S4 E4 - Connecting Explicit Teaching and Engagement in Years 3 to 6 Spelling

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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast.

I'm Jocelyn, and today we're diving into a topic that's pretty important for teachers in grades three to six:

How do we connect explicit, structured spelling instruction with opportunities for application and engagement?

Now I know what some of you might be thinking, Jocelyn isn't explicit teaching of spelling just about repeated practice and low variance instruction? Yes, that's a fair question, but I'm here to tell you that effective spelling instruction is so much more than that. It's about helping students truly understand how words work.

Let's start by talking about what we mean by explicit teaching of spelling. We're not just looking at phonics here, although that's certainly a part of it. We're talking about a multi-linguistic approach that incorporates phonics, orthography, morphology and etymology. These four areas of word knowledge are interconnected and students need to understand all of them to become proficient spellers. Now let's break down what explicit instruction looks like in spelling.

First

Firstly, we need to make sure that there's only one main learning focus at a time, not per day with something different done each day. Students are learning one thing, and once they start to get that, then we can move on to the next part of the Explicit Teaching Model, where we're providing opportunity for supported practice over time with consolidation. Then we could move on.

Second

Number two, ensure that students have the opportunity to both read and spell at word and sentence level in teacher-led lessons. What this does is it enables the students to understand the word from multiple perspectives, and including the sentence work really builds connection to the meaning.

Third

The third point is to provide opportunity for students to apply new learning in the context of meaningful texts and passages. In the early years that could be decodable texts and then they're reading whatever is appropriate after that, but this happens after the teacher-led direct introduction and practice. If you have access to The Resource Room, you also have access to over a hundred reading passages to use for this work in morphology.

Fourth

When introducing a new concept, adopt a direct, explicit approach that involves you just telling students what they're learning. Show them what they're learning, model how to use it, check that they've understood what you've taught by asking them to provide a response and every student needs to respond, by the way way, not just the ones with their hands up.

We're looking for full participation in adult-led instruction as a must. There's no opting out.

Fifth

Number five is to provide many opportunities to review and practice newly learned concepts and content for longer than you think is necessary. The "We Do" part, the supported practice, is critical and we often move too quickly through it.

Sixth

Finally, be clear on what content is most appropriate for what stages of learning to read and spell.

If you want to hear more about how to make sure that your spelling approach is explicit and learn about red flags that your instruction perhaps isn't meeting the mark, have a listen to Season 3, Episode 19, How To Make Sure That Your Spelling Instruction Is Explicit. It's important to note that while all students benefit from this explicit approach, they may move through the phases of the Explicit Teaching Model at different speeds. Our high flyers might need less time in the supported practice phase, while others might need more intensive support.

One crucial aspect of effective spelling instruction is the focus on building declarative knowledge. We're not just teaching students to do spelling. We're teaching them to know about spelling and understand how words work. This includes understanding concepts like bases, prefixes and suffixes and how they work together to create meaning in words and create structure that is predictable that we can use.

For example, when teaching about the prefix /un/, we don't just give students a list of words starting with /un/ to memorise. We explain what /un/ means, how it changes the meaning of a word, and we practice identifying and using it in different contexts. This builds students' understanding of how words work, which they can then apply to new words they encounter.

Now I want to address something I hear a lot from teachers. They worry that this kind of structured, explicit teaching might be boring or too rigid.

But here's the thing: explicit teaching doesn't mean inflexible teaching.

We're aiming for low variance instruction, not no variance instruction.

And remember, the student's attitude towards this learning comes from you. The enthusiasm that you display for the teaching and for the lessons and for words themselves is contagious. They'll pick it up. So, if you want to keep your students on track and engaged, bring energy to the lesson, and I don't mean being a children's entertainer, but bring enthusiasm to the process and they'll be there with you.

What does this look like in practice? Well, let's say we're teaching about the suffix /ness/. We start with explicit teaching on what it means and how it's used. We practice together identifying words with /ness/ and creating new words by adding it to adjectives. But then, and this is crucial, we provide opportunities for students to apply this knowledge in context. This might involve reading text that includes words with /ness/ and discussing how the suffix affects the meaning. Or it could involve a written task where students are encouraged to use words with /ness/ in sentences and, for our more capable students, perhaps even short paragraphs.

This application phase is where we can differentiate our instruction. Everybody needs access to the same rich learning around the same core content that is appropriate for our age. Our high flyers might be ready to use these words in complex sentences or short paragraphs, while others might need more scaffolded practice. If your school has taken on Spelling Success in Action as your whole school approach to teaching morphology, you also have the student readers with differentiated passages so that students can engage with the same content as peers with differing levels of complexity. In this way, you're able to meet the needs of your students who need extra support and your high flyers.

Remember context is important, but it comes after the initial introduction. We don't start by asking students to find words with /ness/ in a text. We teach the concept explicitly first, then provide opportunities for application in meaningful contexts. You see, explicit teaching isn't about dumbing things down. It's about making the learning process clear and accessible to everyone. It's about breaking down complex skills and knowledge into manageable chunks, modelling those chunks and then providing guided practice before independent application.

This leads to a high number of successful learning trials, which we know from the work of many researchers in this space (such as Rosenshine and Archer) is so important.

You don't have to choose between explicit teaching and student curiosity about words. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Within an explicit structure, we can still foster curiosity, engagement and excitement.

How? Let me give you a few practical ideas when it comes to spelling.

1.

Include a discussion of word history in your morphology instruction. Students love hearing about how this word or that word came from the Vikings or the Romans when they invaded England. High-flying students particularly have their interest piqued when the structure of less transparent words is explained. I can hear you say: but Jocelyn, I don't know about the structure of less transparent words. The great news here is that you don't have to know everything. One of the good things about the internet age is a little website called EtymOnline that shares details of the origins and histories of words.

We also include details of etymology in the Teacher Guide for Spelling Success in Action 2, so that you have what you need at your fingertips. But you don't have to be the only one doing the investigating.

2.

When your students come across interesting words or ask you questions that you don't know the answer to, and I promise you it's going to happen, pop them on an I Wonder Board, then schedule time for word investigations or, dare I say it, inquiry, a couple of times per term for 20 minutes or so. The I Wonder Board is a great way to park questions that you just don't have time to answer or investigate in the moment. But we don't want to dismiss students' curiosity, we want to foster it.

3.

Don't confine discussion of words to the spelling lesson. Make every lesson a language lesson by including very brief word study in the content learning across the curriculum. This helps with spelling, vocabulary and comprehension. If you can link vocabulary across the curriculum with your literacy block morphology lessons, that's even better. But please don't hold off on this instruction or twist yourself in knots trying to make it happen.

4.

Four, recognise that not all students need the same level of intensity of instruction and not all students are ready to be released into word investigation at the same time, if at all. Some students will thrive on having just a little bit more room to investigate words of their choosing. Others will find it confusing and overwhelming. The way to hold space for these various needs is to schedule some weeks of no new content, in our work that's every fifth week and it's called a consolidation week. During this time, we're able to engage the whole class in reviewing the previous four weeks of content, and this is in addition to the daily practice.

Then there's a short period of time where students could complete one of two tasks.

They could complete a closed sentence crossword, such as the ones available inside The Resource Room, but your really intellectually curious, high-flying students might take some words from the I Wonder Board and look them up.

This doesn't have to be one-size-fits-all, but it's also not a free-for-all. Please remember that this comes after the teacher-led low variance instruction that ensures that everyone has a strong foundation. And it's not that we do the explicit teaching to get to this good stuff, it's simply that the application and curiosity investigation comes once we've made sure everyone knows what they're talking about. It's like the sauce on your dinner. If we keep this principle in mind, we'll be working with the Explicit Teaching Model and supporting our students' cognitive load.

Explicit teaching isn't mind-numbing instruction. If your students are slumped in their seats, bored, something is wrong. It's entirely possible to maintain low variance across classrooms and provide engaging, interesting experience for students as they build knowledge about words.

And here's the thing, if you're doing the low variance lessons right, your students will be engaged and curious. If you're having trouble keeping your students engaged in low variance lessons, we have a podcast episode called High Engagement in Low Variance Instruction, I encourage you to check that one out.

That's all for this week. Until next time, keep teaching, keep learning and keep fostering that deep understanding and curiosity about language that we know is so important for our students. Bye for now.

Links to other episodes

How To Make Sure That Your Spelling Instruction Is Explicit

High Engagement in Low Variance Instruction

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