Teacher Notes The English Language Fidel
Caleb Gattegno
Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.
First American edition published in 1977. Reprinted in 2009. Copyright Š 1977-2009 Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc. Author: Caleb Gattegno All rights reserved ISBN 0-87225-136-7 Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc. 2nd Floor 99 University Place, New York, N.Y. 10003-4555 www.EducationalSolutions.com
Table of contents
The Problem ................................................................ 1 The Solution ................................................................3 Learning To Spell.........................................................5 A Good Speller.................................................................................. 5
The Techniques............................................................9 Technique 1 ......................................................................................9 Technique 2 .................................................................................... 10 Technique 3 .....................................................................................11 Technique 4 .....................................................................................11
The Games ................................................................. 13 Level One........................................................................................ 13 Game 1 ...................................................................................... 13 Game 2..................................................................................... 14 Game 3...................................................................................... 14 Level Two ....................................................................................... 15 Game 4 ..................................................................................... 16 Game 5.......................................................................................17 Level Three ..................................................................................... 18 Game 6 ..................................................................................... 18
Game 7...................................................................................... 18 Level Four.......................................................................................20 Game 8 .....................................................................................20 Additional Games...........................................................................20 Game 9 .....................................................................................20 Game 10.................................................................................... 21 Game 11 .................................................................................... 22 Game 12.................................................................................... 23 Game 13 ....................................................................................24
The Problem
A study of the English language from the point of view of its orthography brings to the surface several types of ambiguities. In English writing: •
one sound may be represented by:
one letter or a group of letters open, delicious / ten,6 Wednesday / fan, phone / right, wrong / thanks, tongue several different groups of letters precious/righteous/thoroughly/presidential •
one letter may represent
one or two sounds done, One / flu, Use / anxiety, exam
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Teacher Notes
different single sounds at, all, any, art /us, is, Sugar, measure different pairs of sounds six, exam, anxious, luxury •
one or two letters may represent not only a consonant sound but also an unstressed vowel sound that precedes a consonant
rhythm(әm) / iron(әr) / table(әl) / fire(әr)
2
The Solution
In order to solve the pedagogical problems arising due to these ambiguities, we have taken the 58 sounds or combinations-ofsounds of spoken English and organized them with respect to their spellings. On the English Language Fidel the various spellings for the 23 vowel sounds and the 35 consonant sounds are arranged in columns. The vowel sounds appear on the top half and the consonant sounds on the bottom half. Each column contains all the signs (we call them 'signs' whether they are formed of one letter or more) for a given sound. We have given color to each column to serve as a clue for sound/sign relationship. The challenge presented by the ambiguities inherent in English orthography, is adequately met through this colorful array. The challenge of making students better at spelling is met through the techniques of using the Fidel and the exercises in which students can be easily involved, all of which are part of the solution. The techniques and game-like activities described 3
Teacher Notes
in the following pages make the Fidel into a versatile instrument for the teaching and learning of spelling.
4
Learning To Spell
A Good Speller is able, when it is useful for some reason, to name in correct sequence the letters of any given word; this is because he knows in his flesh which design formed of these letters is the accepted written rendering of a spoken word, and thus he is able to encode (as well as decode) words correctly. The first one of these two aspects is commonly used as the procedure for teaching spelling. Those who are taught through this procedure may or may not become good spellers. If they do, it is because, while naming the sequence of letters — or while writing these sequences over and over as an assigned drill — they have also been able to do certain things with themselves other than what they are told to do. They have done on their own what is implied in the second aspect of being a good speller. 5
Teacher Notes
The challenge to teachers, therefore, is: what procedure to adopt for teaching spelling so that becoming good spellers in the second sense is facilitated. The instrument, techniques and exercises offered by us through the spelling kit are designed to help teachers with this. The Fidel displays the reality of English orthography arranged systematically. The suggested exercises allow students to relate to the Fidel in such a way that they cannot help but know what written words are like. Through the exercises students: •
perceive the reality of English spelling
•
come to see the links between the uttered sounds and the signs which represent them in writing in any given word
•
learn to look for and discriminatingly find the accepted correct written renderings of spoken words by using the criteria generated through their perception
•
write down words knowing which specific signs represent which specific sounds in any given word
•
pay attention to the precise look of the overall design formed by the letters as they appear in the particular sequence accepted as the written rendering
6
Learning To Spell
•
evoke in their minds what a given word looks like and check if they have the criteria to say that they recognize what they have evoked to be right (or not).
Through these uses of themselves the students are encouraged to pay special attention to the anatomy of words.
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The Techniques
Technique 1 Moving the pointer from sign to sign- is the technique we use to indicate the sequence of signs in words. This movement gives a temporality to the order in which signs appear in given words and thus generates a direct correspondence between the temporal order of the sounds in speech and the spatial order of their spellings in writing. The movement of the arm, along with the selection and perception of the shapes, helps students retain the sequence and create the total design in their minds. The teacher (and soon after, the students) holds the pointer and stands on one side of the Fidel so as not to obstruct the vision of others while pointing out a word. In doing this one needs:
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Teacher Notes
1
to look for the columns in the sequence corresponding to the order in which the sounds (they represent) occur in the spoken word, and
2 to look for the sign in each which tradition requires for the word as the column is chosen. For students who have come to think of spelling mainly as the individual letters, awareness of the sounds in words can be renewed by separating these two activities when the work on the more difficult levels of spelling begins: first pointing to the sequence of columns, and then during a second pointing finding the exact sign in each column required for spelling correctly a particular word.
Technique 2 Other students in the class participate in determining whether the columns and the specific signs within the columns are being pointed out correctly. The doubts expressed are examined and proper changes are made as required with regard to columns or signs within a column. Students are given opportunities to correct their own and one another's mistakes. This technique allows students to learn to choose correctly through the process of elimination and to take responsibility for their learning. It also allows students to take care of mistakes consciously, while working in a cooperative spirit.
10
The Techniques
Technique 3 In order to actively involve students' power of evocation, we suggest that students close their eyes and note if they can envisage as a unified design the words they have shown on the Fidel, or have seen somewhere else. This technique generates self-reliance in students and prepares them to feel certain when they are right.
Technique 4 The next activity is to let students write down, on paper or on the chalkboard, the words they have formed on the Fidel and evoked in their minds. It can be fun for students to exchange their notebooks, to read what others have written, and to discuss which is the correct way of writing words and showing them on the Fidel. Since students meet the words again and again in the course of various learning activities — such as pointing out, evoking, writing down, and reading' back — the drudgery of repetition is avoided. These techniques also give continuous feedback which allows teachers to evaluate all the time the learning taking place. Soon after beginning to use the Fidel, teachers as well as students can make the observation that the signs given at the top of the columns occur in a number of words while less and 11
Teacher Notes
less frequent spellings appear lower down in the columns. Presenting the whole of the Fidel gives students a sense of the way their language behaves, arouses their curiosity and maintains their interest in what they have yet to learn.
NOTE: From this point on, 1
all stars (*) give page references to Suggested Words and Sentences in a footnote.
2 all (#) indicate the work is extended in the Source Book
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
Level One for helping students learn the sound/sign correspondence Game 1 Teachers can prepare a list of common words using only the top spelling in a number of columns. The teacher may form one of these words by pointing it out on the Fidel and present students with the challenge of forming as many words as they can with that word as part of them. For example: an
and, sand, ban, band, hand, ant, tan, pant, pants, strand, sandman, handstand, grandstand . . . . . .
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Teacher Notes
it
sit, pit, bit, lit, bandit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .*
Game 2 The same set of words can be used in a slightly different way. Students can be asked to start with a given word and to transform it into other words. For example: on
not, pot, pots, spots, stops . . . . . . . . . . .
ten tent, sent, spent, spend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . up
pup, pump, pumps, mumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .*
The techniques mentioned before of forming words by pointing out on the Fidel, helping one another in the activity, evoking the words, writing them down, and reading what others have written, are all part of these exercises as well as of the ones that follow. Game 3 Phrases and then sentences may be formed containing words which students have generated out of the little words given by teacher or students.∑ For example:
* page 1 ∑
Since sentences are now being pointed out a word about the rules of capitalization is
appropriate here. The students who have already learned to use the capitals will automatically apply their knowledge while writing words and sentences. Those students who are not
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
is it / it is / as it is / is it as it is a man / a sad man / dad is a sad man as ten men sat in the tent, sam sent torn in * Note: In playing this game the unstressed sound of the sixth vowel column ('schwa') needs to be used in the words a and the. ** Students can be asked to play these games until they are comfortable in using the instrument. These beginning exercises provide students with opportunities to work in a way in which they take initiative and assume responsibility. This prepares them to move on to more challenging games.
acquainted with these rules will do better as spellers if they are allowed to pay attention to the problem of spelling first and only at a later stage have the conventional rules of capitalization introduced.
* page 1 ** note at top of page 1
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Teacher Notes
Level Two moving toward the complex spellings, and words of several syllables using almost all sounds Game 4 Students can now be asked to work on 'harder' words in which one sign is composed of two letters representing one sound. They now meet multi-syllabic words in which some of the signs represent the unstressed vowel Bounds so characteristic of English. * We can now insist that students listen to the number of beats they utter in a spoken word, and take note of the ones they stress and unstress. Careful listening can bring students closer to this aspect of their spoken speech and to the actual sound they give to the vowel which forms the core of each beat. Linking their speech to written signs by means of the Fidel, they can make sequences like : puppet, asset, assist, assistant, insistent . . . stamps, stamped, Stampede, stammer . . . . . . . . . . . will, willing, willingly, unwillingly . . . . . . . . .
* note at top of page 2
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
other, mother, brother, another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ** Again the techniques of working would be those that encourage initiative and responsibility. Game 5 Sentences using words of this level of difficulty can now be orally dictated, and students asked to hold each sentence as a whole in their minds. They then take turns pointing these out on the Fidel. Also sentences can be pointed out on the Fidel (visual dictation) and students asked at the end of this pointing to say each sentence and then write it down. For example: — my brother will come willingly — the man stamped a letter — in the stampede at the match he lost her * When the students have written down a number of such sentences they can exchange their books and/or read aloud the sentences. They will use their own criteria to see if there are any misspelled words and will consult the Fidel if they need to.
** page 2 * pages 2, 4, and 6
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Teacher Notes
Level Three for working on: ‘long’ words words with different signs representing the same sound words with the same signs representing different sounds Game 6 Words and sentences can now be proposed by the teacher and the students which exemplify these characteristics and are interesting in terms of their meaning and usage. For example: similar, similarity, simultaneous, scent, century, sentinel, sententious, conscious, delicious, sufficient, concentration, commission, physician . . . . . .*# — the sententious endlessly
priest
belabored
the
point
— whether they were dead or alive, people's names appeared on the ballots — the travel agent at once agreed to alter the routing *# Game 7 After students have had sufficient practice on all of these levels to feel 'at home' on the Fidel, teachers can ask them to produce their individual lists of words and attempt to use these words in
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
sentences. This activity can be guided by the teacher and the challenge made progressively more difficult. Students may be asked to prepare lists: •
of one-syllable words they know for sure how to spell correctly
•
of multi-syllabic words they feel sure of spelling correctly
•
of words they utter aloud and, after carefully listening to their own voices write down — underlining those signs about whose correctness they have some doubt
Students can take turns pointing out their words on the Fidel while others read them aloud and determine together which are the right signs to go to on the Fidel. New lists can be prepared containing words common to the lists. Students may be struck by some of the words on other people's lists and may be encouraged to include them in their lists. Students may be given one, two or three of these words to use together in one sentence. As they do so, they can be challenged to examine what part is played by the various meanings of the words when they are linked together in the same sentence.
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Teacher Notes
Level Four for considering commonly used words which are exceptional in terms of their spelling because of their choice of letters for a particular sound Game 8 Hunting and collecting, words of this type by working individually and in groups, at school and at home. For example: iron, fire, sapphire, giraffe, colonel, lieutenant, sergeant, catarrh, hemorrhage, stereophonic, diaphragm #
Additional Games to be introduced at any of the preceding levels Game 9 In a word, pointing out all signs except one; touching the wall above the Fidel for this "gap" and letting others point out what the missing sound with its appropriate sign could or should be. For example: p __ t / st __ p / thr ___ / ____ t
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
The same can be done with sentences leaving out one or two words. Game 10 Reclassifying words into groups on the basis that a part of the written form belongs to all of them and thus, in some way, makes them look alike even though they are not in any way related in meaning. For example: ill
pill, till, sill, mill, chill, spill, skill, frill, quill, illustrate illiterate, etc. . . . . . . . .
old
told, bold, sold, gold, cold, hold, behold, unfold, soldier, etc. . . . . . .
ate
late, fate, pate, plate, state, hate, crate, gate, dictate, inflate, translate, frustrate, operate, irritate, educate, concentrate, private, pirate, climate, chocolate, etc . . . . . . . . . . . .
ode
mode, bode, rode, strode, erode, corrode, code, cathode, decode, explode, episode, modeling, etc . . . . . . . . .
able
cable, table, sable, unstable, reasonable, acceptable, educable, penetrable, permeable, irritable, etc . . . . .
low
slow, flow, glow, blow, below, billow, pillow, willow, hollow, follow, fellow, yellow, mellow, plow, flower, clowner, etc . . .
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Teacher Notes
Game 11 Grouping words for special reasons, such as •
words whose spelling is affected in a similar way when various endings are added : For example: fun, funny, funnies / stop, stopped, stopping . . . write, written / bite, bitten . . . . try, tries / dry, dries / carry, carries . . .
•
pairs of words whose spelling maintains a consistency when one is formed from the other even when the sounding of the second word becomes quite different — either of the vowels or consonants, or of both. This means that knowing the spelling of the first helps one in spelling the second. Example democrat-►democracy critic-►criticize confident-►confidential office-►official erudite-►erudition music-►musician fast-►fasten haste-►chasten limber-►limb muscular-►muscle signal-►sign-►design
•
words which are all connected in origin and manifest consistent ways of changing their spelling (and sometimes their sounding) when one is generated from the other. For example: image, imagery, imaging, imagine, imagines, imagined, imagination, imaginary, imaginable, imaginative, unimaginatively
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
•
words which sound alike but have different meanings and spellings (homonyms) For example: no, know / so, sew, sow / pear, pair, pare..., — pare a pair of pears
•
words which have the same spelling but are different sounding and have different meanings (homographs). For example: sow, sow / wind, wind / content, content.... — my sow pulls up what I sow — he felt content with the content of his book
Game 12 Studying each particular sign which is found in more than one column on the Fidel and listing as many examples as possible of its various sound values, # For example:
23
Teacher Notes
Game 13 Studying all the columns one at a time on the Fidel and finding as many examples as possible for the various signs within it. For example: sh
shock, shoe, splash, wish . . . . .
ch
chef, machine, michigan, chamois . . . . .
t
action, generation, partial, pretentious . . . . .
s
sugar, sure, pension, expansion . . . . .
ss
tissue, obsession, pressure . . . . .
c
precious, appreciate, special . . . . .
sch
schist (Br. Eng. schedule) . . . . .
sc
conscience, conscientious . . . . .
che
cache, moustache . . . . .
This last game can be played at first by studying examples of the top 2, 3, or 4 signs in each column –i.e. the common spellings — before trying to collect examples of the less frequently used signs found further down the columns.
All these games foster students' powers of perception, imagery, recall, and recognition. Retention takes place because the inner
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The Games Which Make The Fidel Into A Friend
resources are mobilized. Students are able to learn to be good spellers by being actively involved in their learning and thus do not need to rely on memorization. As teachers and their students work with the Fidel, they would discover many more ways of using this instrument.
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The Games WhichTeacher Make The Notes Fidel Into A Friend
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