Teaching Ideas for Using Alternative Spellings - A set of spelling games that teach children to choose which spelling of a particular phoneme to choose

There are a number of Alternative Spelling resources, each one based on a different phoneme. These ideas use /ai/ as an example.

Phonics Learning Opportunities

To know alternative spellings for the /ai/ phoneme.

To know the 'best bet' for spelling words containing the /ai/ phoneme.

To use knowledge about the /ai/ phoneme to help in spelling words.

Organisation

Whole class, small group, 1:1.

Children can play the 'Word Sort' element of the game independently.

Teaching ideas

There are three main elements to each resource. You can work through each element in turn or go directly to any element via the menu.

1) Phoneme Spotter - based on particular non-fiction text types

2) Word Sort - sorting words by the way the spelling used for the /ai/ phoneme

3) Best Bet - the best bets for spelling words containing the /ai/ phoneme

One suggestion is to tackle one long vowel phoneme (e.g. /ai/) each week. Focus on learning the alternative spellings for threee days, practise spelling words containing this phoneme on the fourth day and use the fifth day to tackle another objective e.g. consonant phonemes or HFW. For more details see the Phase 5c Weekly Overview and the Phase 5c Daily Planning for more information.

Day 1 - Choose Phoneme Spotter. Read the text aloud, asking the children to listen carefully for the /ai/ phoneme. Reread the first sentence or two and ask children to put their thumbs up when they hear that phoneme (they may find this easier with their eyes closed). In pairs, give children a printed copy of the phoneme spotter. Ask them to underline all the words they can find containing the phoneme and ask them to see how many ways of spelling the phoneme they can find. They can jot these down on the side of the page.

Click on the Reveal Graphemes button. The /ai/ phonemes will be revealed as well as a list of all the graphemes included in the phoneme spotter. Go through the list of graphemes and get the children to tick all the ones that they found.

Day 2 - Choose Word Sort. Recap all the graphemes along the top of the screen and remind children that they discovered yesterday that they can all represent the same phoneme (You could quickly play the phoneme spotter again to jog their memories before you start).

Click the red button to reveal a word card. Ask a child to sound talk the word. Ask all children to write the grapheme from this word that represents the /ai/ on their whiteboards. Drag the word to the column headed by the grapheme that the majority of children wrote down.

Continue with the rest of the words. Keep moving at a quick pace. Encourage the child to watch carefully where words end up on the chart and to look for patterns. Can they identify the best bet (which is the most commonly used grapheme for the /ai/ phoneme)? Can they find any other rules (e.g. graphemes that only occur at the start/end of words or before certain letters)?

Go to Best Bet. Ask the children to discuss in pairs which graphemes are hidden behind the yellow boxes. Ask them to write them on whiteboards. Click the boxes to reveal whether they are right or not.

Day 3 - Play Word Sort again but this time ask the children to play independently, in pairs or small groups. They could play this on computers in the computer suite or you could use the paper based versions on the site.

Day 4 - Play a spelling game of your choice e.g. Quickwrite Words (p117 Letters and Sounds) to practise spelling a selection of words containing the /ai/ phoneme.

Day 5 - Tackle a different learning objective e.g. alternative spellings of consonant phonemes or spelling HFW (high frequency words).

For further information see Letters and Sounds p144 -147