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Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.

Administer a Spelling Test

Spelling assessments should range from five to ten words a week with possible bonus words if necessary. Use words that follow the spelling pattern being focused on, but do not limit the list to a set of words studied during the week. For example, if students worked with the words blow, crush, stripe during the week, then they could be assessed on the words blush, crow, string. The use of consonant blends, digraphs, and trigraphs are the same, but the words are different. This ensures understanding of the spelling pattern is occurring.

Examples:

  • Consonant digraphs: sh, ch, th, ph, wh
  • Consonant trigraphs: -tch
A digraph is a two-letter combination (e.g., th, sh, ch, ph, wh, qu) that stands for a single phoneme in which neither letter represents its usual sound.
a sequence of two or three consonant sounds that are clustered together at the end of a word where all consonants are heard (e.g., st- in fast)
the joining of two or more consonant sounds, represented by letters, that begin a word without losing the identity of the consonant sounds (e.g., /cl/ in clip)
to write/form words from letters

A trigraph is a three-letter combination that represents one phoneme. Trigraphs may consist solely of consonants or vowels, or they may be a combination of both. The most common consonant trigraph is –tch, as in the word catch. Other examples of trigraphs include -dge and –igh, as in the words dodge and high.

Research

1. What Works Clearinghouse. (n.d.). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade: practice guide summary. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Science. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/21

Summary: This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills.

2. Bear, D. R. & Templeton, S. (1998). Explorations in developmental spelling: Foundations for learning and teaching phonics, spelling, and vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 52(3), 222–242. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20202044

Summary: Bear and Templeton addresses two broad questions in this article: What is our understanding of spelling development and how does this understanding fit within a broader model of litearcy development? What are the implications of the developmental model for spelling instruction and word study?