Help with Spelling

help-with-spelling

I guess if you are reading this you are not the best at spelling! This is not the end of the world.
Can you spell the word when all you are thinking about is the word (like in a spelling test) but if you have to write it in an essay when you are thinking about what you want to write, it all goes wrong?! Or do you have no idea how to spell some long words?
Proof-reading needs to become your friend; something you always do, even with texts and social media, one cant always have the excuse of “ it was the predictive text that misspelt it!” I can’t spell, but I can usually see when a word ‘looks odd’ and then I can spell check it or look it up.
SPELLING MONSTER: Make a picture of your ‘spelling monster’ and think of all the ways you can ‘Attack a Nasty Spelling’ and write them down on the same page; (look for shapes in words, look for word families, look for spelling ‘rules’, look for word patterns, look for regular prefixes and suffixes, break up the words, look for words inside words, ‘photograph’ words) Laminate it and have one to take to school and one to stick on your wall above your work desk and use this to help you.
SPELLING DEMONS: These are the words that are irregular and don’t follow rules. You need to ‘slay’ them, like you would a dragon, with pictures,

mnemonics, make jokes about them, tell stories, draw pictures, anything to help you remember. The ones you’ll know are words like ‘because’- Big elephants can always understand small elephants, ‘Said’-Sad ants in Dublin.
SPELLING CONFUSIONS: otherwise known as homophones, which is the bad spellers’ worst nightmare! (which, witch/ there, their and they’re/ your, you’re/ its, it’s etc) These are the words that sound the same, are spelt differently but mean different things AND the regular computer spell checker doesn’t recognize them (You need a piece of software such as ‘TextHELP Read and Write’, which has a homophone check on it)
SPELLING GAMES: buy ready made spelling games (or go to a charity shop, who often have these kind of things) or make your own. Choose a well-known game, like snap or snakes and ladders and put the spellings you find difficult in to the game.
SPELLING SOFTWARE: this comes under the category of playing games, because that’s what it feels like, while learning how to spell, eg, WORDSHARK. Touch typing helps with spelling too, as your fingers remember the letter patterns; this is called your motor memory.
SPELLING WORD BANKS: make your own lists, in a book, file or on index cards that are joined on a ring, or on the computer in word banks that sit at the bottom of the screen and put the words you need for Science, Maths, History etc. Make one for each new topic and have it next to you when you are writing, it saves a lot of time!
CREATIVE SPELLING LISTS: when you are reading a good book, write down or record good words and phrases (as the dust settled, a loud commotion etc) phrases you wouldn’t necessarily think of on your own. Start using them in your stories.
You should start collecting lists of LINKING WORDS (after which, following that, at that point, subsequently etc) which are very useful for English, History, RE; the subjects where you are telling a series of events.
You also need a list of generic ACADEMIC WORDING (It can be seen that, on the other hand, of particular note, in conclusion) which can be used in any essay and make you sound much more academic/ clever and less ‘chatty’.
SPELLCHECKERS:

You can use yourself initially, a dictionary, a Franklin spellchecker or the automatic spellchecker on the computer. Best of all is ‘Text HELP’ which I mention in the IT section, as it checks the homophones too.
Lastly, every time you tackle a new subject essay, when you are doing the reading for it you should make a SUBJECT-SPECIFIC WORD LIST, these are words and phrases (no more than three big words long, otherwise you can be accused of plagiarism and copying) that are only of any use in that particular context. These are particularly relevant once you reach YR 5/6 and in to Secondary School and University.
With these three lists and an essay plan (see Study Skills) you are ready to write really well…never mind that you cant spell if you take care to copy and check the words really carefully.
Not being able to spell automatically is a bore but not the biggest problem if you follow these tips and take care; no one need know!

I guess if you are reading this you are not the best at spelling! This is not the end of the world.

Can you spell the word when all you are thinking about is the word (like in a spelling test) but if you have to write it in an essay when you are thinking about what you want to write, it all goes wrong?! Or do you have no idea how to spell some long words?

SPELLING DEMONS: These are the words that are irregular and don’t follow rules. You need to ‘slay’ them, like you would a dragon, with pictures,

mnemonics, make jokes about them, tell stories, draw pictures, anything to help you remember. The ones you’ll know are words like ‘because’- Big elephants can always understand small elephants, ‘Said’-Sad ants in Dublin.

SPELLING GAMES: buy ready made spelling games (or go to a charity shop, who often have these kind of things) or make your own. Choose a well-known game, like snap or snakes and ladders and put the spellings you find difficult in to the game.

SPELLING SOFTWARE: this comes under the category of playing games, because that’s what it feels like, while learning how to spell, eg, WORDSHARK. Touch typing helps with spelling too, as your fingers remember the letter patterns; this is called your motor memory.

CREATIVE SPELLING LISTS: when you are reading a good book, write down or record good words and phrases (as the dust settled, a loud commotion etc) phrases you wouldn’t necessarily think of on your own. Start using them in your stories.

You should start collecting lists of LINKING WORDS (after which, following that, at that point, subsequently etc) which are very useful for English, History, RE; the subjects where you are telling a series of events.

You also need a list of generic ACADEMIC WORDING (It can be seen that, on the other hand, of particular note, in conclusion) which can be used in any essay and make you sound much more academic/ clever and less ‘chatty’.

SPELLCHECKERS:

You can use yourself initially, a dictionary, a Franklin spellchecker or the automatic spellchecker on the computer. Best of all is ‘Text HELP’ which I mention in the IT section, as it checks the homophones too.

With these three lists and an essay plan (see Study Skills) you are ready to write really well…never mind that you cant spell if you take care to copy and check the words really carefully.

Not being able to spell automatically is a bore but not the biggest problem if you follow these tips and take care; no one need know!