The VAC rule

I've been working on my English skills a lot this year, teaching LA for the first time. It's a blast, and I've read some great books and done some neat things. The best though is improving my grammar and spelling. I didn't realize what a rotten speller I am! And all the rules of grammar and spelling; there are things I've been doing wrong my whole life and didn't know it. I remember the basics; i after e except after c. Or when two vowels go a-walking, the first one does the talking. Here's the spelling rule of the week; the VAC rule. (??? yah, I know...) If a word has a stressed last syllable and ends with a vowel and a single consonant (are you with me so far? Vowel-Accented last syllable- Consonant = VAC) These are words such as refer, commit, forbid, occur. Well, if you want to add a suffix to these words you have to first note if the suffix starts with a vowel or a consonant. If the suffix starts with a vowel, like ing, or ed, then you have to double the final consonant. So then we have refferring, committing, forbidden, occurrence... If the suffix begins with a consonant, like 's', then you don't double the final consonant. So refers, commits, etc...

So as I was teaching this I questioned the validity. I mean, really; is anyone going to remember this crazy rule? They are only 12 years old. And isn't it easier to just learn how to spell those 10 words that have a single vowel, single consonant, and accented final syllable?

Ultimately, yes, it is important to teach all these things because maybe some of them will remember, they need to know it now, and we are teaching to learn.

My challenge for YOU this week is to write a sentence with the word 'fewer' and a sentence with the word 'less'. And if any of you write 'What does fewer mean?" or "My teacher told me to write a sentence with the word less in it" you will get minus points!