Table of Contents
JOSSEY-BASS TEACHER
Title Page
Copyright Page
THE AUTHOR
Introduction
Notes for the Teacher
PART I - HOMOPHONES AND PHONICS LESSONS
1 be vs. bee
Phonics: Long E
2 by vs. bye vs. buy
Phonics: Long I
3 fair vs. fare
Phonics: Long AR
4 no vs. know
Phonics: Long O
5 to vs. too vs. two
Phonics: Long Double OO
6 loan vs. lone
Phonics: Long O
7 tail vs. tale
Phonics: Long A
8 sea vs. see
Phonics: Long E
9 lie vs. lye
Phonics: Long I
10 meat vs. meet
Phonics: Long E
11 maid vs. made
Phonics: Long A
12 son vs. sun
Phonics: Short U
13 dear vs. deer
Phonics: Long E
14 do vs. due vs. dew
Phonics: Long OO
15 wood vs. would
Phonics: Long OO
16 write vs. right
Phonics: Long I
17 pole vs. poll
Phonics: Long O
18 bear vs. bare
Phonics: Long A
19 tax vs. tacks
Phonics: Short A
20 bite vs. byte
Phonics: Short I
21 brake vs. break
Phonics: Long A
22 mail vs. male
Phonics: Long A
23 flea vs. flee
Phonics: Long E
24 shoe vs. shoo
Phonics: Long OO
25 cheap vs. cheep
Phonics: Long E
26 hall vs. haul
Phonics: Broad O
27 leak vs. leek
Phonics: Long E
28 roll vs. role
Phonics: Long O
29 die vs. dye
Phonics: Long I
30 led vs. lead
Phonics: Short E
31 eight vs. ate
Phonics: Long A
32 I vs. eye
Phonics: Long I
33 ball vs. bawl
Phonics: Broad O
34 base vs. bass
Phonics: Long A
35 week vs. weak
Phonics: Long E
36 not vs. knot
Phonics: Short 0
37 rain vs. reign
Phonics: Long A
38 plain vs. plane
Phonics: Long A
39 past vs. passed
Phonics: Short A
40 or vs. oar
Phonics: Broad O
41 beach vs. beech
Phonics: Long E
42 row vs. roe
Phonics: Long O
43 pause vs. paws
Phonics: Broad O
44 oh vs. owe
Phonics: Long O
45 beat vs. beet
Phonics: Long E
46 pier vs. peer
Phonics: Long E
47 hole vs. whole
Phonics: Long O
48 which vs. witch
Phonics: Short I
49 hail vs. hale
Phonics: Long A
50 guest vs. guessed
Phonics: Short E
51 sell vs. cell
Phonics: Short E
52 cents vs. sense
Phonics: Short E
53 bread vs. bred
Phonics: Short E
54 band vs. banned
Phonics: Short A
55 root vs. route
Phonics: Short OO
56 peak vs. peek
Phonics: Long E
57 one vs. won
Phonics: Short U
58 night vs. knight
Phonics: Long I
59 rose vs. rows
Phonics: Long O
60 pail vs. pale
Phonics: Long A
61 in vs. inn
Phonics: Short I
62 road vs. rode
Phonics: Long O
63 pair vs. pear
Phonics: /e(∂)/
64 him vs. hymn
Phonics: Short I
65 fur vs. fir
Phonics: Short U
66 hair vs. hare
Phonics: Long A
67 new vs. knew
Phonics: Long OO
68 higher vs. hire
Phonics: Long I
69 flu vs. flew
Phonics: Long OO
70 great vs. grate
Phonics: Long A
71 hi vs. high
Phonics: Long I
72 find vs. fined
Phonics: Long I
73 so vs. sew
Phonics: Long O
74 raise vs. rays
Phonics: Long A
75 way vs. weigh
Phonics: Long A
76 ant vs. aunt
Phonics: Short A
77 berry vs. bury
Phonics: /er/ sound
78 blue vs. blew
Phonics: Long OO
79 our vs. hour
Phonics: /our/ sound
80 plum vs. plumb
Phonics: Short U
81 read vs. reed
Phonics: Long E
82 ring vs. wring
Phonics: Short I
83 toe vs. tow
Phonics: Long 0
84 rap vs. wrap
Phonics: Short A
85 warn vs. worn
Phonics: /or/ sound
86 least vs. leased
Phonics: /t/ sound
87 red vs. read
Phonics: Short E
88 bale vs. bail
Phonics: Long A
89 been vs. bin
Phonics: Short I
90 flower vs. flour
Phonics: /ou/ sound
PART II - CONTRACTIONS, CAPITALIZATION, COMMON MISSPELLINGS, AND MORE
91 Contractions: Not
92 Contractions: Will or Shall
93 Contractions: Have
94 Contractions: Would or Had
95 Contractions: Is or Has
96 Contractions: Various
97 Capitalization: First Word
98 Capitalization: Names
99 Capitalization: Places
100 Capitalization: Pets
101 Capitalization: Holidays
102 Capitalization: Books, Plays, and Movies
103 Capitalization: Periodicals
104 Capitalization: People’s Titles
105 Capitalization: Companies
106 Capitalization: Quotations
107 Capitalization: Review
108 Common Misspellings
109 Common Misspellings
110 Common Misspellings
111 Common Misspellings
112 Common Misspellings
113 Common Misspellings
114 Common Misspellings
115 Common Misspellings
116 Common Misspellings
117 Common Misspellings
118 Plurals: For Most Words
119 Plurals: For Words Ending in “S” or “SS”
120 Plurals: For Words Ending in “CH”
121 Plurals: For Words Ending in “SH”
122 Plurals: For Words Ending in “X”
123 Plurals: For Words Ending in “Y”
124 Plurals: For Words Ending in ‘0’
125 Plurals: Irregular Plurals
126 Plurals: Invariable Nouns
127 Abbreviations: First Two Letters
128 Abbreviations: First and Last Letters
129 Abbreviations: First and Middle Letters
130 Abbreviations: Two-Word State Names
131 Abbreviations: Initializations
132 Abbreviations: Days of the Week
133 Abbreviations: Months of the Year
134 Abbreviations: Streets
135 Abbreviations: Titles
136 Abbreviations: Time
137 Abbreviations: Various Fields
138 Homophone Contractions: “They’re”
139 Homophone Contractions: “You’re”
140 Homophone Contractions: “It’s”
141 Homophone Contractions: “Who’s”
142 Silent Letters: WR
143 Silent Letters: GN
144 Silent Letters: KN
145 Silent Letters: Silent Blend GH
146 Silent Letters: Silent B and D
147 Silent Letters: Silent H and P
148 Silent Letters: Silent PH and QU
149 Silent Letters: Silent T and U
150 Double Letters: FF
151 Double Letters: LL
152 Double Letters: SS
153 Double Letters: ZZ
154 Suffixes: Doubling Final Consonant
155 Suffixes: Doubling Two-Vowel Words
156 Suffixes: Doubling Two Consonants at End
157 Suffixes: Words Ending in E
158 Compound Words
159 Prefixes: Letter Doubling A-
160 Prefixes: Letter Doubling O- and CO-
161 Ending Sounds: LE = EL
162 Ending Sounds: ER = AR = OR
163 Ending Sounds: ER = AR = OR
164 Ending Sounds: K and CK
165 Ending Sounds: KE and NK
166 Spelling Problems: Letter C
167 Spelling Problems: IE or EI?
168 Spelling Problems: -TION vs. -SION
169 Spelling Problems: -AIR vs. -ARE
170 Homophone Look-Up Drill
171 Homophone Look-Up Drill
172 Homophone Look-Up Drill
173 Homophone Look-Up Drill
174 Homophone Look-Up Drill
175 Homophone Look-Up Drill
176 Homophone Look-Up Drill
177 Homophone Look-Up Drill
178 Homophone Look-Up Drill
179 Homophone Look-Up Drill
180 Homophone Look-Up Drill
APPENDIX: HOMOPHONE MASTER LIST
JOSSEY-BASS TEACHER
Jossey-Bass Teacher provides educators with practical knowledge and tools to create a positive and lifelong impact on student learning. We offer classroom-tested and research-based teaching resources for a variety of grade levels and subject areas. Whether you are an aspiring, new, or veteran teacher, we want to help you make every teaching day your best.
From ready-to-use classroom activities to the latest teaching framework, our value-packed books provide insightful, practical, and comprehensive materials on the topics that matter most to K-12 teachers. We hope to become your trusted source for the best ideas from the most experienced and respected experts in the field.
Titles in the Jossey-Bass Education
5-Minute FUNdamentals Series
THE MATH TEACHER’S PROBLEM-A-DAY, GRADES 4-8
Over 180 Reproducible Pages of Quick Skill Builders
Judith A. Muschla, Gary Robert Muschla • ISBN 978-0-7879-9764-9
THE READING TEACHER’S WORD-A-DAY
180 Ready-to-Use Lessons to Expand Vocabulary, Teach
Roots, and Prepare for Standardized Tests
Edward B. Fry, Ph.D. • ISBN 978-0-7879-9695-6
THE WRITING TEACHER’S LESSON-A-DAY
180 Reproducible Prompts and Quick-Writes for
the Secondary Classroom
Mary Ellen Ledbetter • ISBN 978-0-470-46132-7
THE SPELLING TEACHER’S LESSON-A-DAY
180 Reproducible Activities to Teach Spelling, Phonics,
and Vocabulary
Edward B. Fry, Ph.D. • ISBN 978-0-470-42980-8
THE GRAMMAR TEACHER’S ACTIVITY-A-DAY, GRADES 5-12
Over 180 Ready-to-Use Lessons to Teach Grammar
and Usage
Jack Umstatter • ISBN 978-0-470-54315-3
THE ALGEBRA TEACHER’S ACTIVITY-A-DAY, GRADES 5-12
Over 180 Quick Challenges for Developing Math and
Problem-Solving Skills
Frances McBroom Thompson • ISBN 978-0-470-50517-5
THE AUTHOR
Edward B. Fry, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Education at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey), where for twenty-four years he was director of the Reading Center. At Rutgers, Dr. Fry taught graduate and undergraduate courses in reading, curriculum, and other educational subjects and served as chairman and dissertation committee member for doctoral candidates in reading and educational psychology. As the Reading Center’s director, he provided instruction for children with reading problems, trained teacher candidates, and conducted statewide reading conferences. Author of the best-selling book The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, Dr. Fry is known internationally for his Readability Graph, which is used by teachers, publishers, and others to judge the reading difficulty of books and other materials. He is also well known for his Instant Words, high-frequency word list, and for reading, spelling, and secondary curriculum materials. He works as a curriculum author and skis and swims whenever possible.
INTRODUCTION
The Spelling Teacher’s Lesson-a-Day is aimed at improving the spelling ability of students in Grades 3 to 8, ESL, adult learners, and home-schoolers. The lessons are suitable for classrooms, tutoring, and self-study. Thus, Spelling Review is just that—a review of spelling skills that perhaps should have been learned earlier.
The lessons assume that the student has some spelling ability, but many faulty spelling skills.
A major method is to contrast two or three homophones to show that the same sounds can be spelled differently so the student is learning to spell some useful everyday words, and also the extension of the spelling patterns in those words. The lessons are basically “homophones” and “phonics.”
For many students, the second or third homophone will be vocabulary enrichment, and they will learn new words, or new word uses, from the definitions and example sentences.
The reason homophones are important is that many students now write using a computer (word processing and spell check). The problem is that spell check cannot detect an error in meaning (example: peak vs. peek).
However, these lessons also contain many other important spelling skills, such as:
Contractions (they would = they’d)
Capitalization (president vs. President)
Common Misspellings (forth vs. fourth)
Plurals (bench vs. benches)
Abbreviations (Michigan = MI)
Silent Letters (match)
Double Letters (boss)
Suffixes (run vs. running)
Compound Words (roommate vs. room clerk)
Prefixes (accident vs. address)
Ending Sounds (actor vs. beggar)
Spelling Problems (action vs. version)
Notes for the Teacher
The teacher can select which lesson or section to use. They are not necessarily in a teaching order.
Part of the method in these lessons is to show that many words use similar spelling patterns and, once learned, these patterns will appear in many more complex words. Looking for spelling patterns in words is a useful lifelong habit.
Another plan for these lessons is that they are short and easy so the student won’t think of spelling as an onerous chore. “Do you like spelling?” “Yes, it’s so easy.” Yet these lessons also show the need for precision or correct spelling, as the changing of just a letter or two can change the meaning or pattern.
Getting Started
The teacher can start the lesson by either showing the student a copy of the lesson page or by presenting the lesson orally with the visual aid of the words written on a chalkboard or chart.
1. Discuss and show the homophones and how their spelling differs. Give a few example sentences.
2. Do a bit of review by having the student orally, or in writing, tell the correct homophone spelling for the “Which is right?” sentences in the lesson.
3. Next ask the student to look carefully and perhaps read aloud all the bold print words in the Phonics section.
4. Next, in the Spelling Exercise section, have the student use some or all of the words in the Phonics section and give a little trial test. Call out the words one at a time and use them in a sentence. For clarity you can repeat the word and use it in a sentence. For spelling words, use the homophones and all or selected words from the bold print in the Phonics section.
5. The students can correct their own papers, or the teacher can correct the trial test.
6. Any words misspelled should be written correctly three times.
At a later time the teacher can review several lessons and give a final spelling test.
PART I
HOMOPHONES AND PHONICS LESSONS
1 be vs. bee
be = To take place or happen. “Will there be any lions at the zoo?” (v.) Having a position or place. “My new desk will be in the corner.” (v.)
bee = An insect with four legs and a stinger. “That bee is flying in the garden.” (n.)
A social gathering at which people have a task or contest. “The students have lined up for a spelling bee.” (n.)
1. I was just stung by a _____!
2. I’m not sure where the new store will ___ in the mall.
3. Will the new teacher ___ in class today?
4. My grandmother goes to a sewing ___ every Monday.
Phonics: Long E
Learn to spell all the words in bold print.
Pay attention to the same vowel letter pattern in each word.
The Long E sound is sometimes made by the Single E letter pattern.
The Long E sound is sometimes made by the Double EE letter pattern.
Show YOU Know!
1. Write one or two sentences using as many of the words in these Single E and Double EE letter patterns as you can.
2. The teacher or another student will dictate each of these six words for you to write without looking at this page. Use each word in a sentence when it is spoken.
2 by vs. bye vs. buy
by = On the side of. “The wild flowers grew bythe side of the road.” (prep.)
The means used. “The team traveled to the game by bus.” (prep.)
A particular time. “We plan to arrive at the party by noon.” (prep.)
bye = Short for “goodbye”—often doubled to “bye-bye.” “ Bye-bye, I am going home now.” (v.)
buy = To purchase. “I’m going to the grocery store to buy milk.” (v.)
1. The baby waved ___ to me.
2. I drove ___ your house today.
3. He was the first to say _____.
4. I think I’ll _____ a new hat at the mall.
Phonics: Long I
Learn to spell all the words in bold print.
Pay attention to the same vowel letter pattern in each word. The Long I sound is made by the Final Y letter pattern.
The Long I sound is made by the Final YE letter pattern.
Show YOU Know!
1. Write one or two sentences using as many of the words in these Final Y and Final YE letter patterns as you can.
2. The teacher or another student will dictate each of these six words for you to write without looking at this page. Use each word in a sentence when it is spoken.
3 fair vs. fare
fair = Going by the rules. “The judge was very fair.” (adv.)
A show or marketplace taking place outside. “Our state fairis always crowded.” (n.)
To have a light color. “That girl has very fair skin.” (adj.)
fare = Money paid for transportation. “The train farecost a lot.” (n.)
To progress. “She did not farewell in the soccer game.” (v.)
1. I want to buy a hotdog at the ___.
2. The bus ___ was only $2.00.
3. I don’t think the coach’s ruling was ___!
4. You should stay out of the sun if you have ___ skin.
Phonics: Long AR
Learn how to spell all the words in bold print.
Pay attention to the same vowel letter pattern in each word. The Long A plus R sound is made by the AIR letter pattern.
The Long A plus R sound is made by the ARE letter pattern.
Show YOU Know!
1. Write one or two sentences using as many of the words in these AIR and ARE letter patterns as you can.
2. The teacher or another student will dictate each of these six words for you to write without looking at this page. Use each word in a sentence when it is spoken.
4 no vs. know
no = To deny, refuse, or give a negative response. “No, I won’t go with you to the movie.” (adv.)
know = To have information about. “I know a lot about dogs and cats.” (v.)
To remember or recall a fact. “I know where you live.” (v.)
To have an ability. “I know how to read.” (v.)
1. I don’t ___ which way to go.
2. There are only two answers to my question, yes or ___.
3. Do you _____ how to ride a bike?
4. ___ , I won’t tell you the answers to the test!
Phonics: Long O
Learn to spell all the words in bold print. Pay attention to the same vowel letter pattern in each word.
The Long O sound is made by only 3 words with the Single Final O letter pattern.
The Long O sound is made more often by the Final OW letter pattern.
The Beginning Sound spelled KN makes the phoneme /n/ as in:
Show YOU Know!
1. Write one or two sentences using as many of the words in these Final O and OW letter patterns as you can.
2. The teacher or another student will dictate each of these six words for you to write without looking at this page. Use each word in a sentence when it is spoken.
5 to vs. too vs. two
to = Going in a direction. “You’ll see the hotel if you look to the right.” (prep.) Going along. “I’d like to go with you to class.” (prep.)
too = Having more than enough. “I ate too much candy.”“We want to go,too (adv.)
