Elizabeth Walker

The within word stage of spelling development

Outline

Definition

Stages of spelling development

Characteristics of Within Word students

Techniques to help learners in within word stage of spelling development

The within word stage of spelling development is defined as: the level of orthographic development; typically this developes develops as students move progressively to independent reading which may occur toward the end of the first grade and expand through the second and third grades, and even into the fourth grade. These students are aware of the possibility for spelling a particular sound in more than one way. Thee students are moving out of the alphabetic stage and learning the different patterns that can make up the same sound. These students are approaching fluency; however, they are still beginning readers and wrters.

There are 5 stages of spelling development that move through a continuum of chronological phases of knowledge of the pre-communicative, semi phonetic, phonetic, transitional, and conventional (Gentry). These stages over lap each other and can be used interchangeably with emergent, letter name alphabetic, within word, syllables and affixes, and derivational relations (Bear & Templeton). The within word stage of development is also referred to as the phonetic stage (Bear Templeton model) or transitional stage (Gentry (1981), p. 143 and Zutell (1998), p. 143) of spelling development.

The within word is the third stage of spelling development and is typically seen in children who are in late first grade to middle fourth grade. This is also the stage of spelling development for most adult learners who did not complete high-school. These students have the following characteristics: learn to identify initial and final consonants, accuracy on r controlled vowels, grasp on long vowel words, understands the silent e pattern, and word family patterns. These students are aware of- -the possibility for spelling a- -particular sound in- -more than one way . These students are moving out of- -the alphabetic stage and learning the different patterns that can make up- -the same sound. These students are approaching fluency; however, they are still beginning readers and writers.

Techniques to help children progress through the within word stage include: word study with a focus on long vowel patterns, comparing words with r controlled vowel, and work progressively to the less common diphthongs such as (OI, OU, AU, OW), and toward the end of this stage the student should begin examining triple blends and more complex patterns such as the consonant units (THR, STR, DGE, TCH, CK).

The within word stage is sometimes considered to be the most difficult because it mainly deals with the patterns, including long vowel patterns in which there are many possibilities for example, (for example rain, rane, time, tiam, ).

[within word graphic.doc]

Summary:

The spelling stages show a strong correlation to the developmental stages of reading which includes emergent, beginning, transitional, intermediate, and advanced, as well as being related to the development of students writing.

External links:

http://www.jrichardgentry.com

http://www.unr.edu/cll/data%20files/Bear%20Words%20Your%20Way%20%20Presentation%201-37.ppt#1

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li100.htm

http://www.csub.edu/~gmohler/documents/word_study.ppt#1

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=spelling_spotlight1

References

Beers, J. and Henderson, E. A. Study of developing orthographic concepts among first grade children. Research in the teaching of English, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Fall, 1977), pp. 133-148.

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2004). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (3rd ed.). Upper Saddler River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

McCormick, S. (2003). Instructing students who have literacy problems (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Tompkins, G. E. (2003). Literacy for the 21st century: teaching reading and writing in pre-kindergarten through grade 4. Upper Saddle River; NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Rumelhart, D.E. (1994). Toward an interactive model of reading. In Ruddell, R.B., Ruddell, M.R., & Singer, H. (Eds.), Theorectical models and processes of reading (4th ed.), (pp. 1149-1179). International Reading Association.

Templeton, S. and Morris, D. (1999). Questions teachers ask about spelling. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(1), 102-112.

Ansell, P.M., Nelson, N.W. & VanMeter, A.M. (2004). Measuring spelling growth over time in elementary writing samples. Retrieved from http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:xwJJpCMwhZkJ:convention.asha.org/2004/handouts/handout_184283.ppt+Gentry+Model+of+spelling+stages&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

Johnson, K., Bayrd, P. & Davis, B. (2004). Megawords. (pp. 1-17). Educators Publishing Serivce.

Commentary by Cindy Boles:

I enjoyed reading your page on The Within Word Pattern Spelling Stage. I was particularly interested in the paragraph that offered techniques to help students progress through this stage. Very informative.

You might consider expanding on the definition of within word pattern spelling by describing characteristics of students in this stage in your first paragraph instead of down in your third paragraph. This might be helpful to less-experienced or less-knowledgeable readers.

In the paragraph that begins with, "Techniques to help...," word study could be linked to the word study page to give the reader additional resources.

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=spelling_spotlight1 - I really enjoyed this link concerning spelling!

Overall, your page is concise and developed from a wide variety of sources.

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Commentary by Deborah Louie

Just one spelling error: first paragraph, first sentence-the word "developes".

I found the statements in your third paragraph very interesting concerning the "adult learners who did not complete high school" stage of spelling development being at the within word stage. Where is the reference for this statement?

I think the techniques listed in the fourth paragraph would be helpful for readers in this stage of development. I would definitely want to use them to help my students in this stage.

Again, great statements that I agree with concerning this stage of reading development but not sure about the link to your references.

Just a postnote: the second paragraph, first sentence should have a date after the reference (Gentry).

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Commentary by Jeanice Lewis

Elizabeth, you did a good job on your page. Cynthia and Debbie gave trustworthy advice to improve the content of your page. Just to make navigating through your information smoother, you may want to consider adding links on your supplemental pages back to your main page; for example, at the top your orthography page, use brackets to link back to your Within-Word Patterns page. You could also do that for your other supplementary pages. Also on your external links, instead of having the URLs, tell what it is by adding the brackets and the straight line between the URL and the title of the link.

Literacy Development and Word Study Instruction

Addressing the Literacy Needs of Emergent and Early Readers

Stages of Spelling Development

Spotlight on Spelling