Need grammar, spelling help

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

The curriculum this year assumes she learned this lesson in the past,
But they used a different one. The younger 2 that are being taught this
year are using this new curriculum, but I suspect the lesson she needs
is either in next years lessons or the year after.

Tori

Tori M wrote:
A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

The curriculum this year assumes she learned this lesson in the past,
But they used a different one. The younger 2 that are being taught this
year are using this new curriculum, but I suspect the lesson she needs
is either in next years lessons or the year after.

Tori

Can you please give us more details, like age and grade level of the
child and where you are?

Personally, I think just making flash cards with the words and having
her pronounce when she sees them would wonders, not to mention kill a a
half hour on rainy days.

Thanks.

Jeff

Jeff wrote:
Tori M wrote:
A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between
words like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age
appropriate way to explain that other then to just say if it has a
double letter you go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

The curriculum this year assumes she learned this lesson in the past,
But they used a different one. The younger 2 that are being taught
this year are using this new curriculum, but I suspect the lesson she
needs is either in next years lessons or the year after.

Tori

Can you please give us more details, like age and grade level of the
child and where you are?

Personally, I think just making flash cards with the words and having
her pronounce when she sees them would wonders, not to mention kill a a
half hour on rainy days.

My friend called me this morning because she was doing a spelling quiz
with her daughter. The daughter is 9 and I believe in 3rd grade, I
would have to call to be certain of that. She is home schooled. I am
in Wisconsin.

She stumbled on an area that there had not been a lesson for, but it was
in the spelling list. The first thing I did was go to my "Teach Your
Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book and try to figure out if it
taught it in a way I could explain to her and I couldn't find it.

The friend was TRYING to get the girl to spell the word Bitter and she
was spelling Biter. I was figuring there must be some rule of thumb
lesson about it.

Tori

Tori M wrote:
Jeff wrote:
Tori M wrote:
A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum
from last year to this year. It has to do with the difference
between words like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good
age appropriate way to explain that other then to just say if it has
a double letter you go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

The curriculum this year assumes she learned this lesson in the past,
But they used a different one. The younger 2 that are being taught
this year are using this new curriculum, but I suspect the lesson she
needs is either in next years lessons or the year after.

Tori

Can you please give us more details, like age and grade level of the
child and where you are?

Personally, I think just making flash cards with the words and having
her pronounce when she sees them would wonders, not to mention kill a
a half hour on rainy days.

My friend called me this morning because she was doing a spelling quiz
with her daughter. The daughter is 9 and I believe in 3rd grade, I
would have to call to be certain of that. She is home schooled. I am
in Wisconsin.

She stumbled on an area that there had not been a lesson for, but it was
in the spelling list. The first thing I did was go to my "Teach Your
Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book and try to figure out if it
taught it in a way I could explain to her and I couldn't find it.

The friend was TRYING to get the girl to spell the word Bitter and she
was spelling Biter. I was figuring there must be some rule of thumb
lesson about it.

Tori

The work books the kids get usually cover these sorts of things.

My guess is that as the girl practices reading, writing, etc., these
words will become less of a problem. I don't think there is a magic
lesson that will solve the problem. Just experience.

Jeff

On Aug 17, 9:29 am, Tori M wrote:
A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

Biter comes from "bite" which depends on the silent 'e' for its long
vowel. Bitter needs the double 't' to keep the 'i' from being long.
As far as I remember, the 100 easy lessons book doesn't teach spelling
rules at all. Instead it uses symbols over the vowels to tell whether
they are short or long and prints silent vowels in a very small font.
Your friend will need to start with spelling rules from the very
beginning to transition from 100 easy lessons.

The spelling rules at

http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml

are pretty easy to understand, though not complete. Your friend will
need to introduce rules slowly, one at a time.

--Betsy

On Aug 17, 2:18 pm, betsy wrote:
On Aug 17, 9:29 am, Tori M wrote:

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

Biter comes from "bite" which depends on the silent 'e' for its long
vowel. Bitter needs the double 't' to keep the 'i' from being long.
As far as I remember, the 100 easy lessons book doesn't teach spelling
rules at all. Instead it uses symbols over the vowels to tell whether
they are short or long and prints silent vowels in a very small font.
Your friend will need to start with spelling rules from the very
beginning to transition from 100 easy lessons.

The spelling rules at

http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml

are pretty easy to understand, though not complete. Your friend will
need to introduce rules slowly, one at a time.

--Betsy

To follow up myself, in addition to silent 'e', here is a short list
of rules my oldest covered before second grade:

Tch is usually found when /ch/ is the last sound and it follows the
short vowel in a one-syllable word (eg pitch, etch, and catch) tch is
not used if there is already another consonant after the vowel, as in
lunch, mulch, and porch.

Ck is usually found when /k/ is the last sound immediately after a
short vowel in a one-syllable word (eg, back, sock, and wick). Ck is
not used if there is already another consonant after the vowel, as in
bank, milk, and ask.

Adding s or es at to base words, use es when the base word ends with
the sounds /sh/, /ks/, /s/, /z/, /ch/.

In the English language, if a one-syllable word with a short vowel
ends in f, l, s, or z, we usually double the last letter. We call f,
l, s, and z Double Trouble Letters because they are "double the
trouble" to learn how to spell.

"Tori M" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from last
year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words like
Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate way to
explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you go to the
soft sound rather than the hard sound.

The curriculum this year assumes she learned this lesson in the past, But
they used a different one. The younger 2 that are being taught this year
are using this new curriculum, but I suspect the lesson she needs is
either in next years lessons or the year after.



IT sounds like she wants to teach how to pronounce the words? If so, there
are rules about that like the one where the vowel says its name when
followed by consonant+e.

If the issue is spelling and when to double the end consonnant I'd have to
dig for that rule.

Aula

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:29:50 GMT, toypup wrote:

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel.

I should add this rule applies to the first vowel.

toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:


A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.


My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?

Clisby