“How do you make the long ‘e’ sound?” Turquoise Trail Charter
School teacher Eliza Botsford asks third-graders Grecia Tovar
and Fidel Valladares, who are struggling to spell the word
“really.” The students come up with “E-I” and “E-E.” Botsford
says those could be right, but hints that this one is like the
long “e” in “eat.” “Oh, E-A?” Valladares asks. “It’s the same in
‘real,’ and then the ‘ly,’” Botsford explains. Both kids write
it correctly. Botsford works with a small group of struggling
readers at a time during her class’ guided-reading period,
focusing in this case on two children learning English as a
second language by helping them learn to spell, and thus better
recognize, words from the book they’re reading. The technique
she’s using is based on phonemic awareness, or helping children
learn to “manipulate phonemes,” which are the single sounds made
by combinations of letters. Phonemic awareness, along with
phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary, are the “big
five” elements of “scientificall