Book: Spelling Rules, Riddles and Remedies – Advice and activities to enhance spelling achievement for all

Sally Raymond ISBN 9780415710008 Routeledge

Pg 8

Why do some learners find spelling difficult?

Auditory (sound-based) and visual processing skills – If the brain cannot easily identify units of sounds within words and/or match them to the correct lettered displays, then spelling memories and coding ability is going to be weak. … Furthermore, an over-reliance on either the audio or visual aspects of words leads to errors due to the unpredictable nature of English spellings.

Confusion, frustration and failure – Making errors such as “wurry” and “importurnt” when attempting to match letters with sounds; not remembers the difference between “their”, “there” and “they’re”; … can cause embarrassment, frustration and failure.

Lack of positive outcomes – …when failure persists it erodes confidence, interest and motivation. … avoidance strategies are often adopted to hide failure.

Memory storage and recall – …external features (such as the environment in which learning takes place) and internal factors (such as an individual’s processing weaknesses and strengths, confidence and engagement)

Shortage of practice – …learners often have few opportunities to practice and extend their spelling vocabularies.

Different ways to learn spellings

Write a spelling out a number of times

For some learners this activity words well by helping their brains link the visual pattern of letters alongside the physical act of moving their pen across the page. For many, this might brin them success in the following spelling test, but, when using the word three weeks later within a piece of mainstream writing, the memory trace of the spelling may well have been forgotten…

Look, say, cover, write check

• Read the word
• Say the word aloud
• cover the word
• write the word
• check your spelling
• repeat daily for a week

…adds sound, sight and muscular actions to the learning activity. By engaging the ears, eyes, mouth and hand to complete this daily learning routine, a variety of neurological processes are involves… called “multisensory” learning… works well for some, [but] for others it only brings short-term success. … no connection made between the word’s meaning and its spelling at the time of learning, and no use of a memory prompt to trigger the accurate recall of the spelling’s lettered display at a later date.

pg 10

Letter-to-sound rules to learn spellings

Long e: /e/
three, see, tree
happy, party, baby
clean, beach, steam
key, money
piece, field, shield
ceiling, receive

Phonics is the term used to describe the links between alphabetic letters and the sounds (phonemes) that they make. There is no doubt that the brin benefits from early letter-to-sound tuition to help it understand that there are links between the squiggles of letters and different sounds.

…English is not a phonetic language…we also use a lot of homophones … everyday speech does not always match the lessons we are taught…the sounds of words can be affected by accents too.

Well-designed phonic programmes provide a structured introduction to literacy, but an overreliance on phonics can, for some, hamper progression when moving beyond materials tailored to match specific teaching programmes.

Some learners find auditory processing difficult.

Pg 11

Mutliple-processing-activities to enhance spelling memories

Learning the spelling of “does”

DOES Oillie Eat Snails? yes, he does.

A memory prompt Does Oillie eat snails? provides a meaningful and memorable aid which enhances memory storage and recall

• The emotions of disgust horror and gleeful surprise also strengthen the input
• The letter to sound rules of “does” do not match – the sound of the word – the brain needs something to nudge it away from “dus
• As “does” is a common word, there are repetitive opportunities to practice this memory prompt
• A picture is a valuable memory story. Pictures can be stored and recalled more easily than letters.
• Linking a word’s spelling to a phrase relating to the meaning of the word helps to transfer spelling lessons into mainstream writing.
• Drawing your own picture promotes ownership of learning. It also boosts visual memory and recall and uses kinaesthetic (muscle) skills which increase the number of neurons being fired in the brain.