Contact: Peter Bowers PO Box 295 Wolfe Island, ON, Canada K0H 2Y0
Phone: (613) 385-2084
Email: wordworkskingston@gmail.com
WordWorks Newsletters & Resources
Click HERE for the final Newsletter of the 2017-2018 school year. Some Highlights:
For this Newsletter, I walk the viewer through a wide range of topics related to SWI in a video. THIS document summarizes and expands on those topics, and provides links for everything discussed in the video. The topics I address are related to four categories related to SWI: Research, References, Resources -- and upcoming WordWorks workshops.
Click HERE for the final Newsletter of the 2017-2018 school year. Some Highlights:
A new WordWorks document on “spelling-out-loud” and “writing-out-loud”
New research from Jeff and Peter Bowers and link to Pete’s video for the 2nd Annual Virtual Conference for the Dyslexia Training Institute.
New “special WW publictations:
investigation” on <special>
Two inspiring stories of learning after a first SWI tutoring session
Click HERE for an inspiring story from a tutor that illustrates the fact that far from inhibiting the learning of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, studying these conventions within the context of morphology is a necessary condition for making sense of how grapheme-phoneme correspondences work.
School-Wide Structured Word Inquiry Lesson Ideas/Resources
Click here for a document with resources to help your teachers and students get started!
Videos of Pete teaching full class lessons
Click here to see videos Dan Allen posted on his blog of my lessons with students in Grade 1 - 5 classrooms and with teachers during my visit to the Zurich International School.
Click here for a document with background on each video and related resources. To help you get started with my teacher resource book, see the first video in which I teach from the first lessons.
The screen shot at right is from my visit with Dan’s students!
Revised <sign> Lesson in “Teaching How the Written Word Works”
Books printed after May 2013 already include the revised lesson. You know you have the revised version if you see on <ify> suffix on the <sign> lesson on page 8. Even if you have the revised version, I recommend you download this pdf to gain from the explanation that helped me understand why this revision was needed.
Websites with related resources to explore
(Scientific Word Investigation)
“Word Scientists” look for the deepest word structures that make sense of the greatest number of words.
Click HERE for background on SWI.
Marcia Henry on WordWorks:
Marcia Henry is past president of The International Dyslexia Association
and former director of the Center for Educational Research on Dyslexia at San Jose State University
sign + al → signal
re + sign → resign
de + sign + ate → designate
sign + ate/ + ure → signature
do + es → does
do + ne → done
do + ing → doing
go + es → goes
go + ne → gone
go + ing → going
Making sense of how words work by investigating morphology, etymology and phonology.
English base <sign> from Latin root signum
"mark, token, indication, symbol”
Applying the Principle of Backwards Design from UbD to Structured Word Inquiry
enduring understandings of how the written word works.
"This article by Pete Bowers makes some interesting connections between UbD, Real Spelling and the development of critical thinking skills in students."
Bill and Ochan Powell - Education Across Frontiers
Resources for Spelling-Out and Writing-Out Word Structure with Word Sums
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Click here for information on spelling-out word sums including a free pdf guide for teachers who want to use this process for learning, instruction and assessment.
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Spelling-Out Word Structure: Targeting Central Concepts, Assessment & Instruction
See a new article and video addressing these ideas all building on a practical lesson growing from a Grade 1 student’s question, “Why is their an <h> in school? You don’t hear it.”
Click here for a video of an on-line Skype session addressing this topic with Grade 2 teachers and an article addressing how this topic links to the UbD.
2018- Workshops
Note: If you see that I am giving a workshop at a location near you, feel free to contact me to see if I can add a visit to your school on the same trip. Don’t forget that I do on-line workshops & model lessons via video conference all the time.
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Aug 28: Toronto (Oakville) -
Introductory SWI workshp at Rotherglen School
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Sept 20-21: San Diego hosted by Dyslexia Training institute (DTI)
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Options for 1-day or 2-day Introductory workshops
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•Part 1 on Thurs. Sept 20 ($200)
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•Part 1 & 2 on Thurs. & Fri. Sept 20-21 ($350)
Click HERE to register.
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Sept 24-25: Los Angeles
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Wildwood School on-site workshop
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Sept 29: Palo Alto
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Hosted by Athena Academy
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Click HERE for a flyer with details.
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End of October: San Francisco
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I hope to participate in an event at Athena Academy on Oct 27. To make this work, I would need to work with a couple of schools between Mon-Thurs Oct. 22-25 and/or Mon-Tues Oct. 29-30. Email Pete to inquire.
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Nov 3: Toronto ONBIDA Annual Conference
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Pete is making conference presentation Click HERE for information.
2019
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January 23-25 Edmonton hosted by Edmonton Regional Learning Consortum
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Details TBA.
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Feb 28 - March 2: 1st annual SWI Conference in Chicago organized by Language Insights
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This is an exciting new SWI conference. More details to come soon -- but for now save the date!
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July: Melbourne ALEA (Australian Literacy Educators Association)
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Pete is presenting a Keynote Address at the main annual literacy conference in Australia. (Details TBA)
Must See Links
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A New Hub for Research Related to SWI: Jeff Bowers’ Blog
More importantly, Jeff does a great job of explaining the context of this research in his blog posts. I highly recommend exploring this page often, and adding your comments to the discussion!
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Scientific Word Investigations in the Classroom & Beyond
Click here for a post from Rebecca Loveless on “Word Bag Excitement” that offers teachers a sense of this excellent activity for studying word families modeled on Lyn Anderson’s work. This is a great reference for jumping in. Rebecca’s site has many more posts to explore too.
Click here for Mary Beth Steven’s brilliant recent post “Outer Beauty Attracts, but Inner Beauty Captivates.” This is a wonderful way to compare studying real “word families” compared to words that simply rhyme. Explore her whole blog!
Click here for an inspiring post from Ann Whiting as her final post for her brilliant Grade 7 Blog from Kuala Lumpur. Ann is retiring from the classroom and will soon be back home in Melbourne where she will continue to work with SWI. She will even be working with Lyn Anderson.
Tools for making matrices
Free trial versions of matrix making software for morphological analysis available for download
Click here for a “User’s Guide” for working with this computer tool including links to tutorial films, complementary resources and links to related research.
Video introducing the new “Mini Matrix Maker”
Watch this video to see how teachers and students can easily create matrices from word sums on Mac or PC computers with Neil Ramsden’s “Mini Matrix Maker”.
See an introduction to WordWorks and Structured Word Inquiry
(including videos) here
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On-Line Resources Supporting Structured Word Inquiry
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✦Latdict (Investigate twin bases!)
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Classroom Blogs
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✦Skot Caldwell’s Grade 1 Class (archived)
Key Links
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Related Websites
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✦LEX
<s> → /s/
E.g., sign, signal, assign
<s> → /z/
E.g., design, resign,
does, goes
Explore Lyn Anderson’s excellent blog with illustrations and resources about structured word inquiry for all ages at this link .
Lyn has been developing her understanding and practice in this area for over a decade. Her lessons and ideas for morphological instruction from the start are just exceptional.
At right, see a short video of Pete Bowers discusses SWI at the 2015 Innovative Learning Conference at Nueva.
“SWI Investigations” resources on Real Spellers
THIS FORUM has videos and pdfs in which I retrace the trail of investigations that have grown out of lessons from any subject area and grade I’ve worked with.
Click HERE for a post on that forum with a Zoom video conference between Pete and Douglas Harper (Etymonline).
(Screen shot of video conference with Pete Bowers and Doug Harper.)
Structured Word Inquiry at
The Nueva School
Click HERE to see the new page on the Nueva School website describing how Structured Word Inquiry has transformed the instruction at this top US private school
Click HERE for a great new website by Scott Mills with interviews with a wide variety of language experts. The video below is an interview Scott conducted with me in which I describe my understanding of what structured word inquiry is and and its place in the research.
WordWorks Literacy Centre
Spelling it like it is!
Nothing motivates like understanding
Some Upcoming public SWI workshops
(Also, seeking Bay Area Class visits in October)
September - November
Sept 20 - 21: San Diego, hosted by Dyslexia Training institute (DTI)
Options for 1-day or 2-day Introductory workshops
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•Part 1 on Thurs. Sept 20 ($200)
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•Part 1 & 2 on Thurs. & Fri. Sept 20-21 ($350)
Click HERE for a flyer with information and HERE to register.
Sept 29: Palo Alto, hosted by Athena Academy
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•Full-day workshop ($200)
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•See flyer with details HERE.
Email Pete for inquiries and to register.
Seeking on-site SWI workshops with Pete in SF Bay Area in late October
I am hopping to participate in an event at Athena Academy on Oct 27. To make this work, I would need to work with a couple of schools between Mon-Thurs Oct. 22-25 and/or Mon-Tues Oct. 29-30.
Email Pete if your school in this region might be interested in a 1-day, 2-day or 3-day workshop in these dates. Combining with other schools reduces costs to schools by splitting travel costs.
Nov 3: Toronto (ONBIDA Pete making conference presentation)
Click HERE for information.