Guest Author - Jeanne Rutgers

Sometimes I think spelling books should be banished. Too often I meet students who get perfect scores on their spelling tests, but if you asked them to write a paragraph describing their favorite activity or sport, there would be a misspelling in every other sentence. This is because students will memorize a spelling list for a test on Friday, but have no idea how to sound out a word and use phonetic strategies to help them spell on their own.

I think a great spelling tool is The Bob Books. These books are all phonetically controlled. That means they only contain words that have certain spelling patterns. For example the set 1 books, only contain short vowels. Therefore if a student has been instructed in short vowel spelling rules, she should be able to spell all the words in that particular book. To practice spelling, I will dictate a Bob Book to my students and have them create their own written and illustrated version of that book. This is a great tool when introducing a new spelling pattern such as magic E. Not only do I want my students to be able to read the difference between cap and cape, I want them to be able to spell it as well. Reading and spelling need to be taught together.

What about the words which don’t play fair and can’t be sounded out?

While approximately 80% of our vocabulary follows “the rules,” we do have several words whose spelling seems to follow a completely inexplicable pattern. Those words should be taught in clusters using memory sentences. For example words that use GN can be grouped together to form a silly sentence to help students memorize this spelling pattern such as “The gnarly gnome liked to gnash and gnaw at gnats.” This sentence emphasizes the most common words that use the GN spelling pattern. It is important to point out that this is an unusual pattern or else you will see students using GN pattern in other places. The same is true for GH making a /f/ sound. Those words can also be grouped together to teach a spelling pattern, and a sentence can be created to help memorize the pattern such as “I had to laugh when I had enough of my rough, tough cough.”

Another group of words that needs to be taught by memory are sight words which seem to have absolutely no pattern. These are words like again, does and said. Those words must simply be memorized, but they need to be tested regularly; maybe even weekly.

Good spelling doesn’t need to be a struggle. But it does need to be taught in ways that make sense and apply the rules of phonics. Our students should have the skills to spell words that might not have been on last week’s test.

For more information on phonics and phonemic awareness click here