Jj is for Jottings 135. Morphemes.
There was a brief definition of morphemes in the article on learning vocabulary. Direct vocabulary instruction referred to using morphological knowledge to work out meanings of more complex words. So it’s probably time to go more thoroughly into morphemes and how important they really are. Knowledge of morphemes is important in phonics for both reading and spelling; and also in vocabulary and comprehension. That’s a broad sweep across both language and literacy. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 134. Word Confusions: Bought/Brought; In a Moment/Momentarily.
In this article I want to concentrate on word confusions: Bought/Brought; and In a Moment/Momentarily. I said in my first article on word confusions that I would write about other word confusions from time to time. (And I freely admitted that ton/tonne was a somewhat unusual choice for a first article. But I received a very complimentary comment on my blog from a transport company who appreciated the article. They said how vital it was in their line of business and that the distinction was underappreciated. I was similarly complimentary to an oblivious news reporter on television the other night when she pronounced “tonne” correctly. It makes a pleasant change from berating them about their errors.) Anyway – to the topics in hand… Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 133. Vocabulary: Homonyms, Heteronyms and Homophones.
Following on from learning vocabulary and direct vocabulary instruction, it is useful to consider another aspect of vocabulary: homonyms, heteronyms and homophones. These categories are often either unknown or confusing for many people, so this is a good time to sort them out. We can also see how useful they are as part of the approach to teaching vocabulary.
Much of the confusion about these word categories can be ironed out by discovering the root words of each category. Then it is easy to remember what they mean. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 132. Direct Vocabulary Instruction.
When a child has poor vocabulary knowledge for their age, it indicates that they struggle to learn vocabulary from their written or spoken language experiences. They will then need direct vocabulary instruction to increase their chances of catching up with their peers.
It also makes sense to teach them strategies to help them learn new word meanings from their language experiences. These strategies involve teaching them to use morphological knowledge (see previous article) to work out meanings of more complex words, or to search for words that might provide clues to the meanings of other words in context. A combination of this broad, strategy-based approach and direct vocabulary instruction will provide the best results, according to recent research. And it aids not just vocabulary knowledge, but also reading comprehension.
SUPERFICIAL WORD KNOWLEDGE.
Many children with poor language and reading skills will have only a nodding acquaintance with many word meanings. They can even be quite common, concrete words which you would expect them to know. These children can easily slip through the net. Parents and teachers may not observe that, although children may use a word, their knowledge of it is actually very limited. It’s not just a case of “he used that word so we can mentally tick it off as part of his vocabulary”. We need to be more vigilant than that.
Direct Vocabulary Instruction needed at this age? Probably not for a cria.
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Jj is for Jottings 131. Learning Vocabulary.
Learning vocabulary – the words a person knows and uses – is a lifelong process. Talking to and reading with your child right from the start is a good recipe for a child to develop a rich vocabulary. I have talked about vocabulary in previous articles, mainly in the context of reading with children and children reading for themselves. But, given that vocabulary is so important, I thought it was worth going into a little further.
Learning Vocabulary. The User Guide in “Aa is for Alpacas” explains how to use the book to enhance vocabulary skills.
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Jj is for Jottings 125. Nonsense Words.
Nonsense words are letter sequences which follow regular phonetic rules and are pronounceable, but which have no meaning. Examples are ‘bof’, ‘zim’, ‘chog’. They can also be called nonwords or pseudowords. There are stages in children’s development where nonsense words may play a part. These are: babbling, early reading, rhyming, and if they require assistance for speech sound development (speech therapy). All children babble, but children may not encounter nonsense words when learning to read or to rhyme. And many will not need speech therapy, or have access to it if they do.
Atticus is a FAN of nonsense words.
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Jj is for Jottings 111. Word Confusions: Ton/Tonne; Home/Hone.
For all the reasons given in the article on punctuation, clear communication is important, since that is the whole point: to get your message across to the listener/reader. Many people confuse similar words, which undermines their message. There will be articles from time to time on this topic, beginning with the word confusions Ton/Tonne; Home/Hone. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 106. Strategies to Encourage Listening to Sounds in Words.
In the previous article I said that I would discuss general strategies to encourage listening to sounds in words, rather than visualising them. As I said, I have found no hard and fast rules, but these types of activities are helpful.
Shanti is coming to tell us all about strategies to encourage listening to sounds in words.
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Jj is for Jottings 97. Reading-Aloud Games.
Following on from interactive reading with children, here are some ideas for “reading-aloud games” which you can play with children while reading stories with them. The idea is to be spontaneous, just playfully engaging in banter whilst actually providing wonderful learning opportunities as a bonus. It may sound strange, saying to be spontaneous and then making suggestions as to what to do. But it is helpful to see the types of games you can play and, once you have the idea, you can invent your own activities in the moment. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 85. Short and Long Vowels.
Since we were on the subject of vowels (see Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds and Vowel Discrimination Activities), it occurred to me that you may have heard of short and long vowels and not know what they are. You would think that a long vowel is a longer version of a short vowel, but they are completely different sounds. Quite simply, short vowels are the sounds made by /a,e,i,o,u/, and long vowels are the names of those five letters.
Short and long vowels? Who cares? I’d rather have a zzzzz.
WHAT DO SHORT AND LONG VOWELS LOOK LIKE?
Short Vowels.
The easiest short vowel words are 3-letter CVC words eg. bag, beg, big, bog, bug. In each case we pronounce the vowel as its basic sound. When syllables end in a vowel and then a consonant (as in the examples above), the vowel is usually short. If there is more than one consonant, the vowel is almost always short, eg. “back, stopped”.
Long Vowels.
There are several ways of making long vowels.
- Putting two vowels next to each other. As a result, the word usually makes the sound of the first vowel’s name (“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”). Examples are “bead”, “mail”, “boat”.
- Another way of creating a long vowel sound is by putting an ‘e’ on the end of the word. This is often referred to as the “bossy ‘e’” or the “magic ‘e’”. (“The ‘e’ on the end makes the vowel say its name. The ‘e’ is silent.”) Examples are “bake”, “seed”, “hike”, “poke”, “mute”. See how you can use a bossy ‘e’ to change a short vowel to a long vowel with these minimal pairs: can/cane; bet/beet; rid/ride; hop/hope; cut/cute. If you say each of these aloud, it is very clear that the first half of the pair uses the sound made by the vowel, and the second half uses the vowel’s name.
- A vowel at the end of a syllable is almost always long. Some examples of this are “I, we, he, she, go, try, potato and tomato”.
- -Igh and -ight are usually long I (and silent GH), so we have “bright, fight, high, light, might, night, right, sigh, sight, tight”.
Remember that this is English, and there are almost invariably exceptions.
VOWELS OTHER THAN SHORT AND LONG VOWELS.
Short and long vowels aren’t the only vowel sounds, and the other vowels will be discussed next time.
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