Learning from an
Auspicious Tale of Word Analysis
After the course I introduced Susan to a few
colleagues via email. In the correspondence that
followed, Susan initiated a group investigation of
the spelling of <auspicious> that led to surprising
and fascinating discoveries.
It also turned out that making sense of this
particular investigation required clarification of a
number of core orthographic concepts I wanted to
revisit with participants of both summer courses in
follow up resources.
Most of the crew from the July 16-18 WW Summer
Course at the Shanti Resort on Wolfe Island
Our July 16 -18, 2013 course on Wolfe Island was
held at the Shanti Yoga Retreat. Guests can avoid
neither the gorgeous surroundings nor the pearls
of wisdom that are generously sewn into the
Shanti fabric. Just as we were about to begin our
first session, one of the participants, Susan Brady,
shared the following Tao quote that greeted her
when she arrived in her room:
“This is the moment of embarking.
All auspicious signs are in place.”
What a great way to begin a workshop!
I began to produce
this document
targeting the
summer course
participants as my
audience. However,
it soon occurred to
me that this
dissection of a
structured word
inquiry might
benefit many in the
WordWorks / Real
Spelling community.
Most of the crew from the
July 2-4 WW Summer Course
on Wolfe Island
I hope re-visiting the
trail of this group
investigation of the spelling <auspicious>
reinforces the learning of the summer crews, but
also that of our larger community.
www.WordWorksKingston.com
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Here is the part of Susan’s email soon after the
workshop that inspired this whole process:
My appreciation of the writing system as
morphophonemic has undergone a major
expansion.
Yet, I am very much a beginner.... at the risk of
looking incredibly naive I will share that I
endeavored to look up the root for auspicious (for
reasons Pete will appreciate) and am a bit
flummoxed. One source indicated that it comes
from the Latin auspicium, but there also was
mention of auspex (from the genitive auspicis).
Not sure what to do with that. Without just
looking up an existing word matrix, I need to
learn how to determine what the root is. Do I
assume ium and is are Latin affixes and come up
with auspice (with the e having been dropped)?
In English, is the suffix ious rather than ous after
<c> to preserve the soft c (though that sounds
awfully phonological....)?
If the word sum is auspice + ous --> auspicious,
does one say au s p i ce (change to ci) ..... or
might it be auspice + ious --> auspicious with the
spelling out as au s p i c (no e) ious?
I am inspired by people who jump into posing
questions like this so soon after being
introduced to this sort of spelling analysis.
Learning to guide our thinking about such
questions with tests of structure and meaning
was a central focus of the course. How great
that Susan was already motivated to put
The Tao quote that provided the perfect
perch from which to launch the learning
in our second summer course
those lessons in to practice so soon after the
course. Consider...
Structure: Susan’s use of word sums to seek a
plausible morphological structure is dead on. Note
how her construction of a hypothesized word sum
helps her correctly conclude that an <-ous> suffix
added to a base (or stem) <auspice> could not
result in the needed spelling. Seeing the need for
an alternative hypothesis, she suggests the
possibility of analysis with an <-ious> suffix, but
senses this is problematic too.
Note! Word sums don’t always help us by making
solutions easy to find. Sometimes they help us by
helping us see what the important questions are.
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Meaning: In line with the “meaning test” Susan
drew from etymological references to find the root
of this word. As we learned in the course, the
underlying denotation of a base can be found by
identifying the root.1
Again, correctly, she attempts to use that
information to help her understand her
morphological analysis. Susan is not yet totally
confident in reading messages she finds. However,
her new understanding enables her ask the right
questions. And as you shall see, Susan’s research
initiates a virtuous cycle of learning for the group.
What to teach when to teach it?
Learners’ questions guide the way
As soon as I saw Susan’s attempts to analyze
<auspicious> into word sums, I knew exactly
what orthographic concept it was time to address
with her. We had touched on it in our course, but
we didn’t end up getting enough time with it.
Based on the same information, another friend in
that email exchange, Gail Venable, came to
exactly same conclusion regarding what concept
Susan should study next.
She offered the following suggestion for Susan:
With regard to your great questions about
<auspicious>, I think you might also find the
Connecting Vowel Letters film in the Real Spelling
Gallery useful:
http://spelling.phanfare.com/5232742
When you read through the email exchange that
follows, you will understand why Gail and I
independently saw Susan’s question and instantly
thought, “Ah, she needs to see that tutorial video
on the connecting vowel letter.”
Click “Structure of the written word” in the 70 Matrices disk to get
resources such as the eBook “The Terms ‘Base’, ‘Root’ and ‘Stem’”
Learners signal what content they need to
understand by the questions they ask.
See this link to review this use of the terms “base” and “root”. Better yet, read the Real Spelling eBook “The Terms
‘Base’, ‘Root’ and ‘Stem’” that can be found in the 70 Matrices Disk of the Real Spelling Tool Box 2.
1
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This is why we need to celebrate the “big fat juicy
mistake” in any educational context. Learners who
are willing to make mistakes or risk asking the
naive question in front of peers offer teachers a
means of understanding what they do and do not
understand. This is exactly the information
teachers/tutors require to have a confident answer
to the question “what should I teach next?”
In addition, the act of constructing a well-posed
question often guides the questioner towards
much of the understanding they are seeking in the
first place.
Aside: After reading the investigation of <auspicious>,
that follows, you may find the stories and links in the
side bar (right) provide valuable additional examples of
this same process of letting questions guide the
instruction.
The investigation of <auspicious>
The following is from the Old Grouch responding
to and quoting Susan’s email...
On 22 July 2013, at 18:40, Susan Brady wrote:
Yet, I am very much a beginner.... at the risk of looking
incredibly naive I will share that I endeavored to look up
the root for auspicious
Naive? Courageous, principled and scholarly, if you ask
me!
One source indicated that it comes from the Latin
auspicium, but there also was mention of auspex (from
the genitive auspicis). Not sure what to do with that.
The power of the well-posed question
At this link you will find a brilliant Real
Spellers string started by another
friend, Tom Berend, who is also fairly
new to this work as well. There is
much to learn about orthography by
reading Tom’s question whether there
is a convention for dropping a <t>
when adding a <-cy> suffix and
following the discussion that follows.
The Old Grouch offers a fascinating
window into the orthographic
conventions at play in the words Tom
presents and analyzes in his question.
My response focuses on the
excellence of Tom’s question and how
the posing of that question fosters his
own learning even before it elicits any
response.
In terms of the participants of our
second summer course, this post has
special relevance as it links directly to
a of “Wonder Wall” question from
Leslie that I never got to address.
Consider the excellent question posed by Leslie on sticky notes
on our Wonder Wall, and then go to this link to see how similar it
is to Tom’s question.
Another favourite illustration of the
well-posed question can be found in
this WW Newsletter that addressed
the learning that grew from a Grade 2
question about the spelling of the
word <come>.
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Simple - Join or set up a 'Latin for
Orthographers' Spellinar! Gail will tell you all about it!
Without just looking up an existing word matrix, I need to
learn how to determine what the root is. Do I assume ium
and is are Latin affixes and come up with auspice (with
the e having been dropped)? In English, is the suffix ious
rather than ous after <c> to preserve the soft c (though
that sounds awfully phonological....)? If the word sum is auspice + ous --> auspicious, does one
say au s p i ce (change to ci) ..... or might it be auspice +
ious --> auspicious with the spelling out as au s p i c (no
e) ious? All splendid questions - and questions are always more
important than answers. So - how about coming to our
Zoom Room as soon as you like and we can delve into
divinatory bird-watching and the much-populated world of
Latin compounds - yes, Latin did compound, and
promiscuously so, as do the wrongly-termed 'Latin roots'
of the spelling schemes!
One thing that you could do in preparation is to look at the
'<u> <v> <w>' tutorial in the 'Letter Studies' section of
the Real Script resource.
I then shared my own initial discoveries...
…I was so delighted just now to see this tantalizing bit
from my Mactionary:
auspice |ˈɔspəәs|
noun archaic
a divine or prophetic token.
PHRASES
under the auspices of with the help, support, or protection
of: the delegation's visit was arranged under UN auspices.
ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (originally denoting the observation
of bird flight in divination): from French, or
from Latin auspicium, from auspex ‘observer of
birds,’ from avis ‘bird’ + specere ‘to look.’
I had no idea that there was an English word <auspice>. I
had hypothesized the base for "to look" might be in there,
but the divination by watching birds was certainly a total
surprise to me! With the <au>, Sus [my good wife] had
wondered if there was anything to do with 'gold' in their,
but this is even more interesting!
It was at this point that Gail sent her email
pointing to the connecting vowel letter that I
already shared on page 3.
I then followed up Gail’s email pointing Susan
the following...
[See that film] about "connecting vowel letters" in
this Morphology Album of the Real Spelling Gallery. It turns out that analyzing the word <auspicious> means
you will run into a few interesting challenges. One of
them requires understanding of the connecting vowel
letter. (While you are in that morphology album, I highly
recommend that you watch the film on "combining forms"
immediately after the one on connecting vowel letters.)
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I thought I'd walk through some of the information I find
for <auspicious> in the excellent Etymonline. I have not
yet analyzed this word into a word sum. Even before I
start, I can see that there are some interesting questions
for myself. If I write out my own thinking as I do this
analysis, perhaps it will help Susan see the kinds of steps
one can take, and if/when I run into questions, I've also
got an audience here who can help me find my way...
Accessing the Free Real Spelling Gallery
Of course, the point isn't the investigation of this word
itself, but instead building understanding of how to
investigate any word, including using a reference like
Etymonline, and the orthographic concepts that are
encountered with this particular word.
1) Click the “Real Spelling Gallery” button on the RS homepage
Here's what I find in Etymonoline...
auspicious (adj.)
1590s, "of good omen" (implied in auspiciously), from
Latin auspicium "divination by observing the flight of
birds," from auspex (genitive auspicis) +-ous.
While the general connotation of the whole word can be
boiled down to "good omen" note that this meaning
comes from two stated denotations "divination by
observing" and "birds".
Seeing these two denotations suggests to me that we are
looking for two base elements in this word even though I
am just given this one Latin root 'auspicium'. It seems that
the Latin word was complex and that the English word
must be too...
2) Click “Orthographic Morphology”
3) Click the “Connecting Vowel
Letters” tutorial film.
Note the rich alternatives for learning
at each of these steps. I highly
recommend watching the “Combining
Form” film immediately after the one
on “Connecting Vowel Letters”
I have an advantage in that I have encountered the bound
base <spect> many times. However, it is clear there is no
base spelled <spect> in <auspicious>. I can use what I
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have so far to propose a possible word sum. I suspect
that the <au> is the best bet for the first base element,
since that could be linked to "aviary". I also know that the
<v> <u> and <w> have a very interesting and related
history (see this old Learning from Love theme and the
Real Script resource).
So now I have this:
? au + spicious
In this analysis I see the very familiar suffix <-ous>, so I
analyze that element into my word sum
? au + spici + ous
It is at this point that my experience encountering the
connecting vowel letter <-i-> is very helpful to give me
some traction to analyze further. I presented it in the
matrix on the base <have> for the word <be + have + i +
our>.
[This is a reference to one of the lessons from my book
we worked through during the summer course].
I've also seen this connecting vowel letter before the
<-ous> suffix frequently, so I immediately suspect a
further analysis:
? au + spic + i + ous
But now I wonder. Do I have evidence of a base <spic> or
<spice>? Is this base related to the one I already knew
<spect> somehow?
[See videos of Jen Munnerlyn (above) teach from that
theme to K-5 classes from this same theme here.]
The initial question mark with a word sum:
I like to use an initial question mark for word sums that are
just “thinking on paper” for the purpose of developing a
hypothesis. Once I had the thought of <au> as a possible
bound base, marking it in a word sum helps me consider the
consequence that hypothesis has for the rest of the word. In
workshops I often refer this as “thinking on the paper rather
than in your head”. Inevitably seeing my thinking on paper
helps me see possibilities I would otherwise miss, or reject
false assumptions that I might otherwise accept.
I just went to another great resource "Latdict" and found
this:
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Unless I find evidence that I need a final, single, silent
<e>, I won't present it in my word sum, so my hypothesis
of the structure of <auspicious> is the following:
au + spic + i + ous --> auspicious
I still need to do more work on the <au> base for "bird".
aviary (n.)
1570s, from Latin aviarium "place in which birds are
kept," neuter of aviarius "of birds," from avis "bird,"
from PIE *awi- "bird" (cf. Sanskrit vih,
Avestan vish "bird," Greek aietos "eagle").
I know that the final <ere> I find in Latin Roots is often
(always?) a Latin suffix, so I can look at this Latin root for
"look at, see" like this <spic(ere)>.
So I have evidence for an English base spelled either
<spic> or <spice> for "look at, see, observe" in the word
<auspicious>.
I have yet to find evidence that I need that final <e>. The
Word Searcher gives me this when I type <spice>:
Search Results for "spice"
(6 matches)
spice
spiced
spices
hospice
allspice
hospices
Does anyone have any other English words with an <au>
base for "birds"?
The “Old Grouch” followed up...
Salut, Pete!
If that's "a very quick follow-up", me ol' friend, it's pretty
damn spectacular! Con + grate/ + ule/ + ate/ + ion +s.
You do make one statement,though, that I took as a
gauntlet at my feet!
On 27 July 2013, at 17:06, Pete Bowers wrote:
However, it is clear there is no base spelled <spect> in
<auspicious>.
www.WordWorksKingston.com
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Well, thought I, it all depends what's meant by "in
<auspicious>".
That <auspicious> is a compound is clear: its component
bases are <au> and <spice> (whose form I know from
<auspice>).
As you have pointed out, our base element <spice> in
this word is from the Latin verb whose infinitive is
<-spic(ere)>. So, say I to myself, could this infinitive be
the root of one component of a twin base element? Since
there appears to be no attested form <auspection>, I look
for another word with this bound base element <spice>
"catch sight of , notice, see". What came to mind was this.
con + spice/ + u + ous → conspicuous
That would imply a Latin verb <conspicere> as its root, so
I consult LatDict to verify my hypothesis, and voilà!
From the fourth principal part I have my evidence for the
twin form <-spect>. I can, therefore, state that the verbal
form <-spice> which is the second component of the
compound <auspicious> is actually the twin base element
<spice / -spect>. Hence I would say that there IS a twin
base in <auspicious> one of whose forms is <spect>.
Indeed, although my fairly brief search for an attested
form <auspection> hasn't found one yet, it is still certain
that anyone talking of 'auspection' would be immediately
understood by anyone who knew what 'auspices' are.
Highlighted text: The “teacher” learns by following
“student” questions
The highlighted text pinpoints the Old Grouch’s challenge
to my statement “...it is clear there is no base spelled
<spect> in <auspicious>.” The fact that he does not let me
get away with my avoidance of the twin base issue helps
me deepen my understanding. I had suspected <spice>
was a twin of <spect> but couldn’t see the evidence of it in
the information I uncovered from the LatDict reference.
Looking at <conspicuous> made the difference for me.
I look forward to joining the next possible Spellinar to refine
my understanding of these topics!
Twin Bases: A look at the Tool Box 2 Overview shows that
the original Kit 5 Themes H & J address twin bases. The
Tool Box 2 version of this Kit is nearing completion. I have
seen an early draft of the new 5H theme on twin bases. It is
just spectacular!
I also highly
recommend this link
to a video from years
ago in which Old
Grouch introduces
bound bases and
twin bases to a
Grade 5/6 class. That
investigation was the
result of a student’s
attempt to link the
words <produce> and
<product> with a word sum. If the above link doesn’t work,
see part 1 of the video here and part two here.)
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I do enjoy the highways and byways that every word
reveals to orthographers!
Love from both of us,
Michel & Pascal
Susan’s question, and the responses that followed,
provide a window on what this summer workshop
and WordWorks in general strives to support:
1) The understanding necessary to perceive and
investigate rich spelling questions effectively;
Some general lessons from this group
investigation of <auspicious>
2) The confidence and motivation to share those
questions with colleagues;
I will finish this analysis of a structured word
inquiry by highlight some of the key guiding
principles that are reflected by this episode.
3) A community motivated to develop its own
understanding by responding to spelling
questions of their co-learners.
Questions More Than Answers
Susan’s email effectively illustrates what I see as
the necessary first step in developing a deeper
understanding of how English spelling works.
Inquiring Scientific Communities: A Route
to Ever-Deepening Understanding
It is not answers, but rather the ability to perceive
and pose generative questions that is the first
mark of one’s understanding moving forward.
When such questions are posed to a community of
co-learners committed to the principles of
scientific inquiry, the knowledge of both the
questioner and of the entire community expands
and deepens.
It is this dynamic which underlies an axiom that is
so well embodied by the Real Spelling community:
The knowledge of the group is greater than
that of the most knowledgable in the group.
This story about the investigation of <auspicious>
is like countless others (e.g., here, here, here,
here, here, here, here…) in a growing number of
educational contexts around the world. Colearners, sparked by an interesting spelling
question, engage in the scientific studies of the
conventions by which the spelling of words
evolved to represent meaning to English speakers.
In my workshops and academic work I regularly
point to a basic premise of the reading research
community as articulated by Rayner, Foorman,
Perfetti, Pesetsky, and Seidenberg, (2001). They
argued that becoming literate means... “learning
how to use the conventional forms of printed
language to obtain meaning from words.” Thus...
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“the child learning how to read needs to learn how
his or her writing system works” (p. 34).
was motivated to apply her understanding to the
analysis of a word in which she was interested.
Educational institutions that agree with this
straight-forward premise should strive to support
an ever deepening understanding about how our
writing system works.
Having started to see some interesting clues
through her own analysis, she was motivated to
share that research with friends that might help
her refine that understanding further.
By what better means could this goal be achieved
than to ensure that students and teachers
regularly investigate that writing system through
scientific inquiry?
Understanding motivates learning
What, after all, could be a better motivator to
study a complex system than the experience of
gaining a new understanding of how how that
complex system works?
Scope and Sequence? Where Does the
Spelling of <auspicious> fit into the
“curriculum”?
Is <auspicious> on a list of words that are
supposed to be addressed after a three-day
course in a Structured Word Inquiry
“curriculum” ?
Of course not.
How, then was it decided that this word, let
alone the concepts of bound bases, twin bases
and connecting vowel letters should receive such
careful attention?
The simple reason was that Susan had recently
encountered this word in a context that grabbed
her interest. After three days of studying ways
to investigate the spelling system to identify the
structures, history and meanings of words, she
Susan had already put effort into understanding
this word, but was left with questions she
couldn’t resolve on her own. Once a learner
invests time and effort in tackling a question,
they are likely to be motivated to attend to the
facts that may resolve their questions.
This is the same reason elementary students run
to dictionaries to test a self-generated
hypothesis of the structure of the word
<condensation> during a science lesson.
It happened to be the word <auspicious> in
which Susan had invested time and effort to
understand. It turns out that this word cannot
be coherently understood without understanding
the concepts of connecting vowel letters, bound
bases and twin bases.
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Pedagogically, what better moment to teach a
concept than at the exact time that
understanding of that concept makes sense of
questions in which the learner is invested?
Begin with teachers’ understanding
A key point I’m trying to get to is that there is
one necessary first step for making wiser
judgements about word-level literacy
instruction.
Those doing the instructing need to develop
their own understanding of how their writing
system works.
The best way I can see to get that process
started is by making sure that teachers start to
investigate words with word sums, matrices and
“spelling-out word structure” with their
students. (Another key early set of concepts to
understand are homophones and function vs.
content words.)
It is teachers who dive into this learning process
with their students whose own word structure
knowledge increases fastest. Those, then are
the teachers who then are in the best position
to make instructional choices sooner.
Assessing Instruction Before we Assess the
Students
I will end this document with the two questions I
have been asking teachers more and more at
workshops lately.
I can’t think of a more simple and clear means
to assess word-level instruction than to ask the
following two questions:
1) What interesting questions have your
students asked about the spelling of a word
or abut the spelling system recently?
2) What new facts about the writing system
have you learned through the act of teaching
your students?
When I ask these questions at the end of a
school visit, teachers have share on both
questions over the time of my visit.
Then ask teachers how they would have
answered those questions before encountering
Real Spelling and WordWorks.
To ask these questions is to answer them.
Pete Bowers,
August 24, 2013
www.WordWorksKingston.com
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