Teaching Reading and Writing: The Developmental Approach, 2nd edition

"Learning to read and spell words in English involves learning about the logic of word structure at the level of sound and at the level of meaning. We'll briefly examine the logic at the level of meaning here, and in Chapter 2 address this level more deeply as well as the logic at the level of sound. Subsequent chapters will provide support in how we teach about these levels to students at different developmental levels. Recall from the previous section how the structure of words gives important clues to their meaning. Among words that are related in meaning there is a strong visual connection, captured in the spelling of the related words. This relationship is referred to as the spelling-meaning connection: "Words that are related in meaning are often related in spelling as well, despite changes in sound" (Templeton, 1983, 2012). It also explains most of the "odd" spellings in the English language. For example, why are there silent consonants in the following words? Although it stands for three different sounds, the letter i is there because it helps to maintain the visual relationship among these words, which are related in meaning. Why do many consonant letters stand for different sounds? The spelling-meaning connection explains most of these: When reading Al Capone Does My Shirts, for example, Sandra Madura and her students discussed the profession of Moose Flanagan's dad: electrician. Sandra wrote the word electric on the white board and then the word electrician underneath it. She underlined the final c in both words and reminded the students how words related in meaning are often related in their spelling. Even though the sound that the c represents changes when -ian is added to electric, the spelling does not change because of the meaning relationship that these two words share. When students develop an awareness and understanding of these connections between spelling and meaning, their vocabularies also grow in breadth and in depth. This is the second principle of vocabulary instruction as we previously discussed"--