Spelling
Spelling
Fast and accurate spelling of an extensive vocabulary is a key component of writing fluency. Many of the skills that support word reading will also support spelling, but spelling demands great specificity and has different motor demands (EEF, 2021). Phonics provides a foundation for effective spelling and can be used alongside other strategies such as focussing on morphemes, sounding words in syllables and focussing on the different types of sounds letters and letter strings make.
Spelling is best taught when it is explicit taught and relates to the current content taught. Therefore, teachers should teach specific spelling patterns and rules and seek for pupils to apply them in writing where they can. This can be done by relating taught words to the current unit of working by practising writing sentences using newly taught words. Other useful application activities include paired approaches such as ‘look-say-write-cover-check’ and identifying the ‘tricky’ parts of spellings by drawing attention to conventions pupils may find difficult to remember.
Dictation exercises are used as part of English lessons to further strengthen the application of taught rules (alongside previously taught rules).
Types of Spelling Errors and Strategies to Improve Spelling
Phonological Phonological errors are not phonologically plausible, for example, ‘vrious’ for ‘various’ or ‘caterogy’ for ‘category’.
These errors suggest a child might have gaps in their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, or in their knowledge of the sound structure of a particular word. | Orthographical Orthographical errors are phonologically plausible but inaccurate, for example, ‘erly’ for ‘early’ or ‘sircle’ for ‘circle’.
These errors suggest a child is relying only on letter-sound rules to produce an invented spelling. The gap in their knowledge may be related to knowledge of common letter combinations or the word-specific spelling. | Morphological Morphological errors may be phonologically plausible but occur due to a lack of awareness of morphemes, for example, ‘trapt’ for ‘trapped’, ‘imaginashun’ for ‘imagination’ or ‘desappear’ for ‘disappear’.
These errors suggest that pupils have not learned the consistent spelling of the morphemes in the word. |
Strategies Explicit teaching of consonant and vowel phonemes.
Practise sounding phonemes all the way through words.
Focus on identification of common digraphs in words (pairs of letters used to write a single sound, for example, ‘th’).
Look at the common digraphs the child is struggling with, focus on lots of examples and exceptions to practise. | Strategies Look at patterns of letters and syllables within words.
Encourage this when teaching children to use ‘look-say-cover-write-check’. Ensure children know what the ‘look’ stage involves. ‘When you look at the word, you are looking for patterns of letters and syllables. Think about what helps you remember the patterns.’
Encourage automatic recognition of whole words in conjunction with an emphasis on careful decoding and encoding. Teach strategies which support this: - Write the word and write again over the top, Write the word again, Write the word again, Write the word with your eyes closed. - Exaggerate the pronunciation or ‘say it silly’, for example, ‘spec-i-al’. - Chunk longer words, for example, ‘compe-ti-tion’. - Mnemonics: ‘Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants’ | Strategies Focus on prefixes, suffixes, and root words and learn common rules. For example, most words ending in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ change their plurals to ‘ves’, for example, ‘half’ to ‘halves’ and ‘knife’ to ‘knives’. Systematically teach spelling rules with regular practice consistently undertaken. Explore the relationship between meaning and spelling by looking at etymology.
The history and origins of a word can be the key to making sense of a word’s spelling. For example, knowing the Greek ‘aer’ (which means ‘air’) would help children to remember how to spell aeroplane, aerodynamic, aerosol, and aerobic. |