Transcript Myths about Spelling.

Myths about Spelling.
‘If you want to learn to spell you should
read more.’
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Reading and spelling are two different skills.
Reading depends on your recognition skills.
Spelling depends on your skills of recall.
It’s still important for you to read, though, as it
helps you visualise the correct spellings.
‘There is no logic in English
spelling – that’s why it’s so hard.’
• The English spelling system is 85% regular.
• There are rules and conventions but many
English words come from other languages, so the
spelling of some words is dependent on how that
word is spelled in the original language.
khaki ‘kh’ ?? A Hindi word.
gnu
‘gnu’?? An African Bantu word.
‘There is one correct way to learn
spellings.’
• There are many effective ways of learning
to spell.
• Some people can see or visualise words and
store them in their memories. (Catchers)
• Others use an oral way of learning to spell
– learning the sounds that make up words.
This is the basis of the Phonics work we do.
‘I make spelling mistakes
because I don’t speak properly.’
• Accent or dialect can affect how we speak
a word. If you have a strong accent it can
make spelling some words a little more
difficult. Irish people may drop the ‘h’ in
three and say ‘tree’ instead.
• No accent or dialect has a particular
advantage.
‘If you get stuck, just sound it
out.’
• This method can work, but there are many
cases of similar sounding words with
different meanings:
they’re, their and there
• Find different ways to learn spellings
eg visual ones, or look at the structure of a
word.
‘If you learn the rules, you’ll be
able to spell.’
• Unfortunately, most ‘rules’ in English are not rules
at all, just regularities.
• For every rule there is an exception.
i before e except after c
(but ‘neighbour’ and ‘weight’ are exceptions to the
rule)
• Our Phonics work will look at regularities in
words – found, sound, round – we will find
patterns that will make it easier to learn batches
of correctly spelled words.
‘Look it up in a dictionary.’
• Dictionary skills are useful, but looking for
‘enough’ under ‘inuff’ will be a waste of time.
• Dictionaries are very useful if you are making just
small errors.
eg. independant for independent.
• We have a special dictionary which you might find
useful – the ACE Spelling Dictionary.
‘Disguise your spellings with
messy handwriting.’
• Clever! But it doesn’t help much. You need a
clearly written word to learn a word visually.
• Good handwriting can help you learn spellings.
‘I don’t want to learn to write, I
just want to learn to spell.’
• Spelling cannot be learned in isolation. We need to
regularly write the words we want to learn to spell.
• We need practice.
• We need to understand the word.
• We need to understand when to use the word – in
context.
• Without writing we have no need for the spellings!
• The points above are the basis of our lessons.
Another S.J.Dillingham Production for
Salendine Nook High School
2003