Silent Letters in Words

Mastery Evidence

• Identify and spell words with silent initial consonants: knight, know, write, wrap, gnaw, psalm, applying knowledge that these letters were once pronounced
• Spell words with silent internal letters: doubt (b), island (s), muscle (c), solemn (n), using etymological connections to aid memory (e.g. doubt from Latin dubitare)
• Use word families and etymology to remember silent letters, e.g. sign is related to signal where the g is pronounced

Assessment Prompt

“When [child] writes words that have silent letters — like "knight," "wrap," or "lamb" — do they remember to include the silent letter even though you can't hear it?”

Curriculum Standards2 alignments