Unit Overview:

In this unit, you will introduce fourteen new double-letter spellings for consonant sounds and four new high-frequency Tricky Words.

Double-letter Spellings for Consonant Sounds

These are the double-letter spellings in this unit:

• ‘mm’ for /m/ as in drumming

• ‘nn’ for /n/ as in running

• ‘pp’ for /p/ as in puppets

• ‘bb’ for /b/ as in rabbit

• ‘tt’ for /t/ as in mitt

• ‘dd’ for /d/ as in sledding

• ‘cc’ and ‘ck’ for /k/ as in hiccup and clock

• ‘gg’ for /g/ as in egg

• ‘ff’ for /f/ as in muffin

• ‘ss’ for /s/ as in dress

• ‘zz’ for /z/ as in jazz

• ‘ll’ for /l/ as in shell

• ‘rr’ for /r/ as in ferret

These double-letter spellings most frequently occur after a short-vowel sound.

In this unit, bold print is used to signal the new graphemes. The student Reader contains bold print letters within words to signal letter teams working as single spelling units.

The double-letter spellings for consonant sounds should not cause difficulty for students when they are reading. However, they may cause some confusion when students are spelling. A student writing the word egg has to choose between two possible spellings for /g/—‘g’ and ‘gg’. Some students will need a lot of exposure to print before they are able to discern when to write a consonant sound with a single-letter spelling and when to write it with a double-letter spelling. At this point, you should accept any spelling that is a plausible representation of the sounds in the word. Accept black, blac, and blak; fell and fel; buzz and buz; etc.

Some of the double-letter spellings introduced in this unit are widely used in one-syllable words [e.g., ‘ff’ (stuff, puff), ‘ll’ (hill, bell), ‘ss’ (dress, miss), and ‘ck’ (rock, black)]. At this point in the program, students are generally asked to read one-syllable words. However, it is necessary to make an exception for spellings like ‘mm’, ‘tt’, and ‘cc’, which do not occur frequently in one-syllable words. These spellings are presented in the lessons with two-syllable example words, like swimming, however, two-syllable words are not included in the Reader or Activity Book.

Unit Calendar:

Unit 8 is 20 instructional days with 4 pausing points. It is recommended that it be taught from March 14th to April 16th.