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Spelling Strategies

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Spelling strategies

What sort of speller are you?

Do you keep a record of your errors?

Do you know what your spelling problems are?

Do you know how to improve?

I hate spelling tests.

Me too!

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Spotting mistakes

Keep a sharp eye out for errors in your spelling.

Then try to identify what kind of mistakes you usually make.

Now you can start to do something about them!

Typical errors include:

problems with homophones missing silent lettersconfusion over double lettersconfusing words which sound similar not knowing rules endings.

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Spotting mistakes

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Spotting mistakes

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Spotting mistakes

1. Draw a table like this one:

Spelling error Correct spelling Type of error

2. Gather as many pieces of your writing as you can.3. List the mistakes, the correct spelling and the type of error.4. Try to identify common mistakes.5. Now give yourself at least one spelling target.

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Personal spelling notebook

Keep a personal spelling notebook.

Here are some of the things you might include in it.

Personal errors

Types of errors

Subject keywords

Spelling strategies

Rules and conventions

Targets

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Strategies

Study, cover, write, check

If you have problems with a word, try one of the strategies suggested here!

Write the strategies down in your spelling notebook.

study the word carefully

cover it

write it down from memory

check it

repeat until you are happy you know it.

spelling

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Sounding it out

Sometimes it is helpful to sound out the syllables of a word, e.g. re-mem-ber.

Some words, particularly those with unstressed or silent letters, can be sounded out very deliberately: e.g. Wed-nes-day, def-i-nite

Find five other words suitable for sounding out.

Strategies

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Look for letter patterns

It’s difficult to remember the pattern of letters in some words.

So try to find the same pattern in other words that you do know.

This may help you to associate the words and remember the pattern.

E.g. guard is often misspelled (as gaurd).

gu is the problem area

So look for other words with gu, like ‘gun’, ‘gust’, ‘league’. You can even invent a phrase to help you remember:

‘The guard with the gun.’

Find letter patterns for three other difficult words, e.g. calendar.

Strategies

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Mnemonics

These are rhymes or phrases that help you to remember the letters in a word.

E.g.

rhythm – rhythm helps your two hips move

because – big elephants can always upset small elephants

In your notebooks, write down any mnemonics you know.

Create a new mnemonic for a tricky word.

Strategies

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Words within words

Lots of words contain other words. Use this knowledge to help you spell the more difficult words.

E.g.

There is a lie in the middle of believe.

Conscience is another tricky word, but it has a school subject in it: con + science.

See how many other examples you can find of words within words.

Strategies