Teaching the '-dge' Spelling Pattern: Full Lesson

Marlene Gannaway: Hey friends, we're ready for our lesson today. First of all, everybody say Hi, Ms. Carla.

Students: Hi, Ms. Carla.

Marlene Gannaway: Ms. Carla is here to teach with me today, and we're going to try to bump up this lesson because you guys are so smart and you're flying through it. So I want to make it better.

Narrator: Today, second grade teacher Marlene Hanaway and reading coach Carla Stanford are reviewing the '-dge' pattern with their students at Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. First up is a listening game to help students hear where the /j/ sound lands in a word and why that matters for spelling.

Marlene Gannaway: Today, we're going to ride the rollercoaster and the skill that we're listening for is I want you to warm up your brain for listening for the /j/ sound. The word is jump. What's the word?

Students: Jump.

Marlene Gannaway: Write it with me.

Together: /j/, /ŭ/, /m/, /p/.

Marlene Gannaway: Where did you hear the /j/ sound?

Students: At the beginning.

Marlene Gannaway: At the beginning. Good job, friends. Listen to this word. The word is bridge. What's the word?

Students: Bridge.

Marlene Gannaway: Write it with me.

Together: /b/, /r/, /ĭ/, /j/.

Marlene Gannaway: Where did you hear it?

Students: At the end.

Marlene Gannaway: At the end of the rollercoaster. Good job.

Narrator: With listening ears all warmed up, it's time to review the different ways to spell the /j/ sound.

Marlene Gannaway: So we have three ways to spell the /j/ sound. Do you remember the three ways? I want you to just hold it in your brain. Do you remember the three ways? We just talked about the rollercoaster, right? And we said that there were some words that had the /j/ sound at the beginning. We spelled the /j/ sound at the beginning of words like jump and jot with which letter?

Students: 'J'.

Marlene Gannaway: The next way we've learned is '-dge'. We're going to repeat the rule. Are you ready? We have a rule that goes along with this spelling. It's a short vowel rule, so we're going to say it together. Ready? 1, 2, 3.

Together: Immediately after a short vowel and a one syllable word when you hear the /j/ sound, you spell it '-dge'. Yipee!

Marlene Gannaway: Good job, Prince. So we've also talked about '-ge'. And there's lots of different ways that we can use '-ge'. We can use '-ge' when we hear the long vowel sound. Let's read this word. The word is ...

Together: Stage.

Marlene Gannaway: And there's another way that we use it. Like in the word large. What's the vowel sound there? It can be tricky.

Students: /ar/.

Together: Good job. Large. I want to show you the last example of how we use '-ge'. In a word we talked about the blockers, right? Or troublemakers like /l/, /r/, and /n/. Alright, friends, so now we're going to move into dictation. You're going to pull out your binders.

Narrator: In dictation, students will hear a word and then decide whether to spell the /j/ sound with '-dge' or '-ge'. Ms. Stanford guides them through the steps they'll take to arrive at the correct choice.

Carla Stanford: So we're going to think about how we spell the /j/ sound. So when Ms. Gannaway gives you the word you have to make a decision. This is a spelling decision you're making. So she's going to say the word, you're going to repeat it. You're going to tap it. When you get to that vowel where you're going to think — what decision do I need to make? And then you're going to point to the one that you would choose and give us a thumbs up so we can chat before you write. Does that work?

Students: Yes.

Narrator: The words students are working with aren't random. They were intentionally chosen to both reinforce when to and when not to use the '-dge' rule.

Marlene Gannaway: All right, friends. Elbows up. Eyes up. Here we go. The word is huge. Repeat.

Students: Huge.

Together: /h/, /ū/, /j/.

Carla Stanford: What do you hear? What do you guys hear?

Student: Long vowel.

Carla Stanford: A long vowel sound. If we hear a long vowel sound, how are we going to spell the /j/ sound? Everyone.

Students: '-ge'.

Carla Stanford: Yes. Do you see what we had to do? We had to say the word. We had to tap and get to the vowel. We had to think about the vowel and then we had to make our decision. That's a lot of work. You guys, that's amazing.

Marlene Gannaway: Ready? Next word. The word is lodge. What's the word?

Students: Lodge.

Marlene Gannaway: Stop. Think. Tap. Point.

Carla Stanford: Where are we putting it?

Students: '-dge'.

Carla Stanford: Make sure you have it.

Narrator: Now, Ms. Stanford will bring some vocabulary work into this phonics lesson.

Carla Stanford: This word, lodge. Everyone say lodge.

Students: Lodge.

Carla Stanford: Say it again. Say lodge.

Students: Lodge.

Carla Stanford: Okay, I'm going to give you a sentence and you repeat. "The beaver built a lodge on the river." Repeat.

Students: "The beaver built a lodge on the river."

Carla Stanford: Thumbs up if you've ever heard of that meaning of lodge. Do you guys know about beavers?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: Do you know they build little homes?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: We call them a lodge. Say, "a beaver builds a lodge."

Students: "A beaver builds a lodge."

Narrator: Ms. Stanford intentionally chose lodge for this lesson to challenge students to think about context.

Carla Stanford: Have you ever been, like, to the mountains and there's a little cabin and we don't stay there all the time. We might just visit on a vacation or something and we might call it a mountain ...

Students: Lodge.

Carla Stanford: Say it again. Mountain ...

Students: Lodge.

Carla Stanford: Oh my goodness. So we might think about the word lodge when we think about a mountain ...

Students: Lodge.

Carla Stanford: Okay, I have another one. What if I was in a hurry and I jammed all of my things inside of my desk and I was like, oh my goodness. Ms. Gannaway asked me to get out my binder and I can't. It is ...

Together: ... lodged in there.

Carla Stanford: Oh my goodness. What does that lodge mean?

Student: It means stuck.

Carla Stanford: What does it mean?

Students: Stuck.

Carla Stanford: You guys, that is amazing. You were word detectives. You took this one word and now we know three meanings.

Narrator: Now the class will into sentence dictation where they'll use all of the new skills they've been practicing.

Carla Stanford: We're going to do it in phrases first. The large barge. Repeat.

Students: The large barge.

Carla Stanford: Misjudged.

Students: Misjudged.

Carla Stanford: And got lodged.

Students: And got lodged.

Carla Stanford: Under the bridge.

Students: Under the bridge.

Carla Stanford: Okay, I'm going to say the whole thing. You listen. Think about what it means. Think about all the words. "The large barge misjudged and got lodged under the bridge." Your turn.

Together: "The large barge misjudged and got lodged under the bridge."

Narrator: After writing down and checking their sentence chockfull of '-dge' and '-ge' words, the last step is to review for meaning.

Students: "The large barge misjudged and got lodged under the bridge."

Carla Stanford: This word lodged. Now we can think about which of those meanings are we going to use in this sentence. Are we going to use the beaver lodge?

Students: No.

Carla Stanford: No. Are we going to use the mountain cabin lodge?

Students: No.

Carla Stanford: No. But are we going to use the lodge that means ...?

Students: Stuck.

Carla Stanford: Is that the one? Did your brain automatically do that?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: That is amazing because what happens is when we have words by themselves, we don't really know what meaning, but your brain made the choice. Did your brain make the right choice?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: Excellent. That's such great work. Pat yourselves in the back, friends. Excellent job, friends.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.