Have you ever wondered why there's a "g" in sign? Or why two has that "w"? Or why friend has that i? In this class, we investigate these questions and more. The sometimes-baffling spelling of the English language is actually highly ordered. Spelling is a combination of etymology (word history), phonology (word sounds), morphology (word meaning), and orthography (the spelling of the English language). When students begin to understand how all of these work together, their understanding of the English language deepens, as well as spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension.

**To be successful in this course, learners should have a basic understanding of prefixes, suffixes, and base words. It is recommended (though not required) to have completed at least one term of my "Orton Gillingham: Morphology, Vocabulary, Grammar, and More!" course.***

In this course, learners will engage in Structured Word Inquiry. This practice rests on four questions:

1. What does the word mean?
2. How is the word built? What is its structure?
3. What are the word's "relatives"?
4. What are the letters doing in the word?

This method puts the learners in the driver seat--encouraging them to investigate words and discover relationships that will improve vocabulary, spelling, and morphological awareness.

Since investigations are student-driven (but teacher-led), learners might: create a matrix, discover a spelling rule, figure out a root from a set of words, investigate the history of a word, explore the use of a suffix, or all of these at once.

This class meets twice weekly. In the first class of each week, the teacher will present a word or set of words for inquiry. Learners will engage with the four questions of structured word inquiry. In the second meeting of each week, learners will "deep dive" with questions that came up in the first day of the week. 

Since learners are highly encouraged to provide words for investigations, the content of the course in the long-term will follow student needs. Individual sections may also vary in content based on the needs of each group. Please contact me for upcoming topics in your section.