Welcome to 2018

Strategies for Struggling Learners

Session Description—Breakout

download powerpoint

Phonology + Phonics + Morphology + Etymology = Orthography
- Four Converging Paths En Route to Independent Reading and Written Expression

Research by Berninger and others demonstrates that “good spellers are taught, not born, as is often assumed.” Unfortunately, in most classrooms in the United States, spelling is not systematically and explicitly taught [Berninger, Moats]. Far too often, spelling is taught as a visual rote memory activity that resists “reasoned sequenced instruction” [Moats].
Spelling involves three different language codes (i.e., phonology, morphology, and orthography) that activate common and unique brain regions (Berninger). Morphological awareness makes unique contributions to vocabulary, word identification, reading comprehension, and spelling [Nagy, Berninger]. Researchers agree on several recommendations for informed reading and spelling instruction that include knowledge of morphology:
Integrate the teaching of word identification, vocabulary, and spelling [Berninger, Carlisle, Moats, Nagy].
• Focus on spelling-meaning relationships by directly teaching morphology (e.g., derivational morphemes) and etymology [Silliman].
• To demonstrate how spelling represents meaning, teach strategies for solving problems related to word meanings and spelling [Berninger, Moats, Nagy].


Objectives—Breakout.  Participants will:

1 Distinguish between and give examples of roots and base elements.
2
  • Define eponym and toponym and give examples of each.
  • Explain the difference between free (i.e., unbound) bases and bound bases in English words.
3 Define and give examples of twin base elements, generate a list of English words derived from your examples, and define each word—based on your knowledge of the morphemes included in each word.  
4
  • Define phoneme and morpheme. Explain the relationship, if any, that each has to the meaning of a word.
5 Define morphophonemics. Use your knowledge of morphophonemics to explain changes occurring to the pronunciation of the base elements in the following pairs of words: <finite>—<infinite>; <inspire>—<inspiration>; <compose>—<position>.

 

Nancy’s bio ---

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE: Nancy Cushen White, Ed.D., BCET, CALT-QI, CDT-IDA, LDT
Nancy Cushen White, Ed.D. is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics-Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine-University of CA-San Francisco and a member of the UCSF Dyslexia Research Team. She has 40+ years of experience in public schools as classroom teacher, special education teacher, and program specialist in special education curriculum with San Francisco Unified School District; she piloted a special day class for 2e students diagnosed with dyslexia and intellectually gifted. She works as a certified academic language therapist, a board certified educational therapist, a certified Slingerland teacher training course director, and dyslexia consultant in her private practice, Dyslexia Evaluation & Remediation Clinic. She has been working as a Literacy Intervention Consultant and Case Manager for Lexicon Reading Center in Dubai--United Arab Emirates since 2010.

Nancy has taught literacy skills classes to young adults (ages 19-24) in the Pre-Trial Diversion Project through the Mentor Court Division of San Francisco Superior Court.

As a past member of The International Dyslexia Association Board of Directors, she served as program chair and co-chair for the annual conference several times. She has represented IDA on the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) from 2003-2012 and 2015-Present. Currently, she is the editor of the Examiner, IDA’s monthly on-line newsletter. In addition, she is a past president and current advisory board member of the Northern California Branch of IDA. She is a member of the board of directors for the International Multisensory Structured Language Council (IMSLEC) and the Alliance for Certification and Accreditation.
She was a member of the AB 1369 Work Group (California Department of Education-CDE) charged with drafting public school dyslexia guidelines required under the new law.  In addition, she has served on several content review and advisory panels under the auspices of the CA Commission on Teacher Credentialing, CA Curriculum Commission, CA State Board of Education, and CA Department of Education.

Nancy lives in San Francisco with her husband Bebo and is the very humble mother of two adult sons, aged 36 and 40; she has two grandsons, 5 years old and 3 years old.