Spelling Patterns for Spelling Stages
Letter Name Stage
 Same short vowel families
 Mixed short vowel families
 Families with ck
 Families with mp, nd, nk
 Families ending in sh, ch, th
 Short vowel CVC
o A-O
o E-U
o A-I-O
o All short vowels
o Short vowels with blends (br, gr, pl, etc.)
o Short vowels with digraphs (sh, ch, th)
o Single beginning consonants and blends
o Add s to words with short vowels
Within Word Stage
 Compare short and long vowels
o Short a/long a with silent e CVCe
o Short a/long a with silent e CVCe/long a spelled ai CVVC
o Long a patterns
o Less common long a (ay, ey, eigh, ea)
o R-influenced a (car, care, chair)
o Short e/long e (week, she)
o Short/long e (ee, ea)
o Short e (mess, head) long e (neat)
o Less common long e (geese, chief, these, seize)
o R-influenced e (her, near, cheer, bear)
o Short/long-I CVCe
o Short/long I (clip, mine, try, eye-buy-bye)
o Long I patterns (kite, might, mind)
o R-blends/ r-influenced I ( grin, third, hire)
o Short/Long o (lock, home)
o Long o patterns (rope, road, blow)
o Short/long o (dock, roll, most)
o R-influence o (for, more, door)
o Short/long u (bun, June, blue)
o Long u patterns (rude, fruit, new)
o Other long u (gloom, dew, who)
o R-influenced u (hurt, cure heard)
o R-blends/vowels (grill, girl)
o R-influenced vowels (car, her, for)
o CVCe across vowels (cave, drive, drove, huge)
o Long vowels Mixed vowels and patterns
o CVVC across vowels (road, team, rain, sweet)

Diphthongs and complex consonants
o Diphthongs (oy, oi, ow, ou)
o More diphthongs (al in bald, talk, aw in hawk, au in caught, ou in fought)
o Words spelled with w (watch, war, wrap, swan)
o Complex consonants (scr, str, shr, squ)
o Ck, k, kc
o Ch, tch
o –ge, -dge
o Hard and soft c and g across vowels (cave, gian, cost, golf, cup, gum cent,
germ, gym)
o Ce, ge, ve, se (choose, please, cheese)
Syllable Juncture Stage
 Inflected endings (ed, ing), consonant doubling, and plurals
o Different sounds for ed (mixed, waited, played)
o Plural word with s and es after, x, s, sh
o Plural with y
o Base words + ed and ing
o Adding ing and doubling the consonant
o Adding ing (pushing), doubling consonant (trimming) dropping the e
(diving), long vowel pairs (floating)
o Past tense verbs (taught, drank,
o Adding ed (slipped and picked, traded)
o Adding ing to k words (ck, drop e, CVVC, VCk) tacking, baking leaking
asking
 Open and Closed syllables
o Compound words
o VCCV at juncture (same/different) button, signal
o Syllable juncture VCCV, VCV (tablet and napkin, human and fever)
o VCV open (meter, human) and closed (petal and shiver)
o Closed VCCV/Open VCV funny, picture
o Closed/open with endings (sadden, dusting, sliding)
 Unaccented Final Syllables
o Le, el
o Er, ar, or
o Er , ar. Or, comparatives, agents, things
o /j/ sound Carriage, budget, magic
o changing y to I
o y words by part of speech Long I verbs and nouns; Long e adjective and
adverb
 Stressed and unstressed syllables and spellings
 Revisit patterns in longer words
o Short/long a (canvas, cradle)
o Patterns for long a (debate, explain, layer)
o Diphthongs in two syllables (spoil, moisture, boycott)
o More diphthongs in two syllables (county, allow)
o Or, ar, er, and parts of speech (noun, adjective, comparative adjective)
o Spelling the /er/ sound in stressed and unstressed syllables (certain,
reverse, surprise, lantern)
o Words with ure and er (ture, sure, cher)
o Advanced homophones
o Prefixes (un re dis)
o More prefixes (pre ex tri sub)
Derivational Relations (Some students enter this stage in the 5th grade, but most students
enter in 7th and 8th)
 Adding suffixes
o Adding ion (ct+ion, affect, affection; ss+ion, express, expression)
o E-drop + ion (te+ion, educate, education; ce+ion, induce, induction;
se+ion, expulse, expulsion)
o –sion and spelling changes (t to s + ion, commit, commission; E-drop,
then d to s +ion, explode, explosion)
o E-drop + ation or ition (admire, admiration; compose, composition)
o –ible (root + ible, audible, visible); -able (baae + able, dependable, readable)
o –ible and –able after e
 e-drop, desirable, usable
 soft ce/ge, changeable, peaceable
 hard c/g, navigable, despicable
o related words + able and ible (toleration to tolerable; collection to collectible)
o –tion, from verbs to nouns (separate to separation)
o assimilated prefix ( contest, colleague, correlate, allot affair, assemble, arrange,
illegal, irresponsible, immature, innumerable)
 Vowel Alternations
o Alternations in related words: long a to short a (cave, cavity); long a to schwa
(major, majority)
o Alternations in related pairs: long e to short e ( serene, serenity); long e to schwa
(compete, competition)
o Alternations in related pairs: long I to short I ( resign, resignation); long i to schwa
(invite, invitation)
o Alternations in related pairs: long u to short u (induce, induction); long o to schwa
(compose, composition)
 Roots
o Vowel alternation patterns in related words
 Long to short: divine to divinity;
 Long to schwa: compose to composition
 Schwa to short: metal, metallic
o Greek and Latin science vocabulary: astro, bio, chlor, eco, hydro, hypo,
photo/phos, vor
o Greek roots: auto, tele
o Latin Roots: jud, tract, spec
o Latin roots: vis, trans, geo, port, photo