beginning reading and writing Spanish strand TEKS talk image

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.

Have students work in small groups to create a word bank with words that contain both diphthongs and hiatuses. Observe and take notes as students take turns reading the words aloud.

Further Explanation

Students should know that a diphthong is a sound formed by combining a strong vowel (a, e, o) and a weak vowel (i, u) in a single syllable. Students should also know that a hiatus refers to two adjacent vowels within a word that do not belong to the same syllable.

Students should understand that decoding is the process of translating written speech into verbal speech sounds by applying knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. In reading, this concept refers to word identification rather than word comprehension.
When students demonstrate phonetic knowledge, they are not creating written content that incorporates an understanding of phonetic principles, but rather reviewing content and determining how the principles have been applied. Students will do this when decoding (reading) words they encounter in various formats, from activities in the classroom to stories they read for pleasure.
Students should be able to correctly decode words that have diphthongs and hiatuses. A diphthong is a sound formed by combining a strong vowel (a, e, o) and a weak vowel (i, u) in a single syllable. For example, a-nun-cios, can-san-cio, fi-sio-te-ra-pia. Diphthongs are always part of the same syllable. Students should be able to spell words that have hiatuses. A hiatus refers to two adjacent vowels within a word that do not belong to the same syllable. Hiatuses may be formal or accented. A formal hiatus is composed of two strong vowels (a, e, o). For example, la-de-a-do, me-te-o-ris-mo, co-rro-e. An accented hiatus is composed of a weak vowel (i, u) and a strong vowel (a, e, o); however, the weak vowel must have a written accent: san-dí-a, de-se-a-rí-a, re-ú-no.