Opinion
4A
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Education Corner
Helpful hints for
spelling, reading
ith the development of vaccines for the coro-
navirus and distribution underway, there may
be an end to distance learning just around the
corner. This said, there are still many children strug-
gling with their reading and parents assisting their chil-
dren with schooling. Learning to read is not the same for
everyone.
Reading text
is a human-cre-
ated skill and
not a natural
SCOTT SMITH
skill for our
EDUCATOR
brains to pro-
cess. Therefore,
depending on
acquisition of a long spectrum of skills, some children
have no problems learning to read while others struggle.
To add to the confusion, English is a blend of several
different languages and rules, making it even harder to
understand.
There are those few people in our country who spend
their time studying our language and all the rules that
apply, yet most of us do not aspire to be linguists. Web-
ster, back in the 1800s, brought us a complete rule book
of most of the words and rules behind their spellings.
There was a time when teachers were expected to know
all those rules prior to starting to teach.
Over the years we have relied on textbook pub-
lishers to provide those rules embedded in their curric-
ulum. Many of us do not always pick up on the rules
or remember them because the curriculum moves on
quickly. When challenged why a word is spelled a cer-
tain way we dismiss it and say something like “the
English language just has some odd spellings.” In most
cases, there is a reason behind that spelling, whether it be
from the root of the word or the language the word was
adopted from.
Having kids read to adults is always beneficial —
well, most of the time. What do we find ourselves saying
to a child when they come to a word they do not rec-
ognize? The most popular response is “sound the word
out.” The only problem is that the only English words
that can easily be sounded out are one-syllable, short
vowel words. In the English language you have to be able
to identify the vowel sounds in words, many of which
contain multiple letters, and then you are able to blend
the word and hopefully get the sounds close enough that
you are able to recognize the word from your auditory
vocabulary or lexicon.
No worries — here is some help. This will be enough
to get you by without having to become a linguist. There
are six basic syllable rules that most English words
follow, or at least follow closely enough that you can get
an approximation, and then recognize the word. The
same six rules also help with spelling.
Here they are — open syllable (go, me), closed syl-
lable (cat, fin), vowel team, “r”- controlled (first, far, or),
vowel/consonant/silent “e” (same, case) and consonant
“-le” (little, able). Common blends, digraphs and diph-
thongs can also cause confusion. Blends are connected
letters where you can hear all the letter sounds. Digraphs
are a cluster of consonants that create a new sound, and
diphthongs are a cluster of letters with at least one vowel.
These are the most commonly found word parts in ele-
mentary texts. The letter “y” is sometimes considered a
vowel but there is a reason. English words don’t end in
the letter “i” so they use “y” (my, sky, by).
A great activity for students to do is sort single syl-
lable words into each of the above groups. This allows
them to work with words along with looking for vowel
sounds. This activity only focuses on vowel sounds. The
objective is to identify the vowel sound in each word or
syllable, and then blend the sounds together to get an
approximation close enough that they can recognize the
word or are able to spell the word closely enough to be
able to recognize it. Happy word discovery.
———
Scott Smith is a Umatilla County educator with
40-plus years of experience. He taught at McNary
Heights Elementary School and then for Eastern
Oregon University in its teacher education pro-
gram at Blue Mountain Community College.
He serves on the Decoding Dyslexia Oregon
board as its parent/teacher liaison.
W
Letter
Bentz represented
the wishes of his
constituents
I applaud the plea for unity and
finding common solutions Phil
Wright, The Observer editor, pub-
lished Jan. 9. The column refer-
enced Kevin Frazier’s blog, The
Oregon Way, in reminding our
My Voice
What you believe is not necessarily the truth
MICHAEL
SASSER
WALLOWA COUNTY
he truth? Just what exactly
is the truth? Yes, Americans
deserve the truth but it seems
everyone has their own idea of what
the truth is. People tend to believe
what they want to believe. Facts are
ignored, everyone has their own facts
or alternate facts.
How do we get the truth if we no
longer believe in our news institu-
tions? The free press has always been
the backbone of our democracy. When
we lose faith in these institutions then
we lose a vital role in protecting our
democracy.
The press and news organizations
have to take some responsibility in
the mistrust of our free press. What
passes for journalism these days is
sometimes nothing more than tabloid
sensationalism. We have propaganda
outlets that inflame and feed the mis-
information and prejudices that divide
us all. This misinformation is ram-
pant and people tend to migrate to the
media that reinforces their beliefs.
There is a lot at stake here. The
answers aren’t easy but I believe in
the future of my country. We are a
T
congresspeople to remember all
those whom they represent. I was
very surprised to see such hateful
diatribe in the Jan. 12, Observer,
against one of those representa-
tives, Cliff Bentz. Some history is
necessary to put Bentz’s actions
into perspective.
Starting with George W.
Bush’s victory in the 2000 presi-
dential election, Democrats have
contested election results after
every Republican win. In Jan-
democracy in trouble. We cannot look
for a demigod politician to save us
from ourselves. We the people still
have a say in our government, but a
democracy cannot survive if we aren’t
an educated electorate.
We cannot survive if we don’t rec-
ognize and deal with the institutional
racism that is rampant in our society.
We cannot condone violence in any
form. We cannot put on a red hat,
carry an American flag and call our-
selves a patriot while invading our
capitol building. We cannot repair the
racism and unjust treatment of our
Black countrymen when we have the
burning and destruction of our inner
cities.
We cannot ask for the truth and
then promote untrue conspiracy the-
ories. We cannot promote truth by
electing legislators who believe in
these crazy theories. We cannot
elect demigod presidents who pro-
mote extreme right wing beliefs that
inflame a mob to try to overthrow an
election.
Truth: We have not lost the
freedom of religion in this country.
That freedom does not give us a right
to keep people from practicing a reli-
gion that you don’t believe in.
Truth: No one has taken gun rights
from anyone.
Truth: What you believe is not
uary 2001, Rep. Alcee Hastings
of Florida objected counting elec-
toral votes, and Sheila Jackson
Lee of Texas also claimed “inac-
curate vote count.” Califor-
nia’s Maxine Waters touted that
Florida’s electoral votes were
“fraudulent.”
In 2005, Sen. Barbara Boxer,
California, and Stephanie Jones,
Ohio, objected to Ohio’s electoral
votes. Rep. Barbara Lee of Cali-
fornia and Rep. Jerrold Nadler of
necessarily the truth. Conspiracy the-
ories, what you read on Facebook
or what you watched on YouTube is
probably not the truth.
Truth: Donald Trump lost his bid
for a second term. Every court in the
nation found no election fraud. This
fraud is only a figment of Donald
Trump’s imagination. Do not put your
allegiance to just one man. That is not
what democracy is all about. No one
is above the law.
We cannot be a divided country.
We are all Americans. We are a
country of many different ethnic
people, but we really all want the
same things. Open your mind and
your heart. Believe in our democracy,
believe in our history of freedom and
our love of our country. Remember
our veterans, many who gave their
lives for their country.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a
dream. Let’s make this dream a reality
for all Americans.
———
Michael Sasser was born in
Enterprise almost 73 years ago and
returned to Wallowa County about 15
years ago. He was a member of Inter-
national Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers Local 15 for 32 years.
New York objected, stating the
right to vote was “stolen.”
Then, in January 2017, Dem-
ocrats once again challenged the
outcome of an election. Again,
Barbara Lee wanted Michigan’s
electoral votes to be thrown out.
This time because of “malfunc-
tion of 87 voting machines” and
Russian interference, Rep. Jim
McGovern of Massachusetts also
challenged the outcome because
of “the Russians.” There were
objections against the votes in
nine states.
Then, as now, members of
Congress are within their consti-
tutional rights to make an objec-
tion. Bentz felt he was obligated
to represent the wishes of those he
represents. To malign his integrity
is a vicious disservice. We used to
value our right to have and voice
different beliefs.
Jackie Bingner
La Grande