Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Spelling sequence

The Letters You Can't Hear

Silent letters, and the related word that reveals them

Lesson 17 of 17
Year 6 45 min

Objective

Spell words containing letters that are written but not pronounced, using a morphologically related word as the memory hook where one exists.

Board title: Silent letters  ·  Say it: “Today we're spelling words that keep a letter nobody says, and finding a related word, like signature for sign, that says the letter out loud.”

Curriculum

  • Y5/6: words with silent letters (knight, doubt, island, lamb, science)
  • Y5/6: words ending in -able and -ible
  • Y3/4: statutory word list (revisited, island, answer, knowledge, guard)
  • Terminology: root word · silent letter · related word

Success criteria

  • spot a letter that is written but never spoken
  • find a relative where the letter can be heard
  • explain why the letter is still in the word
  • spell these words without dropping a letter

Key vocabulary

silent letter · related word · root word · syllable · origin

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: write bomb and bombard, say both, and ask where the b went. Collect four more silent-letter words the class already knows on the board. Say 'hold that thought' and resolve nothing yet.
9 min
Model the two moves in order. Write knight and say nite: let the gap sit there, these letters are fossils of a word people once pronounced. Then the slide that does the work: sign is nothing until signature turns up and says the g out loud. Chain the chips aloud: bomb → bombard, muscle → muscular, crumb → crumble.
7 min
Stir the Pot on the whiteboard, Spicy band: look, cover, write, check, every time. Stop on island, answer, knowledge, guard and guide as they come round and name the silent letter. Tell the island story: its s was inserted by mistake in the sixteenth century, there is no relative worth hunting, a word with a story sticks.
5 min
The four vote pairs: a child says WHY before each reveal (answers: a-left, b-right, c-left, d-right). Name the pattern every time: the wrong spelling is always subtraction, they wrote only what the ears heard.
16 min
Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 2, the hardest hunt on this sheet: one word looks wrong and is already right, and in Spicy the silent letter of autum hides at the very end. Make every mender name a relative where one exists; on Task 3, push for the relative to be written next to the word, not just said.
3 min
Plenary: two children read a Task 3 word aloud and name its silent letter. Then the class quiz: Polpetta's chalk sign says Not a crum left on the plate, say crumble, which letter turns up?
On screenSPAGhetti → Stir the Pot → Spicy. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Watch for island, answer, knowledge, guard and guide as they come round, stop and name the silent letter each time.
SPAGhetti · Spelling sequence · Lesson 17 of 17  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils The Letters You Can't Hear · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. The lesson still works.
If they're on devicesLesson code SLNTF (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

Writing only what is spoken. nock, iland, crum, dout. The silent letter is dropped because nothing in the sound argues for it. Every one of these needs a relative or an origin attached to it.

The silent letter at the end of the word. autum, condem, solem. Final silent letters vanish most often because nothing follows to protect them. autumnal, condemnation bring them back.

Assuming every silent letter has a relative. island has none worth teaching, its s was inserted by mistake in the sixteenth century. Say that. A word with a story is a word that sticks.

-able and -ible after all this. edable, sensable. The e in noticeable is kept precisely because it is doing silent work, it keeps the c soft. Silent does not mean idle.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: six words, grouped by silent letter. Task 1, then Task 3 orally with a scribe.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read Task 2 aloud before they edit.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, a word whose silent letter has no relative, and a way to remember it anyway.
  • EAL: many first languages spell what they say. Show the fossil explicitly or this looks like carelessness.

Play it

Lesson code SLNTF at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Spelling sequence · Lesson 17 of 17  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora