Unit Overview: 

Spelling Alternatives

In this unit you will begin teaching the spelling alternatives that make up the advanced code. Up to this point, students have mostly been learning the basic code. That is, they have learned one way to write each of the sounds in English, with the exception of /zh/. Thus far, they have learned only a handful of spelling alternatives:

• the ‘k’ spelling for /k/ as in kite (an alternative for ‘c’ as in cat)

• the double-letter spellings for consonant sounds (‘ff’ as in stuff, ‘ll’ as in bell, ‘ss’ as in dress, ‘ck’ as in black, etc.)

• the ‘s’ spelling for /z/ as in is and dogs

• the ‘ed’ spelling as a past-tense marker for /d/ as in filled and for /t/ as in asked

There are many more spelling alternatives to learn. In this unit and the next, the focus is on spelling alternatives for consonant sounds. These are less numerous and also less frequently used than the spelling alternatives for vowel sounds, which will be addressed later in the CKLA™ sequence of instruction.

Here are the sounds and spellings that are either reviewed or introduced in this unit:

• /p/ spelled ‘p’ and ‘pp’ (review)

• /b/ spelled ‘b’ and ‘bb’ (review)

• /k/ spelled ‘c,’ ‘k,’ ‘cc,’ and ‘ck’ (review)

• /g/ spelled ‘g’ and ‘gg’ (review)

• /ch/ spelled ‘ch’ (review) and ‘tch’ (new)

• /j/ spelled ‘j’ (review), ‘g,’ and ‘ge’ (new)

• /t/ spelled ‘t,’ ‘tt,’ and ‘ed’ (review)

• /d/ spelled ‘d,’ ‘dd,’ and ‘ed’ (review)

• /f/ spelled ‘f’ and ‘ff’ (review)

• /v/ spelled ‘v’ (review) and ‘ve’ (new)

• /r/ spelled ‘r’ (review) and ‘wr’ (new)

• /l/ spelled ‘l’ and ‘ll’ (review)

Unit Calendar:

Unit 5 is 22 instructional days with 3 pausing points. It is recommended that it be taught from March 3rd to April 4th.