practice their alphabet and also have a specific song that is for pronouncing the sounds of each individual letter. The students are constantly asked to write their names, sounding out the letters with the guidance of the teacher and assistants. Another huge part of literacy in relation to phonics I see taking place in my practicum placement is the ability to rhyme. Throughout read alouds and small/large group activities there is a large emphasize on the students placing like sounds together to depict if they rhyme or not. In my classroom there are two word walls: one that is focused on high frequency words the preschoolers are working on and another that has words the students focused on that were in books that have been read a-loud to them. Being in a preschool class, it is very apparent my students are in Step 1 of learning to spell. The students practice daily printing their names, which tend to be scribbles for some students and for others are the correct letters.