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Spelling
By Phil Builder
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Good readers make good spellers
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You are probably
reading this because you have some concerns about your child's spelling.
I will try to help you sort out what is important.
This first section needs to be read so that you avoid simplifying the
Spelling process. On the surface Spelling looks easy enough for
those of us who are good spellers, but we don't really remember or
understand how we began to learn to spell! |
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First
of all, children learn to spell through reading and writing, and their
spelling vocabularies grow in proportion to the amount of reading and
writing that they do.
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Teachers teach phonics and word families to assist spelling
development but the best readers and writers are
already familiar with much of what is taught. It is not new or
difficult for them, but for other children who do not have their reading
and writing experience it is very new and quite difficult.
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Remember,
your children need to spend most of their time reading and writing,
rather than having 'spelling' lessons. Keep this balance in mind
as you are working with your children. |
Reading experience particularly helps to build large
spelling vocabularies. Children who are good spellers generate
their own understandings about the rules of spelling through their reading, and
are able to apply them to new words. They don't have to be taught every
word they know.
If you doubt this check out the numbers in the following:
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Frank Smith (1988) states that
the average adult can spell about 50,000 words.
This figure has been well accepted in educational circles. |
Brian Cambourne calculates that if
a child learns a list of 20 new words every week for 52 weeks of
the year, for 13 years, by the time they finish year 13 they
would have been taught about 13,520 words.
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This doesn't happen in any Australian school of
course! Most schools only teach for about 40 weeks of the
year and spelling lists probably average about 10 to 15 per
week for the first seven years. That's between 2800
and 4200 words!.
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Anyway, take the larger figure.....the
first calculation.....
50000-13520=36480 words
not taught
out of the
50000 known!!
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So how
are the other 36,480 words learned?
The answer lies in the fact that people generate
their own spellings. We teach ourselves in the first
instance through being readers and
writers, and
because
we are so familiar with print we learn more easily
about the structures and
rules to apply to words!
That
is, we learn about phonics, word families, word building, rules,
and exceptions through reading and writing, and after we have had
extensive experience of reading and
writing!
Wholes and Parts
Contrary to old fashioned ideas, we don't learn the bits and pieces first and then put it all together as reading and writing as if we are assembling a jigsaw puzzle! Humans learn whole things more easily than by
trying to learn the bits and then assembling them.
For instance take learning to play music. The famous 'Suzuki Method' is based on learning whole tunes rather than learning to play notes separately. It is a most successful method. Similarly wholistic medicine
treats the whole person because that is more sensible than treating individual symptoms.
How did you learn to play your sport? Did you just go out and 'have a go', and did you improve with practice? Or did you get someone to teach you all the moves separately before you set foot on the arena to
compete? I don't think so!
Children's learning must be based on wholistic methods for it to make sense to them. They won't be perfect first time, but they will participate, they will strive to improve, and they will be self motived. |
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Children Learn
Naturally if we allow them to!
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The art of good teaching is
to 'empower' children to learn; to give them time and opportunity to
learn naturally (see
Natural Learning); and then to
observe closely to see what specific extra bits need to
be taught. If you follow this you are fully justified in
teaching anything!
If you start at the other end and set out to
teach every little bit first you just won't have time to cover it all, and your
children's motivation to learn will die of boredom and lack
of interest!
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How do I know if my
child's
spelling is OK?
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There are two issues to look at here. First of
all how well does he/she learn to spell new words for a test?
Secondly how well does he/she spell when writing (letters,
reports, stories, etc)? There are often differences between
these.
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You may think that a child who is good at learning new
words every week will write with excellent spelling too.
That's not always the case. Many children can perform well
in tests yet have real problems when writing. I am going to treat
these two issues separately. |
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Varying methods
Have you ever watched your child
learn words for a test? How do they do it? I have watched many
children over the years and their self-taught methods vary enormously from
very efficient to really ineffective, slow and unworkable.
Contrasting examples are the child who can just look at the word, write it
once and never forget it; to the child who copies each letter painfully
slowly, and then can't remember the order in which letters are arranged.
What we can't see of course is what is happening inside their heads.
What are they saying to themselves as they learn? What are they
focussing on? |
Modes of learning
Humans have different ways of learning things. We call these
modes of learning. Some are really good at remembering by listening
and talking. Others are not so good at that but are great at
remembering the shapes, the order or the look of things. Yet
others are best if they can get their muscles involved, particularly
their hands and fingers.
We refer to these modes as
auditory (just tell me!), visual (let me see it!), and kinaesthetic
(let me do it!). Usually we all use a little of each mode to
learn anything, but some of us are very strong in one mode.
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It is impossible to always teach to the
modal strengths of every individual child, but what we can do
is structure learning in such a way that every child is free to use
their preferred mode or modes of learning. |
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LSCWC X 5 |
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The process that allows the best use of all modes is
called LSCWC x5, or LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, times five.
It works like this. Teach children to go through the sequence,
writing LSCWCx5 at the top of their page and checking that they are
using each of the five main steps for every word: |
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1 |
LOOK at the word
(use your eyes to really look at it) |
do you recognise any smaller words inside? or,
do you recognise any bits such as ight, gth, str th sch? or,
does it have syllables?
what is the hard bit? the trickiest bit? |
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2 |
SAY the word
(speak it and hear it) |
say it
say it carefully in syllables (eg. gov-ern-ment), or
say it in a way that you will remember( eg. govern-ment), or
say it in a humorous way (eg. pee-opple for people, fri-end for friend),
or
if the word is short, spell it using the letter names and memorise
them. (eg. w-e-r-e, n-i-g-h-t) |
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3 |
COVER the word
so you can't see it |
make sure that
this happens or they will just copy it |
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4 |
WRITE the word
(teach the muscles of the hand to help remember the word) |
now the task is to recall the spelling and write it!
If they need another look, let them, but then cover it again. |
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5 |
CHECK that it is correct
(does it look right?) |
having written the word, uncover the original and compare
them for accuracy |
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Repeat the
process on that word 5 times without
stopping |
by the fifth time the student should be very
confident and writing the word faster |
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Next, write
the word in a sentence. |
This is an important step and helps to sort out any
confusions about the meaning of words. |
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Obviously LSCWCx5 take a little time
for each word. However it is well worth spending time on. You
don't have to learn many words in a session. I suggest that the
student learn a new list of words once at the beginning of the week (each
one 5x), and then practice testing him/herself once a day (LSCWC x 1
for each word), and have a test on the whole list once a week.
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Weekly tests
Although I am not a great fan of tests generally, a once a week
spelling test does give the learning a target day and a sense of
closure, and allows everyone involved to see how well the learning
is going.
Most valuable of all is the child's acceptance of
responsibility for their own learning results.
If the words and the number
of words are manageable and relevant for every child, and everyone
follows the LSCWCx5 process faithfully, every child will be
successful, every week.
If this is not happening something is wrong and must be changed!
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Teach for success
If there are still problems with
spelling results and all the above processes are being used I
suggest that you look at the actual words chosen for the test and
see how easy or hard they are, or how relevant they are to the child.
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Use words from writing
Another way to tackle the problem is to select words from their
writing. These should be words that they have
attempted to write (therefore they know how to use them) but just
need to be learned accurately.
Note: any words from their
writing that are habitual long-term errors should be treated
differently.
See http://www.personalbest.com.au/ for more information on this.
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Reduce the load
Children who are struggling with literacy should have their list
cut down to perhaps 5 or so words a week so that their learning
load is lighter, and so that they get 100% of words correct every
week. This is your goal! Once the success pattern is
established the number of words can be increased.
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Spelling in writing |
We call this 'invented' spelling, and it is very useful
because it frees them up to write what they want to say, rather
than be locked into writing just the words that they can spell. This
writing should be read as it is and valued for the ideas the child has
expressed. If it is to be seen by others or displayed publicly it can be corrected using various techniques with
responsibility shared between adult and child so that the final product is
correct. If you need advice on how to handle a piece of writing
see the article Writing Conference.
Also
see links to Stage 4
milestones on
Writing for more ideas about how to approach this.
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Normally children try to write as they speak and have a
try at spelling any words, long or short. |
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To assess spelling in writing
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Note that the following is not a writing conference! This is an assessment of
Spelling ability and strategies. |
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Select some pieces of first draft
writing to examine the quality of a child's spelling. Make a
list of all the words that are misspelled. You may want to modify
this list later, or use it to make a personal vocabulary chart, or to supplement the weekly spelling list.
Keep in mind that your list doesn't necessarily represent
the worst spelling the child can do because it is made from
these first drafts! The
question to ask yourself
is,
"Can this child spell
better than what I am seeing now?"
Follow the flow chart below as I explain the process. |
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| Invariably, whenever you use
the Rewrite strategy
you will be able to prove to the child
that they can spell more words than they
thought they could. Therefore you can help the child improve
their spelling and writing confidence by encouraging them to use
this strategy more often. As a classroom teacher I always
demonstrate my use of Rewrite so that
children can see it in action. |
Identify and
eliminate habitual errors
Some children have habitual errors of basic
high frequency words. Words like they,
were, where, because, from,
for, are, our, like, said, some, their,
there, two, very, here, there,
could, etc. are consistently misspelled despite
efforts to learn them. The first strategy
would be to ensure that the words are learned properly using
LSCWCx5. If this doesn't work and the problem remains
unsolved use Harry Lyndon's Old Way New Way technique www.personalbest.com.au/ to eliminate the confusions and teach
how to forget the 'old way' and remember the 'new way'.
This method is extremely good at sorting out the confusions that
some children suffer over 'simple' words. |
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1. Instruct the child: "Read your work
(story, report, poem, etc) and
circle any words you are unsure of, or
that you think may be wrong."
This is a low-risk task. You are simply asking for an indication of
rightness or wrongness.
Children
rarely have trouble finding words they are
unsure of. It is usual for them to
select words that are wrong and even some that
are correct. This just highlights their lack of
experience at this
time. If a
child can't do this it is probable that they are too young and
inexperienced, lack confidence, or think that there will be a penalty for
them if they do it. But most children can
do it and by doing so prove that they can recognise when a word is wrong.
This is the first step to being a good speller.
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2. Next, instruct the child to correct the words
they have circled by writing
their attempts near the originals.
Now you can see what he/she can really do. I would
anticipate that not all words would be attempted, but some would be
correct and some not. Can your child spell better than it first
appeared? I hope so. Can he/she do even better? Let us explore this a
little further.
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This is a strategy to show
children that they can spell anything if they are prepared to try, and
if they trust their own instincts. Take one of their words that
is not yet
correct. Have the child
write and rewrite it again
until he/she likes the look of it.
It is the same strategy that most adults use when you ask them how to
spell a word. Try it. Ask a colleague how to spell something and
usually they will write it to see what it looks like. They might
write it a couple of ways and select the best. Applied to a child it looks like this.
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"Try to write this word." Do not help or give any
facial clues to then child. That is, don't nod or smile if the
attempt is getting close. Keep a poker face and ask, "What do you
think of that? Does it look right?"
At this point I
find that most children think that I am asking this because
their attempt is wrong!
This is
because we have a habit of telling children when they are right.
So explain the process and tell them that you will not be giving any clues about their
attempts until later.
You want them to make that decision,
and you need to know if they can! |
Encourage the child to have several attempts at the
word, writing their attempts below each other (in a list) so that they can
easily compare them. You can assist by asking leading questions such
as, "Which bit looks OK? Which bit doesn't look right? Which word is
the best?"
Usually children recognise the correct word and their
faces light up when they see it. Congratulate them for
their effort,
and move on to the next word.
If they write the word correctly and don't
recognise it I suggest that you
encourage
them to write a couple of more attempts before asking them to select the
one that looks the best.
Usually, but not always, they can select the
correct one.
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People don't use just the one method to remember
spellings. We use different strategies depending upon the word. Test
it for yourself.
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1. Auditory memory |
2. Syllabification |
3.
Kinesthetic
approach |
4. Visual
memory |
How do you spell a word such as
'one' or 'could'. Most people just remember the rote spelling:
oh, enn, ee = one
enn, igh, gee, aitch, tee = night
This method uses
auditory memory.
Can your children do
this with common words? |
But how do you spell
'disenfranchisement'? Obviously you need a different strategy to recall
the spelling for such words. This requires strategies of analysing
words into sounds and syllables, sequencing all the bits so that it sounds
right, remembering the order, and spelling each part in turn.
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Another mechanism we use is muscle memory
where our muscles take over when we write certain words or parts. For me, my hand
knows how to write my name for instance. On other words when I am
not so sure I let my hand write it and then check the result. I
don't think about these words at all. My hand (rather than my brain) knows the sequence.
This is the kinaesthetic skill. |
Visual memory is used by many people
as the main strategy for recall of words. It can be used well in
words that have a distinctive shape such as people, parallel, decipher,
elephant, psychology, etc. but it can be a problem area too unless it is
accompanied by a strong visual checking habit. I see many children
using it inappropriately to spell words such as thay, becuase, thier,
verry, when a different strategy would have been preferable. |
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Then there are the words that I know I don't
know. Words such as diarrhoea, phlegm,
intricacy, reservoir
and parallel. I write them and change them until I recognise
them as being words that I have seen before. This is the Rewrite
strategy. I have to use my visual memory strengths to achieve a good
result here, but after many attempts!
We
have discussed four different ways to access spellings. Most
adults that I have worked with agree that they use a similar range of
strategies. But I haven't even begun to mention the myriad of
rules, families, phonics, prefixes, suffixes, letter strings, root
words, contractions, compounds, etc. all of which add to our
reservoirs of information to help us spell better.
Think about teaching the above strategies when
you are working with your children because you need to help them adopt the right
strategy for them, at the appropriate time. Strategies can be
learned now, today, whereas it takes years of learning to master all the
rules and to learn all the intricacies of the English language.
If you have read and understood the
above you are in good shape to begin teaching some of the phonic elements
of words and word families.
You will plan what to teach based on
your observation of your child's writing, and your child's identification
of the words that are unknown.
That
ensures that he/she will be a willing participant and have some control
over, and a stake in the learning process.
Click
here to see Activities for
Phonics and Word Building
References
Lyndon, Harry, http://www.personalbest.com.au/ |
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