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All About Teaching Reading & Writing
Taxonomy
Skill Explainer

5. Videos: See Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' in the Classroom

Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer

The Simple View of Reading

Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

Assessment

The process of measuring students' progress and providing information to help guide instruction

(active)
Word Recognition

The ability to see a word and know how to pronounce it without consciously thinking about it

Phonological Awareness

A group of skills that enable you to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words

Articulation

Syllables

Onset-Rime

Phonemic Awareness

(active)
Phonics

A method for teaching children the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters so they can learn to decode and encode

Sound-Letter Correspondence

(active)Phonics Patterns

Common letter combinations found in words.

Short Vowels Skill Explainer
Closed Syllables Skill Explainer
Glued Sounds Skill Explainer
Open Syllables Skill Explainer
Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer
Consonant Digraphs Skill Explainer
Blends Skill Explainer
‘-ck’ Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer

Coming soon.

    Magic 'e' Skill Explainer
    Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer

    Coming soon.

      R-Controlled Vowels Skill Explainer

      Coming soon.

        Vowel Teams and Diphthongs Skill Explainer

        Coming soon.

          '-tch' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
          '-dge' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
          Consonant '-le' Skill Explainer

          Coming soon.

            Schwa Skill Explainer

            Coming soon.

              Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

              Multisyllable Words

              Words that have more than one word part

              Prefixes

              How to add meaningful beginnings to words

              Suffixes

              How to add meaningful endings to words

              Language Comprehension

              The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words

              Reading Comprehension

              The ability to understand the meaning of printed text

              Text Considerations

              Characteristics of a text that impact the ease or difficulty of comprehension.

              Strategies and Activities

              How a reader approaches a specific text, depending on their purpose for reading

              Reader’s Skill and Knowledge

              The skills and knowledge a reader brings to the reading task that are necessary for comprehension

              Sociocultural Context

              Elements in a classroom that affect how well a child learns to read

              Fluency

              The ability to read accurately with automaticity and expression

              Fluency: Accuracy, then Automaticity

              Reading or decoding words correctly (accuracy) and reading at an appropriate rate (automaticity)

              Accuracy, then Automaticity Skill Explainer

              Coming soon.

                Fluency: Expressive Text Reading

                Reading characterized by accuracy with automaticity and expression

                Expressive Text Reading Skill Explainer

                Coming soon.

                  Writing

                  The act of putting thoughts into print using transcription and composition skills

                  Features of Structured Literacy

                  A systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading based on research

                  These two videos present a whole group and one-on-one intervention for explicitly teaching students when to use 'c' or 'k' to spell the /k/ sound.

                  In this first video, Ashton Smith, a kindergarten teacher at Hope-Hill Elementary School in Atlanta, reviews the curvy 'c' and straight 'k' spelling rules with her students. The class then uses them to spell words with short vowels.

                  A Review Lesson: Spelling with Curvy ‘c’ or Straight ‘k’

                  Video thumbnail for A Review Lesson: Spelling with Curvy ‘c’ or Straight ‘k’
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                  Ashton Smith: We are going to do our deck. Are you ready?

                  Students: Yes. 'e', Ed, /ĕ/ ...

                  Ashton Smith: Lemme hear it.

                  Students: /ĕ/ ...

                  Narrator: As these kindergartners write more and more, they'll often have to decide how to spell the /k/ sound as in cat and kite. Should it be a 'c' or a 'k'? Today, teacher Ashton Smith is reviewing a simple and memorable way for them to make that decision.

                  Ms. Smith and students: 'c', cat, /k/ ... 'k', kite, /k/ ... /k/, /k/, /k/ ...

                  Ashton Smith: Do they make the same sound?

                  Students: Yeah.

                  Ashton Smith: Right. Okay. So how do we know when to use it? Let's see. Curvy 'c' goes with ...

                  Ms. Smith and students: ... curvy 'a', curvy 'o', curvy 'u'.

                  Ashton Smith: And straight 'k' goes with ...

                  Ms. Smith and students: ... straight 'i', straight 'e', straight 'y' ...

                  Ashton Smith: Very nice, very nice.

                  Narrator: To help it stick, Ms. Smith combines repetition with a visual.

                  Ashton Smith: All right. We know that curvy 'c' goes with ...

                  Students: ... curvy 'a', curvy 'o', curvy 'u' ...

                  Ashton Smith: Very good. Straight 'k' goes with ...

                  Students: ... straight 'i', straight 'e', straight 'y' ...

                  Narrator: Now it's time to put the rule into practice.

                  Ashton Smith: All right. I'm going to write some words on the board. I want you to raise your hand and tell me what letters we're going to use. Okay, my first word is cup. Let's tap it ...

                  Ms. Smith and students: /k/, /ŭ/, /p/ ...

                  Ashton Smith: With a quiet hand, who can tell me where is my /k/ sound? Quinson, is it the beginning of the word or the end of the word?

                  Quinson: Beginning of the word.

                  Ashton Smith: The beginning of the word. So we need to look at our vowel. What's our vowel sound?

                  Ms. Smith and students: /ŭ/ ...

                  Ashton Smith: Is it a short vowel? Is it a short vowel?

                  Students: Yes.

                  Ashton Smith: So Noah, what letter do I need to put for ...

                  Noah: 'c' ...

                  Narrator: 'c' ... Kiss your brain. My last word is kit. Let's tap it.

                  Ms. Smith and students: /k/, /ĭ/, /t/ ... kit ...

                  Ashton Smith: All right. What is my vowel? Everybody tell me my vowel. What's my vowel?

                  Students: /ĭ/ ...

                  Ashton Smith: /ĭ/ ... Is it a short vowel or a long vowel?

                  Students: Short.

                  Narrator: Short. All right. Who can tell me what I use for my /k/ sound? Hugo ...

                  Hugo: 'k' ...

                  Narrator: 'k' ... Why did you pick 'k'?

                  Hugo: Because 'k' goes with straight 'i', straight 'e', straight 'y' ...

                  Ashton Smith: Yes. Very good.

                  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 Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Hope Hill Elementary, Reading Is Essential for All People, 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.

                  Ashton Smith: My name is Ashton Smith and this is Reading Universe.

                  This second video shows a one-on-one intervention with teacher Nicole Ormandy explaining to a second grader how to decide between 'c' and 'k' when the /k/ sound comes right before the vowel. She uses pictures with embedded mnemonics to help the student remember that 'c' comes before 'a', 'o', and 'u', and 'k' comes before 'e' and 'i'. They also practice reading words that start with /k/ fluently. (Notice that Ms. Ormandy uses a mnemonic with a cat and kite to teach the rule, which is a slightly different method than what we share in our Explicitly Teach the Skill section.)

                  How to Spell the /k/ Sound Before a Vowel

                  Video thumbnail for How to Spell the /k/ Sound Before a Vowel
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                  Nicole Ormandy: We've got our two letters that represent /k/. Now when it comes to spelling, that can be tricky, right? What do I use? 'C' or 'k'?

                  Narrator: In this one-on-one session, you'll see Nicole Ormandy guide second grader Bea through a lesson on how to spell the /k/ sound before a vowel with the letter 'c' or the letter 'k'. This is likely the first time Bea has had to decide between two possible letters to spell a sound.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Alright, Bea. Today we're going to learn a spelling pattern for the sound /k/. Alright, so listen first to these words and tell me the first sound you hear in the word. Cab.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Cub.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Cut.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Cut.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Kid.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Exactly, right? We keep hearing /k/ at the beginning of those words and there are two ways that we can represent /k/. We've been reading words that have /k/, and they typically start with which two letters?

                  Bea: 'C' and 'k'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Exactly. They typically start with 'c' and 'k'. To warm up let's trace each letter and say /k/. /K/. We'll do each letter two times.

                  Narrator: Bea uses multiple senses — sight, touch, and sound — while tracing the letters. This type of multisensory learning reinforces the connection between the letters and the sounds they produce.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Now let's try the 'k'.

                  Bea: /k/

                  Nicole Ormandy: Excellent. Alright, well done tracing our /k/ sounds with 'c' and 'k'. What I want to show you now is that to help us remember when we use 'c' versus when we use 'k' when we're spelling, we can think about our cat and our kite images. Look at our cat. What letters do you see on the cat?

                  Bea: A 'u' and 'a'?

                  Nicole Ormandy: Yeah, I see the 'a'. What letter is this?

                  Bea: 'O'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Yeah. And 'u', right? So we made our eyes out of 'a's, our little nose is an 'o', and the cat's little mouth is a 'u'. So I'm going to try to remember this little image to help me think, "oh, yeah. 'C' is used before 'a,' 'o', or 'u'."

                  Narrator: Ms. Ormandy helps Bea remember this pattern by using pictures with embedded mnemonics. Little clues attached to the letters.

                  Nicole Ormandy: What about the kite? What letters do we have at the center of our kite?

                  Bea: 'E' and 'i'?

                  Nicole Ormandy: This is because when we're spelling /k/ before 'e' and 'i', we use the letter 'k'. So I'm going to say a few words and you're going to fill it in, whether it's 'c' or 'k'. If you have to look up here to think about whether it's 'a', 'o', or 'u' or whether it's 'e' or 'i' to help you know whether to use 'c' or 'k', feel free to do that. Okay? Let's look at this one. The word is supposed to be "cub." What's the vowel in this word? Cub.

                  Bea: 'U'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: 'U'. So which one? 'C' or 'k'? For cub? What did you choose?

                  Bea: 'C'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. Why did you choose 'c'?

                  Bea: Because there's a 'u'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Exactly. We see our 'u' with 'c'. All right, the next word's going to be kin. Kin. Now you've got it. What was the vowel in kin?

                  Bea: 'I'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Right? And 'i' has a 'k' before it. If 'i' is my vowel, I'm spelling that /k/ with 'k'. What I'm going to ask you to do now is read back all of these words that you just filled in the /k/ sound for.

                  Narrator: Ms. Ormandy ends her lesson by asking Bea to read each word with accuracy.

                  Bea: Kit. Cub. Kin. Cup.

                  Narrator: Reading words accurately is an important step toward becoming a fluent reader.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Well done. So let's just reiterate then. When do I use 'c' for my /k/ sound?

                  Bea: 'A', 'o', 'u'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. Right before an 'a,' 'o,' or 'u'. When do I use 'k' for my /k/ sound?

                  Bea: 'I' or 'e'.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Right. Before 'i' or 'e'. Excellent. So I'm going to think about my cat and my kite to help me remember 'c' before 'a', 'o', or 'u'. 'K' before 'e' or 'i'.

                  Narrator: The next step for Bea and Ms. Ormandy will be to practice this new rule during dictation.

                  Nicole Ormandy: Nicely done. Good job.

                  Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to AIM Academy and the AIM Institute for Learning and Research. 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.

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                  Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.