page attachments/156/WND Level3Issue1 March12
The Golly Sisters Go West by Betsy Byars
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
Introduction
About this month’s book selection: This month The Wand selections tell stories of characters learning lessons through consequences. Some lessons are small and silly, as in the Golly Sisters, and some are monumental, as in Ping. Both book selections continue your child’s study of family words, revisiting sister and expanding to extended family words of uncle, aunt and cousin. Author Betsy Byers had a sister growing up, and like the Golly Sisters, they loved to put on shows. Betsy enjoys writing dialog, so your children will be practicing their dialog punctuation throughout The Wand. Visit Byers’ website, to read an interesting interview about the author. For instance, Byers was a pilot and lived on an airstrip! When asked when she was born, she replied: “I was born in the same year as bubble gum and Mickey Mouse, 1928, a very good year for all three of us.” Here is a nice quote from Byers to share with children about writing: “Writing is like playing the piano or playing baseball—you have to practice to get good.” Through the Golly sisters, Byers conveys this lesson: never give up while still having fun. The Story About Ping has held a place in classic children’s literature since 1933. Its author and illustrator wrote many books, but Ping is by far the most beloved to children across generations. Perhaps the idea of avoiding a punishment, then suffering worse consequences, resonates with kids of all ages! Ping reminds children that the safest place to be is among those who love you best. As you begin Level 3 of The Wand, you will introduce your children to simple dictation. This may extend your weekly work as you have children continue to practice copywork; you may choose to do both French dictation and dictation, or just one of the dictation forms.
Preview of this issue’s writing conventions: ìì
Full dictation introduced
ìì
Colorful words: sayings and sounds
ìì
Simple editing practice
ìì
ìì
Phonics: the spelling for both /ou/ and /oe/ sounds
Phonics: the <se>, , , and spelling patterns
ìì
Word Study: practice family and number words
ìì
Phonics: Smack Dab spelling pattern
ìì
Paragraphing: indentation
ìì
Word study: Interesting verbs or action words
ìì
Grammar: More practice of the possessive form
ìì
Literary Element: onomatopoeia
ìì
Word Study: the suffix
ìì
The ‘en’ dash
ìì
All jobs of the ‘single Silent-e’
ìì
Phonics practice for the vowel sound of /au/
ìì
Smack Dab rule of
ìì
Grammar: regular and irregular past tense words
-2-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Level 3, Issue 1
Week One May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!”
The Golly Sisters Go West
Week one
Passage May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!”
Why this passage To the Golly Sisters, almost every idea is tackled with gusto! Both Rose and May-May show enthusiasm and adventure throughout their travels, and their dialog is often punctuated with exclamation marks. Like many sisters, conversation is the heart of their relationship, each sharing ideas, opinions, and occasionally, disagreements. This passage offers opportunities to expose young children to the “en” dash, as well as the vowel team, which represents two different sounds, /ou/ and /oe/. Dialog punctuation is complex for young writers, so repeated practice is included across all age levels in the Brave Writer curriculum.
What to note ìì
Full dictation introduced
ìì
Simple editing practice
ìì
Phonics: the spelling for both /ou/ and /oe/ sounds
ìì
Word Study: the suffix
ìì
The en dash
Phonics Help your child to look for the vowel team and notice the vowel sounds heard within the words now and know.
-4-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Teaching the lesson 1.
“Let’s read the passage together and look for two words that have the vowel team. That’s right, you found two words with the spelling. Now, let’s listen carefully and notice what the vowel sounds are for these two words: now, know.” Recite the words to your child and exaggerate the /ou/ sound in <now> and /oe/ in . Help your child to notice that two different sounds are represented by the same spelling!
2.
“You hear two different vowel sounds in both words. Let’s write these two words on our marker board:”
now know 3.
“Let’s underline the spelling in both words. Sometimes the same vowel team can represent more than one vowel sound. Let’s see if we have the spelling on our vowel chart for the sounds of /ou/ and /oe/.” Help your child to find the /ou/ vowel team on the vowel chart, and review the two different spellings for the /ou/ sound, including and . Next, have your child find the /oe/ long vowel sound on the vowel chart. Unless you have added the spelling on your own, The Wand has not yet introduced the spelling for /oe/ on the vowel chart. Overlap in spelling can be confusing for children, so it is best to sort the many vowel sounds represented with the letter before introducing multiple spelling representations. You will notice that all sounds represented with the letter have now been added to the vowel chart, so you are now discussing the concept of multiple sound representations.
4.
“We have not added the spelling to the long /oe/ sound on the Vowel Chart, so let’s add it now.”
PSRKZS[IPWSYRHW
EI II MI SI YI EI E E] I]
II I ] M
MI M ]
MKL
SI YI S Y SE SY S[
Vowel Chart with -5-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
5.
“Now let’s look at the word know. We have practiced this word before, when we studied the in prior Wand lessons. We also have learned some important spelling rules about vowel sounds and spelling, so let’s review these now:” One sound can be spelled in different ways
The same spelling pattern may represent more than one sound “Not only can the /oe/ sound be spelled in many different ways, but one of its spellings--the Vowel Team--can represent more than one sound!” 6.
“I am going to write five other /oe/ words, to help you notice that can represent the /oe/ sound. Look at these words, and let’s underline their Vowel Teams together:” Help your child to say and underline each Vowel Team in these words on the marker board. The results should look like this:
know
row
snow
grow
show “Notice that the vowel team is often used when the sound of /oe/ is at the end of a word. We will practice some of our words in spelling this week.” “We can also practice some of our /ou/ words that use the Vowel Team. Let’s underline the and say the /ou/ sound in these words:”
now
clown
cow
brown
how
-6-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Grammar and word study: The past tense suffix will be practiced this week.
Teaching the lesson 1.
“Sometimes, when a verb or action word is past tense, the action already happened and we add an suffix. We practiced this suffix many times, but we will practice again with the word jump:”
jump + ed -> jumped 2.
“Sometimes when a verb or action word is past tense, we add a suffix. This is especially true if the words end in the Vowel Team. Let’s try these word sums.” Create word sums for your child on the marker board, using these words:
know + n -> known
show + n -> shown
snow + ed -> snowed
row + ed -> rowed
show + ed -> showed
grow + n -> grown
You can also omit different parts of the word sum to keep things interesting, such as:
3.
know + n -> ________
show + n -> __________
snow + ____ -> snowed
row + ____ -> rowed
________ + ed -> showed
________ + n -> grown
“Let’s make up some sentences using these words, showing when an action is going to happen and when the action has already happened:”
It will snow in the winter. It snowed last winter. 4.
“We can also show that the action is happening right now, if we use the suffix, remember? Let’s create some sentences using these words with the suffix:”
Crocuses are growing, even though it is snowing! -7-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
5.
“Lastly, let’s create some sentences using these words with the suffix:”
My dog knows when it’s time to eat dinner! Help your child generate sentences using all of the words with the suffixes practiced so far.
Suffix chart with 6.
“Let’s look at the passage again:”
May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!” 7.
“Notice that May-May’s name has a little dash in between the two words. We call this dash an ‘en dash’ because it only takes up the space needed to type a smaller letter, like the letter . When two words are connected by a dash, the dash is always just a little dash.” Only use a little dash to connect two words to make a new single idea.
8.
“You would use a little dash if the two words are not compound words, but the ideas connect together. For example, the name May-May is one name, created by repeating the words together. May-May is different than a two-part name like Anna Beth.”
9.
“You might also use a little dash if two describing words are needed to create a new idea. For example, if I told you to use an inside-voice, you need to understand both words inside and voice together, in order to know how quiet I want you to be. The ideas of inside and voice are connected. If I said use an outside-voice, then you would know you could shout loudly, using the kind of voice you are allowed to use outside!” “You will see both long and short dashes when you’re reading; different dashes are used for different reasons.”
-8-
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Spelling You will review the words for the spelling lesson.
Spelling list:
Red word list: Spelling confusions
ìì
know
ìì
snow
ìì
who
ìì
show
ìì
how
ìì
row
ìì
know
ìì
grow
ìì
now
ìì
throw
Teaching the Lesson Spelling for /oe/ words should be practiced throughout the week, using either the marker board or the Post-it notes. Try this for an easier spelling test: 1.
Help your child practice spelling all of the words with the Post-it folder, creating duplicate Post-its as needed to generate a complete Post-it note list of the six spelling words.
2.
Let your child pick two colors of Post-it notes: one for vowels and one for consonants. (Typically, you used pink for vowels and yellow for consonants, but your children can choose any color as long as they are consistent.)
3.
Say one of the words, for example, /throw/. All of the spelling words are one-syllable words. Help your child to say each sound while building Post-it notes of the word:
4.
Help your child to identify the /ow/ sound as a vowel; therefore it is located on the vowel insert in the Post-it folder.
5.
Repeat these steps for all of the remaining words. If you use the spelling list above, you will have a table full of words on Post-its!
6.
Mix up all the Post-it notes. You may want to sort the vowels on the right side and the consonants on the left side of the table.
7.
Say each word for your child, starting with the easiest to spell, and progressing to the hardest word to spell.
8.
As you say each word, your child will sort through the Post-it notes to build each spelling word. If your child makes an error, help them say each sound and find the correct Post-it notes. Don’t let errors remain; rather help your children to be successful each time they spell a word.
9.
By the time the child spells the final, most difficult word, the correct Post-it notes will be remaining for guaranteed success! Your child’s Red words this week are commonly confused words: ìì
who
ìì
how -9-
ìì
know
ìì
now
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Teaching the lesson 1.
Red words are difficult to spell, and should only be practiced with a visual model. Therefore, you may want to put the Red words on index cards, so your child will have a large visual model to place on the table while writing.
2.
Have your child look at each word card, then say each word while writing it one-three times on paper or on the marker board. Encourage your children to say each sound as they write. Note to parent: Because Red words are phonetically confusing, you typically encourage your children to say each letter, rather than each sound, as they write. However, these words are often confused when reading and spelling, so sorting them by sound is critical to accuracy.
3.
Be sure your children sort each sound while writing, using Post-it notes, or by saying each sound as they write:
wh o h ow kn ow n ow 4.
In practicing this week’s Red words, your child will be practicing the rule that one spelling may represent two different sounds, in this case, the letter team is representing either the /oe/ or the /ou/ sound. The same spelling pattern may represent more than one sound.
- 10 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Pre-Teaching: copywork Marking up the text Before having your children practice copywork, notice the details they will need to track while writing. Pre-teaching the details helps to set up a child for successful copywork. It is an opportunity to stop bad habits before they become entrenched, such as omitting capitals and ignoring periods. Remember: Good habits are learned through successes, not failures!
Help your child to notice capitalization and dialog punctuation. You will also point out tricky spelling words and any Red words. Remember, marking the text, to ensure attention to the details while writing, is optional. Not all children need to continue marking the text—but if they do, give them the reminders they need until they are 90% proficient with that detail. If your children continue to miss 80% of their capital letters in copywork, then keep having them highlight capital letters. You can periodically assess their progress by omitting the highlighting of capital letters. Help your children to set goals for themselves. You can let each child choose a goal, such as remembering all capitalizations or all punctuation, then help your children track their own progress. Encouraging children to set their own goals in copywork encourages them to take ownership in the neatness and accuracy of their own writing.
Teaching the Lesson 1.
Hand your child a copy of this week’s passage, provided in The Wand. Read the copywork passage together.
May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!” 2.
Remind your child that some of the /oe/ sounds are spelled with the vowel team and some of the /ou/ sounds are also spelled with the vowel team .
3.
Help your child to notice the vowel team in the word . Your child may wish to underline this vowel team in red, making it a ‘stop and be careful’ word!
4.
“I want you to help me say the syllables in the word May-May while I double underline them:”
May – May - 11 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
5.
“Remember to say the syllables out loud, and include the dash, while you copy the word May-May.”
6.
“We have two Red words in our passage: <now> and .” Decide together if the child wants to underline these Red words in the passage. Remind children these words are often confused when reading and spelling, but saying sounds while they write will help to ensure success:
n ow kn ow 7.
Punctuation: “Notice this passage has dialog punctuation, containing many commas and quotation marks. Let’s highlight all of the punctuation, since there are so many things to remember!”
May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!” 8.
“Remember our punctuation rules:” Only use a little dash when you are connecting two words together to make a new idea, but the two words do not create a compound word.
Exclamation marks show enthusiasm!
Pauses are often marked with commas.
9.
Capitalization: “In this passage, the first word of a sentence is capitalized. In addition, The first word of a sentence in quotation marks (dialog) is also capitalized. Not only that, but all first names start with capitals too.Since there are so many capital letters, let’s highlight those in a different color.”
May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” “Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!” 10.
“Remember our capitalization rules:”
Every sentence begins with a capital letter.
Every proper noun begins with a capital letter.
- 12 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Remember: Always pre-teach right before copywork! Pre-teaching and review help children to be successful while engaging in copywork.
Copywork Copywork is the act of reproducing, in one’s own handwriting, the passage selected for the week. The goal is to help the young writer learn to coordinate all of the practiced skills of reading, phonics, grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and handwriting with accuracy and success. A tall order for small hands writing a small sentence! It is critical that the child has learned the week’s lessons, then practiced applying the lessons in writing, so do not skip copywork! It is better to spread the lesson out over a few weeks than to skip this important step. Remember to do the pre-teaching exercise immediately before copywork to help your child track all of the details. It is common for parents to underestimate the importance of copywork, especially for young children. In a busy week, it is tempting to skip to dictation. However, in the long run, it is better to skip dictation than copywork.
Note: This week, children with handwriting weaknesses can write one line of text per day. You can limit the text to 2-5 words; depending on the word selection, your child will have easy days and challenging days—a great way to encourage your child to write longer passages in more than one sitting.
Teaching the lesson 1.
Take out a clean sheet of writing paper or a clean page in your child’s copywork notebook and your child’s favorite pencil.
2.
Show your child the passage they reviewed during pre-teaching.
3.
“We are going to celebrate all we practiced this week about spelling and contractions by imitating the author’s wonderful writing! Can you remember some of the things we learned about the vowel team and about the little dash?”
4.
Review with your child a few key concepts covered throughout the lesson. They can be found in the shaded bubbles throughout the lesson.
5.
“Let’s read the whole passage together.”
6.
“I want you to write and say each syllable in the passage. Remember to say the syllable slowly while you write.” Demonstrate writing while stretching the syllables out to match sounds with the written letters, like this:
/M-ay/ /M-ay/
7.
“Notice the Red words, dash and dialog punctuation we reviewed.”
8.
Encourage your child to say and write the passage in one sitting. If handwriting is a problem, encourage your child to write 1-3 words in one sitting. They can finish the passage over time, writing 1-3 words per day. Each month, you can try to increase the number of words your child can write in one day.
9.
Praise your children for their efforts! Date and label the passage as ‘copywork’ at the top of the page. - 13 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
French dictation Directions for French-style dictation can be found in The Wand Guidelines. Your children will need a good deal of preparation for French dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for French dictation. French dictation is a good way to allow children to practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words, without the burden of full dictation. Difficult spelling words, like are already included, so this is the perfect dictation level for your children. In addition, you have taught your child a new concept, the ‘en dash’ and the spelling for /oe/, so French dictation gives your child a chance to practice new sounds and their spelling within sentences. This week, you will only expect your child to spell the words practiced in the phonics lesson. Note: If the word is too difficult, you can fill this word in for the child before beginning French dictation.
The passage will be presented like this:
______________ said, “______ that ____ ________ the right words, ____ can ____ ________.”
“______,” said ________. “____ are on our ______!”
- 14 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week one: The Golly Sisters Go West
Dictation Directions for full dictation can be found in The Wand Guidelines. Your children will need a good deal of preparation for full dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for full dictation. Dictation is the most challenging way to help children practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words. Because this dictation practice is so challenging, children should only write a portion of the passage. Also, expect a fair number of spelling errors in dictation. The goal in this young age is not perfection, but practiced application of skills. Note to the Parent: Any word, such as , which may prove to be too difficult for your child to spell, can be practiced at the top of the paper, prior to dictation. Then, your child can reference that word while writing full dictation.
ìì
Remember to read 1-2 words at a time, very slowly with multiple repetitions, as needed.
ìì
After reading each section of the passage, re-read the entire passage, giving exaggerated pauses for commas.
ìì
Remind your child that they are writing only one sentence, so: “Remember the period to show you are done!” Choose one-half of the passage for dictation. Either:
May-May said, “Now that we know the right words, we can go west.” Or:
“Yes,” said Rose. “We are on our way!”
- 15 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Level 3, Issue 1 French dictation
Date: ___________________ Name: __________________
The Golly Sisters Go West
______________ said, “______ that ____ ________ the right words, ____ can ____ ________.”
“______,” said ________. “____ are on
our ______!”
Level 3, Issue 1
Week Two When May-May heard that, she said, “Giddy-up!” The horse moved! He jumped onto the stage. He jumped off the stage. May-May screamed, “Eeeeeeeeee!” The Golly Sisters Go West
Week two
Passage When May-May heard that, she said, “Giddy-up!” The horse moved! He jumped onto the stage. He jumped off the stage. May-May screamed, “Eeeeeeeeee!”
Why this passage Two great words bookend this passage: the old-fashioned cowboy phrase “giddy-up” and the wonderful onomatopoeia “Eeeeeeeeee!” In addition, this passage contains words allowing for a full lesson on the jobs of the Silent-e.
What to note ìì
Grammar: regular and irregular past tense
ìì
Colorful words: sayings and sounds
ìì
Jobs of the Silent-e: long vowel sounds, plural confusions, soft-c, soft-g, the pattern for the final /v/ sound
ìì
Phonics: the <se>, , , and spelling patterns
Phonics This week you and your children will review three spelling patterns, highlighting the jobs of the Silent-e: creating long vowel sounds, hanging with the at the end of a word, avoiding plural confusions, and creating “soft sounds” for and . Because the Silent-e has so many jobs, you can cover this lesson over two or three days.
- 18 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Teaching the lesson: Day One 1.
“Let’s look at the passage together:”
When May-May heard that, she said, “Giddy-up!” The horse moved! He jumped onto the stage. He jumped off the stage. May-May screamed, “Eeeeeeeeee!” 2.
“Today we are going to look at the word moved. What is the base word for the word moved? Let’s write it and double underline the base word:”
Moved Note to parent: Your child may notice that the original <e> in the base word <move> was dropped when the suffix was added. The “Drop the e” rule is one of the three great spelling rules, and will be practiced in later Wand issues.
3.
“The base word is move. What is the vowel sound in move? Let’s underline the vowel sound together:”
m o ve 4.
“The vowel represents the /oo/ vowel sound, just like it does in the words to and do. Let’s write these words on our marker board:”
m o ve t o d o
- 19 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
:S[IP'LEVX
5.
“Let’s look at our vowel chart and you will notice that you have the spelling for the /oo/ sound.
:S[IPXIEQW
SS EY SM SS E[ S] Y I[ SYM
S SY YI
Vowel Chart sounds of /oo/ 6.
“Now let’s look at the word <move> again. Notice that the /v/ sound is represented with the spelling pattern. That is because in the English language, the /v/ sound never is written with just a at the end of a word. This gives us a new spelling rule:” Any English word that ends with the /v/ sound, represents the final /v/ sound with the consonant team .
7.
“A long time ago, you learned that we use the Silent-e to help create long vowel sounds in Broken Vowel Teams. Here are some rules that you might remember: Single Silent-e: the single Silent-e has many jobs.
The first job of the single Silent-e is to create long vowel sounds.
One vowel sound can be spelled with the Vowel + Silent-e broken in half, called a Broken Letter Team. 8.
“Now you are learning a new job of the Silent-e: The second job of the single Silent-e is to hang with the at the end of a word.
- 20 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
9.
“Let’s look at some familiar words that end in the /v/ sound (and showing that the Silent-e hangs with the ), and underline their sounds:”
h a ve g i ve m o ve l o ve l i ve (rhymes with give) 10.
“Let’s add our consonant team to the Post-it note folder.”
Adding /ve/ to the Post-it note Folder 11.
“There are other jobs for the Silent-e. Now we are going to look at the word horse. The word horse contains a Bossy-R, the /or/ sound. I will write it on the marker board so we can underline all the sounds:”
h or se
- 21 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
12.
“Notice that the /s/ sound is spelled with a Silent-e. This it to help us know that the final /s/ sound is not a plural suffix. Let’s look at some words that end in the /s/ sound, and decide if it is a base word that ends in /s/, or a base word that has an suffix:”
dogs dog + s -> dogs please p l ea se pleas plea + s -> pleas house h ou se mouse m ou se peas pea + s -> peas 13.
“Notice that all the base words that end in the /s/ sound, have a <se> consonant team. This is to help us know whether a word is a base word or a plural. We have now found the third job of the Silent-e:” The third job of the single Silent-e is to hang with the <s> at the end of word, to show that the word is not a plural.
14.
“Let’s add our <se> consonant team to the Post-it note folder.”
Adding /se/ to the Post-it note Folder - 22 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Teaching the lesson: Day Two 1.
“Yesterday you learned two new jobs for the Silent-e. Believe it or not, there are even more jobs for the Silent-e. To learn the new jobs today, we are first going to look at the word dancing. The word dancing is in our story, because May-May has a dancing horse. I will write dancing on the marker board so we can analyze it:”
dance + ing -> dancing 2.
“So when we find the base word dance, we can underline all of the sounds:
d a n ce Note to parent: Your child may notice that the original <e> in the base word was dropped when the suffix was added. The “Drop the e” rule is one of the three great spelling rules, and will be practiced in later Wand issues. 3.
“Notice that the /s/ sound is spelled with , which has another Silent-e! The Silent-e hangs with the so that it represents the /s/ sound. When the letter is followed by an <e>, it makes the ‘soft’ sound of , which is a /s/ sound. Let’s look at some words that end in the spelling pattern, but do not have long vowel sounds:”
palace prince juice sauce voice bounce force once choice fence peace chance 4.
“Now we have discovered the fourth job of the Silent-e:” The fourth job of the single Silent-e is to hang with the at the end of a word, in order to create the “soft-c” sound of /s/.
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
5.
“Let’s add our consonant team to the Post-it note folder.”
Adding /ce/ to the Post-it note Folder 6.
“There is one last job for the Silent-e. Now we are going to look at the word stage. The word stage contains a broken vowel team, but it ends in a /j/ sound. I will write it on the marker board so we can underline all the sounds:”
s t a ge 7.
“Notice that the /j/ sound is spelled with , which has another Silent-e! The Silent-e hangs with the so that it represents the /j/ sound. When the letter is followed by an <e>, it makes the ‘soft’ sound of , which is an /j/ sound. Let’s look at some words that end in the spelling pattern, but do not have long vowel sounds:”
range change strange barge gorge image lunge bulge hinge large merge scrimmage 8.
“Now we have discovered the fifth job of the Silent-e:” The fifth job of the single Silent-e is to hang with the at the end of a word, in order to create the “soft-g” sound of /j/.
- 24 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
9.
You might also remember that in last month’s Wand issue, we had a new Smack Dab rule that included a ‘soft g’ sound. Let’s look at that rule again: ‘Smack Dab’ Rule: Smack dab after a short vowel sound, the represents the /j/ sound
10.
“Let’s add our consonant team to the Post-it note folder.”
Adding /ge/ to the Post-it note Folder 11.
“We can build on words using the Post-it notes with our new consonant letter teams throughout the week! For now, let’s add all of our Silent-e Rules to the outside of our Vowel Chart. We can cut out these rules and paste them on the chart:” Silent-e Rules The Single Silent-e: the single Silent-e has many jobs: 1.
Create long vowel sounds
2.
Hang with the at the end of a word
3.
Hang with the <s> at the end of word, to show it’s not plural!
4.
<se>
Hang with the at the end of a word, creating the “soft-c” sound of /s/
5.
Hang with the at the end of a word, creating the “soft-g” sound of /j/
- 25 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Silent-e Rules on the Vowel Chart
Note to parent: The jobs of the Silent-e will be practiced again in future Wand issues, while learning all the spelling patterns for the soft-c and soft-g sounds.
- 26 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Grammar and word study
Teaching the lesson 1.
“Let’s read our passage together:”
When May-May heard that, she said, “Giddy-up!” The horse moved! He jumped onto the stage. He jumped off the stage. May-May screamed, “Eeeeeeeeee!” 2.
“Let’s review our rules about base words and affixes.” Rules about base words and affixes:
3.
ìì
The most basic unit of meaning in a word is called a base word.
ìì
A morpheme that fixes at the end of a base word is called a suffix.
ìì
Suffixes have their own unique sound representations.
ìì
The suffix marks the past tense of a verb, and is always spelled no matter what sound we hear.
ìì
Some verbs do not use regular suffix markers, so we call these ‘irregular verbs.’
“Using our rules, let’s find the base words for all our past-tense words:” QSZIIH"QSZIH
NYQTIH"NYQTIH
WGVIEQIH"WGVIEQIH LIEV#"###
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
4.
“The word heard does not follow our suffix rules, so we call an irregular past tense verb. This is a tricky word to spell, but knowing the base word can really help! Because the base word is , it influences the spelling of the past tense form, in which you hold on to the <ea> vowel team:”
h ea r h ea r d 5.
“Adding one letter to a base word is an unusual way to make a past tense verb, but it does happen now and then, usually by adding a :”
FYVR TEWXXIRWI " FYVRX FYVRIHMWEPWSEGGITXEFPI HIEP TEWXXIRWI "HIEPX HVIEQ TEWXXIRWI " HVIEQX HVIEQIHMWEPWSEGGITXEFPI PIET TEWXXIRWI " PIETX PIETIHMWEPWSEGGITXEFPI QIER TEWXXIRWI "QIERX VIEH TEWXXIRWI "VIEH
6.
“Notice that in most of these words, the <ea> vowel team pattern in the base word represents the long /ee/ sound. However, once the word becomes an irregular past tense word, the <ea> vowel team represents the short /e/ sound. This is an important spelling rule:” Sounds within a base word may change when prefixes or suffixes are added to the base word, even if the spelling pattern stays the same.
- 28 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
7.
“Because of this tendency toward sound changes, we have many words in which the <ea> vowel team represents the short /e/ sound, so we need to add the <ea> spelling pattern to our Vowel Chart.”
Vowel Chart with <ea> for the /e/ sound
Post-it note file with <ea> for the /e/ sound
8.
“We have two more interesting words in our passage. One is a typical saying that people use with horses. Can you find it?”
9.
“Right! The phrase ‘giddy-up’ is often used when we want to tell a horse to start moving. Notice that the phrase is a combination of two words, connected by an ‘en’ dash. We learned about the ‘en’ dash in Week One of this issue of The Wand.”
10.
“The next interesting word is an onomatopoeia. If you remember, this is our definition of onomatopoeia:” Onomatopoeia turns sounds you hear into spellings you read.
11.
“Can you find an onomatopoeia in our passage? Right, it is this word:” Eeeeeeeeee!
- 29 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Spelling You will practice common Silent-e words for the spelling lesson, with review of the irregular past tense words for Red words this week. Spelling list: Red word list: ìì
have
ìì
once (Silent-e word, but tricky to spell and should be reviewed)
ìì
give
ìì
heard
ìì
please
ìì
meant
ìì
house
ìì
read (past tense)
ìì
choice
ìì
juice (optional)
ìì
large
ìì
change
Teaching the lesson: “This week we learned about all the jobs of the Silent-e. We are going to practice words that represent each of the rules for using a Silent-e while spelling. Let’s review our Silent-e Rules on the Vowel Chart:” Silent-e Rules The Single Silent-e: the single Silent-e has many jobs: 1.
Create long vowel sounds
2.
Hang with the at the end of a word
3.
Hang with the <s> at the end of word, to show it’s not plural!
4.
<se>
Hang with the at the end of a word, creating the “soft-c” sound of /s/
5.
Hang with the at the end of a word, creating the “soft-g” sound of /j/
Spelling Silent-e words should be practiced throughout the week, using either the marker board or the Post-it notes. Try this for an easier spelling test: 1. Help your child practice spelling all of the spelling words with the Post-it folder, creating duplicate Post-its as needed to generate a complete Post-it note list of words. 2.
Let your child pick two colors of Post-it notes: one for vowels and one for consonants. (Typically, you used pink for vowels and yellow for consonants, but your children can choose any color as long as they are consistent.) - 30 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
3.
Say one of the Silent-e words, for example, /please/. You can use a vowel Post-it note with the <ea> vowel team, to represent the /ee/ sound, and a <se> Post-it note to represent the final /s/ sound.
4.
Help your child to say each sound while building Post-it notes for each word:
<ea> <se> 5.
Help your child to identify the /s/ sound as a Silent-e spelling to show that the <s> is not representing a plural, and therefore is spelled <se>.
6.
Repeat these steps for all of the remaining Silent-e words. If you use the spelling list above, you will have a table full of words on Post-its!
7.
Mix up all the Post-it notes. You may want to sort the vowels on the right side and the consonants on the left side of the table.
8.
Say each word for your child, starting with the easiest to spell, and progressing to the hardest word to spell. Remind your child that the Silent-e letter teams are being used throughout the spelling list, to represent the final consonant sounds.
9.
As you say each word, your child will sort through the Post-it notes to build each spelling word. If your child makes an error, help him/her to say each sound and find the correct Post-it notes. Don’t let errors remain; rather help your children to be successful each time they spell a word.
10.
By the time the child spells the final, most difficult word, the correct Post-it notes will be remaining for guaranteed success! Most of your child’s Red words this week were practiced in this week’s grammar lesson: ìì
once (Silent-e word to be reviewed)
ìì
heard
ìì
meant
ìì
read (past tense)
Red words are very difficult for children to read and spell, and should only be practiced with a visual model. Therefore, you may want to put the Red words on index cards, so your child will have a large visual model to place on the table while writing. You may wish to have your child build these words with the Post-it note file, so that they can say each sound as they sort the various representations of the <ea> vowel teams and the irregular past tense patterns. Remember these important rules: Some verbs do not use regular suffix markers, so we call these “irregular verbs.”
Sounds within a base word may change when prefixes or suffixes are added to the word, even if the spelling pattern stays the same.
- 31 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Pre-teaching: copywork See previous week’s instructions.
Teaching the lesson 1.
Hand your child the copy of this week’s passage, provided in The Wand. Read the copywork passage together.
2.
Help your child to notice the dialog punctuation. Based on your child’s performance last week, only have your child highlight punctuation marks if they made punctuation errors in the previous week’s copywork. Help your child to notice the many exclamation marks and the quotation marks.
3.
Review important punctuation rules:
Pauses are often marked with commas
Exclamation marks show enthusiasm!
Only use a little dash when you are connecting two words together to make a new idea, but the two words do not create a compound word
4.
Based on your child’s performance last week, only have your child highlight capitalizations if they made capitalization errors in the previous week’s copywork. Remember to capitalize the proper nouns.
- 32 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
Copywork Do not skip copywork! It is better to spread the lesson out over a few weeks than to skip this important step. Remember to do the pre-teaching exercise immediately before copywork to help your child track all of the details.
Teaching the lesson 1.
Take out a clean sheet of writing paper or a clean page in your child’s copywork notebook and your child’s favorite pencil.
2.
Show your child the passage they reviewed and/or marked-up during pre-teaching.
3.
“We are going to celebrate all we practiced this week about sounds and syllables by imitating the author’s wonderful writing! Can you remember some of the things we learned about sounds and syllables?”
4.
Review with your child a few key concepts covered throughout the lesson. They can be found in the shaded bubbles. For example: Onomatopoeia turns sounds you hear into spellings you read.
5.
“Let’s read the whole passage together.”
6.
“I want you to write and say each syllable in the passage. Remember to say the syllable slowly while you write.” Demonstrate writing while stretching the syllables out to match sounds with the written letters, like this:
/g-i-d/ /d-y/ /u-p/ 7.
“Notice all the capitalizations and the base words we reviewed.”
8.
Encourage your child to say and write the passage in one sitting. If handwriting is a problem, encourage your child to write 2-5 words in one sitting. They can finish the passage over time, writing 2-5 words per day. Each month, you can try to increase the number of words your child can write in one day. Praise your children for their efforts! Date and label the passage as ‘copywork’ at the top of the page. Remember: Always pre-teach right before the copywork! Review the markings on the passage (red underlining and highlighting). Remind your child to capitalize and include all of the punctuation marks. Pre-teaching and review help children to be successful while engaging in copywork.
- 33 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
French dictation Your children will need a good deal of preparation for French dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics, grammar and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for French dictation. In a busy week, French dictation is optional. French dictation is a good way to allow children to practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words, without the burden of full dictation. Difficult spelling words, like are already included, so this is the perfect dictation level for your children. In addition, you have taught your child the <se> and the letter teams, so French dictation gives your child a chance to practice these new sounds and their spelling within sentences. This week, you will only expect your child to spell the words practiced in the phonics lesson. The passage will be presented like this:
When ______________ heard ________, ______ said, “Giddy-up!”
The __________ moved!
He ____________ onto the __________.
He ____________ off the __________.
______________ ________________, “Eeeeeeeeee!”
Dictation Directions for full dictation can be found in The Wand Guidelines. Your children will need a good deal of preparation for full dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for full dictation. Dictation is the most challenging way to help children practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words. Because this dictation practice is so challenging, children should only write a portion of the passage. Also, expect a fair number of spelling errors in dictation. The goal in this young age is not perfection, but practiced application of skills. Note to the Parent: Any word, such as <moved>, which may prove to be too difficult for your child to spell, can be practiced at the top of the paper, prior to dictation. Then, your child can reference that word while writing to full dictation.
- 34 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week two: The Golly Sisters Go West
ìì
Remember to read only 1-2 words at a time, very slowly, with multiple repetitions, as needed.
ìì
After reading each section of the passage, re-read the entire passage, giving exaggerated pauses for commas.
ìì
Remind your child that they are writing only one sentence at a time, so: “Remember the period to show you are done!” Choose one-third of the passage for dictation. Either:
When May-May heard that, she said, “Giddy-up!”
Or:
The horse moved! He jumped onto the stage. Or:
He jumped off the stage. May-May screamed, “Eeeeeeeeee!”
- 35 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Level 3, Issue 1 French dictation
Date: ___________________ Name: __________________
The Golly Sisters Go West
When ______________ heard ________, ______ said, “Giddy-up!”
The __________ moved!
He ____________ onto the __________.
He ____________ off the __________.
______________ ________________,
“Eeeeeeeeee!”
Level 3, Issue 1
Week Three Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and fortytwo cousins.
The Story About Ping
Week three
Passage Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins.
Why this passage This passage gives children the opportunity to practice writing both family and number words. Children can create a duplicate sentence, using their own name and their own numbers for family members:
____________________lived with _________ mother and _________ father
and ___________ sisters and ____________brothers. _____________________ also has ______________ grandfathers and _______________ grandmothers, as well as ________________ aunts, ________________ uncles and _____________________ cousins!
Writing number words may also give children the opportunity to use short dashes, known as ‘en’ dashes, as in the number forty-two.
What to note ìì
Phonics: the /au/ vowel team
ìì
Short ‘en’ dashes: forty-two
ìì
Word study: practice family and number words
- 38 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
Phonics Notice that the spelling pattern in the word represents the /au/ sound in some regions, and the short /a/ sound in others. Dialects may influence how words are pronounced, but not how they are spelled. Note to parent: Dialectical pronunciations are not to be confused with British versus American spelling variations, such as versus or versus .
Teaching the lesson 1.
“Let’s read the passage together:” Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins.
2.
“Today we are going to take a look at the word . Depending on where we live, we may pronounce this word as /aunt/ . . .” Pronounce using the /au/ sound, as in the word /saw/
3.
“Or we may pronounce this word as /aunt/ . . .” Pronounce using the short /a/ sound, heard in the word /ant/.
4.
“In England and in southern America, as well as other regions across the world, the in the word aunt is the same sound you hear in the word /saw/. The /au/ sound can be spelled two different ways: and .”
5.
“Now, let’s look at some other words that have the /au/ sound spelled with the or the and write them on our marker board:”
saw paw claw sauce Paul haul crawl draw awful outlaw law lawyer raw author straw flaw fault cause
- 39 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
6.
“Let’s sort these words by their vowel spellings.” Put the words on index card strips, and sort them by their spelling: and .
Sorting word cards with the /au/ sound 7.
“Let’s create two new Post-it notes to show the different ways to spell the /au/ sound. We will put these on our vowel insert:”
Post-it note chart with
- 40 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
:S[IP'LEVX
8.
“Let’s write our /au/ sound on the vowel chart. Notice that the /au/ is a vowel team, so we will write this with our other vowel teams on the Vowel Chart:”
:S[IPXIEQW
SS EY SM SS E[ S] Y I[ SYM
S SY YI
Vowel chart with /au/ 9.
Some kids have a hard time hearing the difference between the /au/ sound and the short /o/ sound. Here is a trick to help you hear the difference. Say the short /o/: “Now make your lips round, and your /o/ sound will turn into the /au/ sound. We close our mouths a tiny bit as we round our lips when we say the /au/ sound!”
10.
11.
“Let’s say some words with the short /o/ and the /au/ sound:” ìì
sock-saw
ìì
rod-raw
ìì
clock-claw
ìì
flop-flaw
ìì
pond-Paul
ìì
cost-cause
“Now, we are also going to be studying number words this week. Let’s look at this number word on the marker board:”
eight 12.
Remember what we said about the letter team: The letter teams are like the ornery kids in the neighborhood—if they are around, watch out! All the other vowel teams might get into trouble, too. Be really careful when spelling and reading those words!
- 41 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
13.
“And remember this rule:” A can represent different things: /g/, /f/ or no sound at all.
14.
“In the word <eight>, we can figure out the vowel spelling by remembering the sometimes makes no sound at all. Let’s underline all of our sounds and letter teams:”
ei gh t 15.
“The <ei> vowel team is another way to show the /ae/ sound. Let’s create a new Post-it note to show this different ways to spell the /ae/ sound. We will put it on our vowel insert:”
Post-it note chart with <ei> for / Spelling <eight> with Post-it notes Spelling with Post-it notes ae/
16.
“Let’s write our <ei> vowel team on the Vowel Chart. Because the <ei> is another way to show the /ae/ sound. We will write this with our long vowel sounds on the Vowel Chart:”
PSRKZS[IPWSYRHW
EI II MI SI YI EI E E] I] EM IM
II I IE ] M
MI M ]
MKL
SI YI S Y SE SY S[
Vowel chart with <ei> spelling for /ae/
- 42 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
Spelling Spelling word list:
Red word list:
ìì
three
ìì
uncle
ìì
five
ìì
aunt
ìì
six
ìì
cousin
ìì
seven
ìì
one
ìì
nine
ìì
two
ìì
ten
ìì
four
ìì
Bonus word: aunt
ìì
eight
Teaching the lesson “This week we learned a new vowel sound; do you remember what we learned? We learned the sound /au/, spelled or . We will practice that sound in our spelling word aunt.” Spelling number words should be practiced throughout the week, using either the marker board or the Post-it notes.
Try this for an easier spelling test: 1.
Help your child practice spelling all of the spelling words with the Post-it folder, creating duplicate Post-its as needed to generate a complete Post-it note list of the spelling words.
2.
Use the organized Post-it note chart, with the vowels organized by short vowels, long vowels, Bossy-R’s and vowel teams.
3.
Say one of the spelling words, for example, /seven/. This word is a two syllable word, so your child can spell each syllable; leave space between syllables to reinforce the concept of syllable chunks:
<s> <e> <e> 4.
Help your child to say each sound while building Post-it notes for the word /seven/. There should be five Post-it notes for the word <seven>.
5.
Repeat these steps for all of the remaining spelling words. If you use the spelling list above, you will have a table full of words on Post-its!
6.
Mix up all the Post-it notes. You may want to sort the vowels on the right side and the consonants on the left side of the table.
7.
Say each word for your child, starting with the easiest to spell, and progressing to the hardest word to spell. Remember to use the Broken Vowel Team Post-it notes for the words and .
8.
As you say each word, your child will sort through the Post-it notes to build each spelling word. If your child makes an error, help him/her to say each sound and find the correct Post-it notes. Don’t let errors remain; rather help your children to be successful each time they spell a word.
9.
By the time the child spells the final, most difficult word, the correct Post-it notes will be remaining for guaranteed success!
- 43 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
Optional: You can try giving your child a more traditional spelling test using a marker board: 1.
“I am going to say the words we practiced in spelling. You will write and say each word, one sound at a time. I want you to underline any Letter Teams.”
2.
Encourage your child to spell each word, saying one sound at a time.
3.
If your child misspells any word, say each sound together and re-write the word correctly before moving on to the next word. Then say and re-write the word for a total of three times together to reinforce the correct spelling. It is important that children practice correct spelling, with errors identified immediately before proceeding to the next word. This way, the child has an opportunity to be successful with the remaining spelling list. Bonus word: aunt
4.
If your child is a good speller, and is not having difficulty with the spelling words, writing is an opportunity to practice the Vowel Team.
5.
Help your child to identify the /au/ sound pronounced by many dialects, reinforcing the spelling of the vowel team.
6.
Remind your children to feel their lips rounding as they pronounce the /au/ sound, while building Post-it notes for the word:
7.
Your child’s Red words this week include the family and number words discussed in this week’s lesson: ìì
uncle
ìì
cousin
ìì
two
ìì
aunt
ìì
one
ìì
four
ìì
eight
These Red words can be difficult for children to read and spell, and are best practiced with a visual model. Therefore, you may want to put the Red words on index cards, so your child will have a large visual model to place on the table while writing. Your child may notice that the grapheme <ei> is paired with the infamous , and is used to represent a long /ae/ sound, as in the word /neighbor/. Remember these important rules while practicing family and number words: A root is the word origin and influences the spelling of a base word.
Shared meaning often is represented by shared spelling. Have your child look at each word card, then say each word while writing it one-three times on paper or on the marker board. Encourage your children to say each sound as they write. (Because Red words are phonetically difficult, you may also encourage your children to say each letter, rather than each sound, as they write.) - 44 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
Pre-teaching: copywork Marking up the text See the directions in Week One for marking the text. Remember you will only have the child mark those aspects of text which are still difficult to master, which will differ for each child. Consider your child’s proficiency level with capitalization, punctuation and indentation during copywork, then mark only the appropriate feature still needing extra attention. The goal of pre-teaching before copywork is to ensure the most successful, error-free copywork your child can manage.
Teaching the lesson Hand your child the copy of this week’s passage, provided in The Wand. Read the copywork passage together. If needed, have your child notice and underline in Red any words included on the Red word list: Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins. Remind your child that the base word is a Silent-e word:
The second job of the single Silent-e is to hang with the at the end of a word
The suffix marks the past tense of a verb, and is always spelled no matter what sound we hear
Based on your child’s performance last week, have your child highlight punctuation marks. If they made punctuation errors in the previous week’s copywork, they may miss the period this week. Based on your child’s performance last week, only have your child highlight capitalizations if they made capitalization errors in the previous week’s copywork.
- 45 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
Copywork Do not skip copywork! It is better to spread the lesson out over a few weeks than to skip this important step. Remember, if needed use the “marked-up” text created in pre-teaching to help your child track all of the details. Follow the directions for copywork given in Weeks One and Two in this issue. Praise your children for their efforts! Date and label the passage as ‘copywork’ at the top of the page.
French dictation Refer to the directions in week one before proceeding with French dictation. The selection will give your child an opportunity to practice prior phonics lessons, suffixing and proper nouns with capitalization. If all of these skills may prove too demanding for your individual child, consider two options: Present the mini-lesson practicing each omitted word before engaging in French dictation, or fill in some of the more difficult words to reduce the dictation demands. The passage will be presented like this:
________ lived ________ his mother ______ his father ______ two ______________
______ __________ brothers ______ eleven __________ ______ seven uncles ______ fortytwo cousins.
Dictation Directions for full dictation can be found in The Wand Guidelines. Your children will need a good deal of preparation for full dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for full dictation. Dictation is the most challenging way to help children practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words. Because this dictation practice is so challenging, children should only write a portion of the passage. Also, expect a fair number of spelling errors in dictation. The goal in this young age is not perfection, but practiced application of skills. Note to the Parent: Any word, such as , which may prove to be too difficult for your child to spell, can be practiced at the top of the paper, prior to dictation. Then, your child can reference that word while writing to full dictation.
- 46 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week three: The Story About Ping
ìì
Remember to read 1-2 words at a time, very slowly, with multiple repetitions, as needed.
ìì
After reading the each section of the passage, re-read the entire passage, giving exaggerated pauses for commas. Choose one-third of the passage for dictation. Either:
Ping lived with his mother and his father and Or:
two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts
Or:
and seven uncles and forty-two cousins
- 47 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Level 3, Issue 1 French dictation
Date: ___________________ Name: __________________
The Story About Ping
________ lived ________ his mother
______ his father ______ two ______________ ______ __________ brothers ______ eleven __________ ______ seven uncles ______ forty-two cousins.
Level 3, Issue 1
Week Four In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. “Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake.
The Story About Ping
Week four
Week Four In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. “Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake.
Why this passage This passage introduces the paragraph form of indentation. Each time a different speaker is presented, the dialog quote is indented. Onomatopoeia is practiced once again, and the Smack Dab spelling pattern is introduced.
What to note ìì
Phonics: Smack Dab spelling pattern
ìì
Paragraphing: indentation
ìì
Word study: Interesting verbs or action words
ìì
Grammar: More practice of the possessive form
ìì
Literary element: onomatopoeia
- 50 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
Phonics Notice that the spelling pattern represents the /ch/ sound in the word <snatched>. This is the last of the Smack Dab rules, because the spelling pattern always follows short vowel sounds.
Teaching the lesson 1.
“Let’s read the passage together:”
In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. “Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake. 2.
“Today we are going to look at two action words. If you remember, action words are called verbs, and if the action already happened, we add an suffix. Can you find any action words that have the suffix in our passage?”
3.
“Right. Let’s write down the two action words with the suffix, and double underline the base word:”
dashed snatched 4.
“Both of these words are very interesting words. To dash is to run quickly. What is another word you could use for dash? Let’s look in a thesaurus and find some other words for dash. Do any of them work as well in our story as the word dash?”
sprint rush run race 5.
“Writers work very hard to find just the right word to help us imagine the story. The word dash is the best word choice for this story. We can use a thesaurus to help us find interesting word choices for writing. Because Ping is a duck, it doesn’t work to say he ran up or sprinted up to the Boy! Could we say Ping rushed up to the boy?” - 51 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
6.
“Now let’s look at the word snatched. Do you know what it means to snatch something? Right, snatch means to grab. Let’s look in a thesaurus and find some other words for snatch. Do any of the words work as well in the story as snatched?”
grab
take
grasp
steal
seize
7.
“Many of these words could replace snatch, but it wouldn’t sound as interesting. The word snatch helps us to imagine a duck reaching out with its beak and picking a rice cake right out of the Boy’s hand!”
8.
“Let’s underline the sounds in the word snatch:”
s n a tch 9.
“Notice the /ch/ sound is spelled . The letter team is the last of our Smack Dab rules:” ‘Smack Dab’ Rule: Smack dab after a short vowel sound, the represents the /ch/ sound
10.
“Let’s look at some other words that use the letter team:” ìì
catch pitch witch stitch crutch
ìì
hutch fetch snatch patch latch
ìì
kitchen glitch etch itch sketch
“Notice that all the words contain short vowel sounds.” 11.
“Let’s add our new Smack Dab rule to the outside of our Vowel Chart:”
Smack Dab Rule for
Completed picture of outside of Vowel chart (See full picture on page 26)
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
12.
“There is another word that uses the that I will write on the marker board:”
watch 13.
“You already learned that the short /o/ sound can be spelled with a letter , especially after a <w>. Here are some other words that are spelled with a <w> + in which the represents the short /o/ sound:”
watch wash water wall wasp The letter often represents the /o/ sound when it follows the letter <w> 14.
“You might be thinking of the word walk. The word walk sounds close to the short /o/ sound, but it is really our /au/ sound. If you remember, when we make the /au/ sound, our lips become more rounded than the short sound. Let’s say both sounds: /o/ /au/.” The short /o/ sound and the /au/ sound can sound very much alike, but when we say the /au/ sound, our lips become more rounded than when we say the short sound
15.
“Here are some other words that have the letter paired with a silent letter , representing the /au/ sound:”
walk talk chalk 16.
“So we can put the spelling pattern on our vowel chart for the sound of /au/:”
:S[IPXIEQW
EM
SYM
7LSVXZS[IPWSYRHW
E
S SY YI
I
EM
M
S E
Y
E
PSRKZS[IPWSYRHW
EI II MI SI YI EI E E] I] EM IM
Vowel Chart with the spelling of /au/
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II I IE ] M
MI M ]
MKL
SI YI S Y SE SY S[
&SWW]6 W
IV MV YV
a
[SV
EV
SV
:S[IPXIEQW
SS EY SM SS E[ S] Y I[ EM
SYM
:S[IP'LEVX
SS EY SM SS E[ S] Y I[
S SY YI
Completed picture of inside of Vowel chart
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
Grammar and word study The onomatopoeia and the possessive form of will be practiced.
Teaching the lesson 1.
“We are going to look at our passage again:”
In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. “Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake. 2.
“Notice that the word boy is capitalized and it has an apostrophe <s>. Why do you think the word boy is capitalized?”
3.
“Right, the word boy is capitalized because the word boy is his name; he is called Boy. A name is called a proper noun, and all proper nouns are capitalized.” Every proper noun begins with a capital letter
4.
“Now let’s look at this phrase: the Boy’s hand. The hand belongs to the boy, so we use an apostrophe <s> to show the boy owns the hand, or the hand belongs to the boy. We have practiced this pattern that shows possession.” When we show ownership, or possession, we use an apostrophe
5.
“We can make some sentences using your name and your body parts. Let’s think of some sentences and write them on the marker board:” For example:
6.
ìì
(Child’s name)’s hand is small.
ìì
Dad’s hand is big.
ìì
(Child’s name)’s face is happy.
ìì
Mom’s face is serious/funny.
ìì
(Child’s name)’s toes are cute.
ìì
Dad’s toes are ugly!
“Let’s also look at what the Boy cries:”
“Oh-owwwwooo!” - 54 -
© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
7.
“Do you remember what we call this kind of word?” Onomatopoeia turns sounds you hear into spellings you read.
8.
“You will be practicing writing this very long onomatopoeia in your copywork this week. You can use the sounds you hear to help you spell this word!”
Spelling List of words:
Red words list:
ìì
itch
ìì
walk
ìì
pitch
ìì
talk
ìì
catch
ìì
wash
ìì
patch
ìì
water
ìì
kitchen
ìì
Bonus word: watch
Help your child to write the words together three to five times to help them remember the spelling patterns.
Teaching the lesson Spelling words should be practiced throughout the week, using either the marker board, paper or the Post-it note file. 1.
“We learned some important rules about words and spelling. Let’s review them:” ‘Smack Dab’ Rule: Smack dab after a short vowel sound, the represents the /ch/ sound
The letter often represents the /o/ sound when it follows the letter <w>
The short /o/ sound and the /au/ sound can sound very much alike, but when we say the /au/ sound, our lips become more rounded than when we say the short sound
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
2.
“We are going to practice writing some words that end in the /ch/ sound with the spelling.”
3.
“We are going to practice writing and spelling these words together.”
4.
Only practice writing the words together; giving them as a spelling test is optional, using previously practiced Post-it note or marker board methods.
Pre-teaching: copywork Marking up the text See the direction in Weeks One-Three for marking the text. Remember, you will only have the child mark those aspects of text which are still difficult to master, which will differ for each child. Consider your child’s proficiency level with capitalization, punctuation, and indentation during copywork, then mark only the appropriate feature still needing extra attention. The goal of pre-teaching before copywork is to ensure the most successful, error-free copywork your child can manage.
Teaching the lesson 1.
Hand your child the copy of this week’s passage, provided in The Wand. Read the copywork passage together.
2.
“Notice that the first two sentences start to the right of the remaining sentences. This is called indenting. We indent sentences for two reasons: either because it is the beginning of a new paragraph, or because a new speaker is talking. You will indent the sentences that start with the words and . You can mark the indentations with arrows to remind your child to move the words in before writing the sentence:”
->In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. ->“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake. 3.
If needed, have your child notice and double underline the base word in the words and <snatched>:
->In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. ->“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake.
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
4.
Remind your child that the base word <snatched> is a ‘Smack Dab’ word: ‘Smack Dab’ Rule: Smack dab after a short vowel sound, the represents the /ch/ sound
5.
Also, remind your child to always spell the base word first: Always spell the base word before adding a suffix ending.
The suffix marks the past tense of a verb, and is always spelled no matter what sound we hear. 6.
Remind your child that past tense words that do not use the suffix are called irregular past tense. The word <was> is an irregular past tense word for .
7.
Your child may wish to highlight the onomatopoeia as a reminder to spell carefully during copywork. It’s not that important that your children get the “correct” number of ‘w’s and ‘o’s in their own version of this word. The goal is to remember that the ‘w’s and ‘o’s represent sounds and your children should draw them out a bit as they write.
->In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. ->“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake. 8.
Based on your child’s performance last week, have your child highlight punctuation marks. If they made punctuation errors in the previous week’s copywork, they are likely to miss the comma and periods this week.
9.
Remind your child that the word is a possessive, so it has an . When we show ownership, or possession, we use an apostrophe .
10.
You may wish to have your child highlight the apostrophe:
->In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. ->“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake. 11.
Based on your child’s performance last week, only have your child highlight capitalizations if they made capitalization errors in the previous week’s copywork. Remind your child that all names of people are called proper nouns, and need to be capitalized. Every proper noun begins with a capital letter
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
Copywork Do not skip copywork! It’s better to spread the lesson over a few weeks than to skip this important step. Remember, if needed use the “marked-up” text created in pre-teaching to help your child track all of the details. Follow the directions for copywork given in Weeks One and Two in this issue. Praise your children for their efforts! Date and label the passage as ‘copywork’ at the top of the page.
French dictation Refer to the directions in week one before proceeding with French dictation. The selection will give your child an opportunity to practice all of the skills they have learned thus far. Your child will also practice capitalizing proper nouns. If all of these skills prove too demanding for your individual child, consider two options: Present a mini-lesson practicing each omitted word before engaging in French dictation, or fill in some of the more difficult words to reduce the dictation demands. The passage will be presented like this:
In the __________ hand was ________ ________.
“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the ____________ ______, and up ____________ Ping and
________________ at the ________ ________.
Dictation Refer to the directions in Week One before proceeding with French dictation. Your children will need a good deal of preparation for full dictation, so only complete this activity after you have finished all of your phonics and spelling mini-lessons, and after you have finished copywork. Always choose a new day for full dictation. Dictation is the most challenging way to help children practice their new phonics/ word study concepts and their spelling words. Because this dictation practice is so challenging, children should only write a portion of the passage. Also, expect a fair number of spelling errors in dictation. The goal in this young age is not perfection, but practiced application of skills. Note to the Parent: Any word, such as , which may prove to be too difficult for your child to spell, can be practiced at the top of the paper, prior to dictation. Then, your child can reference that word while writing to full dictation. Also, put arrows at the beginning of the first two lines to remind your child to indent!
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Week four: The Story About Ping
ìì
Remember to read 1-2 words at a time, very slowly, with multiple repetitions, as needed.
ìì
After reading the each section of the passage, re-read the entire passage, giving exaggerated pauses for commas.
ìì
Remind your child that they are writing only one sentence, so: “Remember the period to show you are done!” Choose one-half of the passage for dictation. Either:
In the Boy’s hand was a rice cake. Or:
“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the little Boy, and up dashed Ping and snatched at the rice cake.
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
Level 3, Issue 1 French dictation
Date: ___________________ Name: __________________
The Story About Ping
In the __________ hand was ________
________.
“Oh-owwwwooo!” cried the
____________ ______, and up ____________ Ping and ________________ at the ________ ________.
Writing project
Turn Spelling into Art! You may wish to create posters for some of the rules found on the outside of the Vowel Chart. It is best to have children create their own posters, which they can decorate. Children feel more invested in the spelling rules, and are more likely to remember them (and reference them!), if they write or illustrate the posters themselves. Posters require time and a great deal of copywork practice, so let the poster be a weekly project. (You can help with some of the writing, but be sure your child dictates the information to you as you write.) Allowing children to use clip art or to paint their posters will add to their investment in the project. Posters to consider: ìì
Smack Dab Rules
ìì
Syllable Types: CLOVER
ìì
Jobs of the Silent-e
Your children may also enjoy cartooning. Creating a cartoon to represent a spelling rule is a great way to fill the walls with creative art that helps kids to remember! ìì
Example 1: A judge can decide if the final sound in a word is ‘Smack Dab’ (hits his gavel) after a short vowel sound, and should be spelled with the Smack Dab spelling patterns!
ìì
Example 2: Two baseball players on the field—one will pitch and the other will pinch hit the ball.
ìì
Example 3: Please be nice and give me a large wedge of pie! (The 5 Jobs of the Silent-e)
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© 2012 - Julie (Bogart) Sweeney - Brave Writer
