Title of Strategy: Hand Spelling
Description: Hand spelling is a key technique for moving children from Phase 1 to Phase 2 for beginning reading. It helps students focus attention on the beginning sound such as /c/ in words like cat. (Taken from Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing by Richard Gentry)
The reference made to the phases of spelling are based on Gentry’s work:
Phase 0 – No letters
Phase 1 – Letters without sound representation
Phase 2 – Beginning and ending sound represented
Phase 3 – Finger spelling/Representing a letter for a sound
Phase 4 – Spelling in chunks of phonics patterns
Procedure:
1. Introduce Hand Spelling with words that are easier to discriminate, such as rat, cat, fat and pat, featuring the thumb up with the /r/, /k/, /f/, and /p/, respectively.
2. Practice Hand Spelling with your students. (Richard Gentry’s hand spelling (Gentry, 2007, pg. 26), a multisensory technique that makes onset-rime patterns visible and kinesthetic, “materializes” the onset sound and the rime pattern, or “chunk”. Hand spelling involves 4 steps:)
1) make a fist as you say the whole word
2) put a thumb up for the onset as you say the first sound of the word
3) extend the fingers out for the rime part as if getting ready to shake someone’s hand as you say the rest of the word
4) close the open fist as if “grabbing” the onset & rime sounds and pulling them together as you say the whole word
3. Once students get the hang of hand spelling, they can use the technique to focus attention and hear the beginning /h/ sound in words featured in a poem: house, hill, and hole.
Description: Hand spelling is a key technique for moving children from Phase 1 to Phase 2 for beginning reading. It helps students focus attention on the beginning sound such as /c/ in words like cat. (Taken from Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing by Richard Gentry)
The reference made to the phases of spelling are based on Gentry’s work:
Phase 0 – No letters
Phase 1 – Letters without sound representation
Phase 2 – Beginning and ending sound represented
Phase 3 – Finger spelling/Representing a letter for a sound
Phase 4 – Spelling in chunks of phonics patterns
Procedure:
1. Introduce Hand Spelling with words that are easier to discriminate, such as rat, cat, fat and pat, featuring the thumb up with the /r/, /k/, /f/, and /p/, respectively.
2. Practice Hand Spelling with your students. (Richard Gentry’s hand spelling (Gentry, 2007, pg. 26), a multisensory technique that makes onset-rime patterns visible and kinesthetic, “materializes” the onset sound and the rime pattern, or “chunk”. Hand spelling involves 4 steps:)
1) make a fist as you say the whole word
2) put a thumb up for the onset as you say the first sound of the word
3) extend the fingers out for the rime part as if getting ready to shake someone’s hand as you say the rest of the word
4) close the open fist as if “grabbing” the onset & rime sounds and pulling them together as you say the whole word
3. Once students get the hang of hand spelling, they can use the technique to focus attention and hear the beginning /h/ sound in words featured in a poem: house, hill, and hole.