Introducing the Trigraph '-tch'

Lynda Knowles: Let's get out our word detective glasses and put them on. Ready? Oh, I love it. We're gonna look at our words today, and I want you to tell me, what do you see? What do you see?

Student 1: 'ch' ...

Lynda Knowles: Oh, I see 'ch', too. Awesome. What else do you guys see, Jude?

Jude: 't' ...

Lynda Knowles: There's a 't' in front of every 'ch' ... Hmm. Interesting. What else do you guys see?

Student 3: A vowel ...

Lynda Knowles: Vowels. I see vowels. What are the vowels again? Ready?

Narrator: Today, teacher Lynda Knowles is introducing the trigraph, '-tch', to a small group of first graders at Shull Elementary in San Dimas, California.

Lynda Knowles: You guys figured out a new pattern. Mm-Hmm? We have a new pattern today. So, immediately after a short vowel, if you hear a /ch/ sound, and it's a one syllable word, so remember one syllable words are one clap. Right? So like, just ...

Students: Just ...

Lynda Knowles: Yeah. One clap. So immediately ... immediately means right now, if you hear the /ch/ sound, and it's a one clap, one syllable word, you're gonna spell it '-tch' ...

Student 1: Yeah, because, because there's two kind of 'ch' ... '-ch' and '-tch'...

Lynda Knowles: Yes. So we all know that 'ch' says /ch/, /ch/, /ch/ ... and 'th' ... 'tch' is is gonna say, /tch/, /tch/, /tch/, /tch/. Now there's a little bit of a difference. Are you ready?

Students: Yeah.

Lynda Knowles: 'ch' can be at the beginning of the word. It could be in the middle of a word. It could be at the end of the word. '-tch' is gonna be at the end of a word immediately following a short vowel ... in a short word. One-syllable word. Okay. Are you ready to do some work? Okay, go ahead and turn over your papers and let's look at the top. There's a rule at the top. Everyone say rule.

Students: Rule ...

Lynda Knowles: So put your fingers on the word. You can read it with me ...

Ms. Knowles and students: Immediately after a short vowel at the end of a short word spells /ch/ as 'tch'.

Lynda Knowles: Take your little pencils. And on the lines we're gonna write 'tch'. Ready, go.

Narrator: In these exercises, the students activate multiple senses as they write the letters 'tch' and say the sound /ch/.

Lynda Knowles: Alright. Now we're gonna take the highlighters and I want you to look through your words and you're gonna highlight the 'tch'.

Students: 'tch' ...

Lynda Knowles: Say the sound.

Students: /ch/ ...'tch' ... /ch/, /ch/ ... 'tch' ... /ch/, /ch/ ...

Lynda Knowles: Good job, friends. Okay, go ahead and put the lid on your markers. Are you ready to read some words?

Students: Yeah ...

Lynda Knowles: Let's read some words. Okay, so pencils down. All right, so we're gonna look at our words. Let's put our fingers on the very first word. We know that that's gonna be a short vowel because it's followed by 'tch'. It's a closed syllable. Yeah. Let's sound it out. Ready? Fingers on the words. Ready go ...

Narrator: 'tch' is a short-vowel marker. That means any time you see 'tch' in a word, the vowel has to be short.

Students: /otch/ ... notch ...

Lynda Knowles: I heard you say /ŏ/, how do we know that's not gonna say long 'o'?

Student 1: Because, because there's no magic 'e' ...

Lynda Knowles: So because this word has 'tch' in it, we know that 'o' is gonna be short. Okay, sweetie? Awesome. We just learned something new. Fingers on the words. Ready? Go.

Students: /p/, /ĭ/, /tch/ ... pitch ... /h/, /ă/, /tch/ ... hatch ...

Lynda Knowles: Alright. Awesome job, my friends. Let's look at that word hatch. Let's talk about the meaning of that word. Okay. What does it mean to hatch?

Students: I dunno.

Lynda Knowles: Hmmm. What does it mean to hatch?

Student 1: Hatch ... I think I know ...

Lynda Knowles: So, when something hatches out of an egg that means to hatch. So like a chicken or a lizard or a snake. There's also the word "hatch" that means like, I'm gonna hatch a plan to, to scare my mom.

Student 1: Or, or, or, or like a tadpole egg.

Lynda Knowles: Yes, a tadpole egg would hatch as well. Yeah. Good job. Alright, friends, we are going to do some dictation now. We're gonna say the word. You're gonna say the word, you're gonna sound it out, and then you're gonna write it. Okay? So look at me. Say the word "batch." Ready, go.

Students: /b/ ... batch ...

Lynda Knowles: Sound it.

Students:

/b/, /ă/, /tch/ ... batch ...

Lynda Knowles: Now let's spell it. Ready?

Ms. Knowles and students: /b/, /ă/, /tch/ ...

Lynda Knowles: And we're gonna spell it with a 'tch' ... say the word fetch ...

Students: Fetch ...

Lynda Knowles: Ooh, I didn't think I heard everyone ... say the word fetch ...

Students: Fetch ...

Lynda Knowles: Sound it.

Students: /f/, /ĕ/, /tch/ ... fetch ....

Lynda Knowles: Spell it. Go ahead, honey ...

Students: /f/ ĕ/, /tch/ ...

Lynda Knowles: Good job. You did a great job. I love it. Today you learned a brand new spelling pattern, 'tch' ... Say it ...

Students: 'tch' ...

Lynda Knowles: Tell me the sound.

Students: /ch/ ...

Lynda Knowles: Perfect. Knowing this pattern helps you read and spell new words. Okay? We also learned another way to spell 'ch'. You guys are so amazing. I'm so proud of you. Good job. Say good job to your friend.

Students: Good job!

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, The Emily Hall Temaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Shull Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education. 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.