Winning the Spelling Bee with Spelling Stories

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Winning the Spelling Bee with Spelling Stories

• Presenter
• Elke Schneider (Ph.D.)
• School of Education
• Winthrop University, SC
• E-mail schneidere_at_winthrop.edu

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Why stories?

• Language of print sound is a complex and
  abstract system.
• For 90 of the population those linguistic
  details are being processed predominantly in the
  left hemisphere of the brain. (Baddley, et al.,
  1991)

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Why stories?

• Memorizing spelling words with abstract factual
  rules, taps into left side of the brain only.
• Students who struggle with spelling often have a
  processing weakness in left side of the brain and
  depend on strategies that involve their stronger
  side, the right side of the brain. (Pressley,
  2002)

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Why stories?

• Good teaching strives to activate both sides of
  the brain
• the left, language-based (details, facts)
• the right side (holistic pictures, gross motor
  learning, creative artistic skills)

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Why stories?

• Stories tap into the right side of the brain and
  help memorize, remember and retrieve linguistic,
  traditionally more left-brain oriented facts for
  all learners, especially those who struggle.
  (Baddley, et al., 1991)
• By 3rd grade every students spelling vocabulary
  is too large and complex to remember all spelling
  words by sight (except maybe for a test from week
  to week!).

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Why stories?

• Stories are a multi-cultural heritage.
• Using stories that produce mental pictures has
  been a successful mnemonic device since the
  Antique Period (Sperber, 1989)
• Today, educational research documents positive
  long lasting effect of mnemonic devices such as
  the use of stories (e.g., Mastropieri Scruggs).

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How do you design spelling stories that work?

• Stories must be short precise.
• Stories must relate to the students experiences.
• Personalize critical letters and letter patterns
  into characters that act out certain roles that
  remind the students of characters/experiences in
  real life.
• Crazy glue stories that glue words that
  otherwise never come together into a story to let
  them do crazy, unrealistic activities.

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STORIES

• I. Members of the Alphabet Family
• Single vulnerable, vivacious vowels
• Cool cop consonants
• Silent E, the nurse
• W Y, the anti-cops
• Moody C G
• Unstable final V

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Silent E, the nurse

• helps a final V stand up at the end of a word
  have, give, leave, move
• magic E- POWER to SINGLE VULNERABLE VOWELS when
  they are caught by a COOL COP came, home, fume,
  lime, fine, tone, rake, lake, bike, race, rose,
• softening pillow, or provides one to make a
  voiceless sharp s be able to take a rest
  between 2 vowels and take a nap saying the
  z-sound rose,
• nose, phase, cheese,

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Silent E The Nurse

• helps letter C say the s-sound C pace, race,
  space, nice, rice, peace, piece,
• Helps the letter G the soft g-sound G cage,
  rage, stage, age,
• She helps the letter C and G say these sound when
  they are embedded in longer words
• C noticeable, without the E the word would not
  sound related to notice
• embrace ed/ed embraced/ing letter E or I can
  make C say S- sound.

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Silent E The nurse

• She is very polite when it comes to leaving her
  place quietly in a word. She only does it,
  however when she knows that another letter that
  stays takes over her nursing job engage ing
  engaging, because letter I can make G soft.
• engage ment engagement, she stays because no
  other letter can
• take over the job of keeping G soft
• NEWER exception judgment

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Silent E The nurse

• She makes sure that everyone knows that in very
  important basic words the letter S belongs to the
  root of the word and does NOT signal a plural
• nurs e nurse (not 1 nur , 2 nurs!) hors e
  horse, purs e purse, wors e worse mous
  e mouse, lous e louse goos e goose
  chees e cheese, pleas e please

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Egotistical Letter I

• nosy I- dotted letter peaks over other letters.
• capitalized when by itself (I am)
• BUT shrinks to short sound when shut in by
  suffix, even though it should be long
• col.li.sion, div.i.sion, vi.sion

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Y W not COPS

• very friendly consonants
• refused to become cops.
• only consonants in the alphabet family that can
  pair up with a single vowel into a fraternal twin
  pair, become a team and make a
• vowel-ish sound.

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W Y fraternal twins

• As a twin team, they are strong. The single
  vowels are not vulnerable anymore and will not
  change their sound, even if a consonant COP comes
  and places itself after a vowel team. These teams
  always appear at the end of a word/syllable.
• W Y
• -ew few, crew, knew, new -ey key, obey,
• -ow cow, throw, bow, glow -oy toy, boy,
  convoy
• -aw jaw, draw, law, saw -ay day, relay,
• delay, May, stay
• -uy buy (red word)

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SHY Y and his only friend I

• Y I
• Y runs away when another letter but I wants
  to attach itself to him
• cry ing crying
• Cry ed Y runs I comes cried

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SHY Y and his only friend I

• Y in a team does not have to be shy
• -ey , -ay, -oy
• destroy ed destroyed
• Delay ed delayed
• Pray er prayer
• Obey ed obeyed

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Moody soft C G

• When C is followed by E, I or Y, it goes soft and
  makes the s-sound.
• ? E, I, Y
• When G is followed by E, I , or Y, it makes the
  soft G-sound.

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S taking a nap

• When voiceless s is framed by voiced vowels,
  they serve as pillows and s takes a nap and
  snoozes off.
• Plea s e zzzzzz
• Ro s e zzzzz
• S zzzzzz

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Insulted single vowels

• Single vowels in words with more than 1 syllable
  get insulted when they cannot carry the accent.
• They cannot say the true long or short sound and
  fall out of the speakers mouth (morning
  sickness sound) SCHWA SOUND

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The nurse gets a cold

• AGE-words message, cabbage, village, luggage,
  baggage, cottage
• -IVE words negative, positive, native
• She can make G or C soft but cannot jump and give
  the magic E power.
• She feels too weak to do that.

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Red word-Jail Words-Rotten fish words

• Words that cannot be sounded out or spelled
  according to any rule.
• Hire secret service through multiple
  kinesthetic tracing saying of letter names of
  letters other mnemonic devices

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1-2-3- Doubling Rule

• When short words are made longer by adding
  suffixes, check if you need to double a
  consonant
• 1. Find single (unmarried) vowel in base word
• 2. It must be blocked by a cop.
• 3. Your suffix must begin with a vowel (-ing,
  -er, -est)

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1-2-3- Doubling Rule

• Then, put a 1 under the vowel in the base word,
  a 2 under the following letter, and 3 in the
  base word must be a consonant.
• If there is none, DOUBLE 2 letter.
• If any of the first 3 conditions does not apply,
  JUST ADD.

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1-2-3 Doubling Rule

• Examples
• Clip ing clipping (double 3 empty)
• Quick er quicker (just add, 3 has Cons.)
• Thin ly thinly (just add, suffix begins
  with C)
• Thin er thinner (double 3 empty)
• Sleep er sleeper (just add, no single V)

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FLOSS RULE

• Spelling Rule If you hear F, L, or S at the end
  of a short word with a short vowel ? double F, L,
  S like in FLOSS your teeth.

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FLOSS RULE

• Examples
• -ff cuff, cliff, stiff, stuff, off
• -ll fill, sill, cell, scull, dull, fell,
• NEVER all -gthas different sound wall, all
• -ss grass, moss, miss, fuss, re.gress
• BUT not thin, gram, log, fat,
• RED WORDS this, is, chef, pal, of

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Barf-able syllables

• The C-le syllable sounds like a barf-sound with
  silent E
• -ble, -dle, -gle, -zle, -ple, c.kle, -fle,
• -tle (!)
• Can have short, long, vowelteam, r-control
  sound-letter patterns
• in front
• rifle, needle, puddle, drizzle,
• marble, bugle, kettle, cattle

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Chameleon Prefixes

• Prefixes adapt their last letter to the first
  letter of the root in the word.
• SODIAC Acronym
• Spelling Rule If you hear a short vowel in
  prefix 1 consonant after it ? double the
  consonant
• Spelling Rule If you hear 2 consonants after the
  short vowel, write both

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Chameleon Prefixes

• Sub-, suc-, suf-, sur- under
• Ob-, oc-, against
• Dis, di-, de- not, apart
• In-, im-, il-, ic- into or not
• Ad-, am-, an-,ac, al-, a- add
• Com, con-, col-,cor-, co- together