Words Their Way

The emergent, Pre-Phonic, reader begins writing with large scribbles, usually circular. At times they use a horizontal script that can tell about a picture or an activity that they enjoy. The end of the emergent stage is when students begin to associate letters and sounds to words.

Letter Name-Alphabetic begins when children understand that letters represent sounds in a systematic way. Children begin with the first letter of a word. Like the “f” in fish, or the “d” in dog. Vowels are usually omitted during the beginning of this stage. Children in the Letter Name-Alphabetic stage are semi-phonetic, meaning that only some of the phonemes are represented in the words. When students show knowledge of preconsonantal nasals it means that they are ready to move on to the next stage, the Within Word pattern.

Students in the Within Word pattern stage can read and spell many words correctly using letter sounds, and short vowel patterns. They understand consonant blends, digraphs, and preconsonantal nasals. Learners in this reading stage can think more abstractly, they begin to increase their knowledge of patterns within words, and the study words by sound and pattern. Some students understand ambiguous vowels, and that some sounds are neither long nor short. Learners are also able to use and spell some homophones.

The ‘Syllables and Affixes’ stage usually occurs between the end of elementary school too the middle grade. Within this stage pupils will begin to understand inflected endings, double consonants, open first syllables, and closed first syllables. Students also come to understand the importance of base-words and affixes, or the beginning and endings of words. Unaccentuated first syllables give students trouble during this stage.

During the Derivational Relations spelling period, students examine how words share common derivational relations, which means that the meaning and spelling of parts of words remains constant across words that are broken down into their parts. These meaning connections provide a powerful means to expand vocabulary.