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DIGRAPHS IN DEPTH
WEBINARwith Lyn Stone
© Lyn Stone 2020 all rights reserved
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PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF
Linguist in private practice
Author of books and programs on spelling, grammar, reading and soon…writing
Consultant
Consumer
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I OFTEN GET ASKED TRICKY
QUESTIONS
“Why does the <a> say its name in change but not chance?”
“What’s the <b> doing in debt?”
“Should you teach split digraphs?”
“Are -ff, -ss, -ll digraphs?”
My answer is always the same…
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“WELL THAT DEPENDS…”
1. What else are you teaching?
2. Where did you start?
3. What’s your end point?
4. How will you know if your students have reached that?
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DO YOU HAVE A SYSTEM?
Every major public inquiry into the teaching of reading in the past three decades has concluded certain things about teaching reading:
§ Be systematic
§ Be explicit
§ Don’t be random
§ Teach the structure of written words
§ There are plenty of resources for this
§ If you feel you have to ask a random question about teaching a certain pattern, what are you really saying?
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DIGRAPHS
"two letters used to represent one sound"
Greek di- “twice” + -graph ”something written”
Also:
dichotomy
dilemma
dioxide
diphthong
biography
autograph
photograph
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AS OPPOSED TO DIAGRAPH
"instrument for drawing objects without the need for artistic skill,”
stencil-cutter, precursor to the 3D printer
dia- “through, in different directions, between” + -graph
Also:
diagram
diagonal
diameter
diarrhoea
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TPT HAS A LOT TO ANSWER FOR
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WHAT’S THE POINT OF DIGRAPHS ANYWAY?
The Roman alphabet wasn’t adequate
The Normans had their own way of doing things
The recombination of a limited set of symbols allows unlimited expression
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WHAT’S THE POINT OF WORD-FINAL E?
Mostly, it helps signal pronunciation and grammar.
can/cane, hop/hope, rag/rage, dense/dens
It also solves problems of standardization (illegal letters, syllables having vowel letters):
due, lie, live.
Does it form so-called ‘split digraphs’?
That depends on your system. Even the great John Walker of Sounds Write doubts it:
“Although I believe that we teach teachers how to cope with so-called split spellings very well indeed, and I believe that, in the main, our approach works well, I think that there may be a better, more credible alternative.”
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DIGRAPHS AND WORD-FINAL E ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGSDIGRAPHS
th
sh
ch
oo
ea
ie
WORD-FINAL E
cane, Pete, pine, hope, cute
race, rage
due, live, lie
lapse
table, uncle, people
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a system for forming all the possible 2-letter vowels
2 letters/1 sound = digraph
THE VOWEL GENERATOR
A device used to produce something
GENERATOR DEFINITION:
a
e
i
o
u
+?
h
VOWEL COMBINATIONS
THE VOWEL GENERATOR
a e i o uaeiou
wr yX ae ai X au awar ayea ei X eu ewer eyX ie X X X Xir Xoa oe oi oo ou owor oyX ue ui X Xur uyX
ee
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I CONTINUE TO USE SPLIT DIGRAPHS?Not much
You could do a lot worse
If your system allows for that and your children are succeeding in spelling, well done.
If your system allows for that and you intend to give them more linguisticallyaccurate information up the track, even better.
From a clinical perspective, my population is utterly confused by this and continues to make word-final e errors in writing, because all the emphasis went on this split digraph concept with no follow-up.
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Stay in touch
Twitter• @lifelonglit
Facebook• Lifelong Literacy
Website• www.lifelongliteracy.com
Email• [email protected]
Newsletter• Language Fountain
W
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REFERENCES
John Walker’s blog on ‘split spellings’ –
https://theliteracyblog.com/2015/10/16/why-the-split-spelling-cracks-me-up/?fbclid=IwAR3xsRVUMnFgeW6OvYdsMVojiEGAeACv9zjbB0mvY4D40E2eHRPokFR2sZw
Spelling for Life scope and sequence
https://lifelongliteracy.com/shop/spelling-for-life-professional-development-workshops/
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