Dictation

Students in dictation class have been focusing on reading and spelling words that follow the vowel-consonant-e pattern and comparing them with words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Students sort, compare, read, and write words and sentences using words with these patterns. We have emphasized spelling patterns for certain consonant sounds at the ends of these types of words. For example, /k/ is spelled -k in V-C-e words (bake), but -ck in C-V-C words (back). Now students are learning the patterns for adding -ed and -ing to V-C-e words (take away the -e and add the ending: hope-->hoped, hoping), and to C-V-C words (double a single consonant and add the ending: hop-->hopped, hopping). Attending to these word patterns is helping students' reading and writing become more fluent.