Hints for Spelling Challenging Words

Spelling Tips

Monday night I recommend giving your child a quick at home spelling test to find out if there are any words your child is having difficulty with. Hints for spelling challenging words Cover/Copy/Repeat Take the words that your child is misspelling and one at a time have him/her copy the word while saying it out load, cover the word with their hand and repeat this two more times. Do this each night until your child is comfortable spelling the word. Another technique is asking them to spell a familiar word, “How do you spell man? m- a- n. So how do you spell plan? p-l-a-n. ie 1. and 6. man 2. band 7. plan 3. can 8. ran 4. fan 9. stand 5. hand 10. van

Word Families There is usually a word family or spelling rule that we are working on, use this to help your child learn new words. Ie. How do you spell cat- c-a-t, then how to do spell bat? You can also use rhyming patterns and make word strips that have a word family like at, an, ike on it and the consonant that goes in front changes.

Break it into Word Parts Words like sportsmanship can seem overwhelming when students first hear them but then can be easier if you break them into word parts. Sportsmanship becomes sports- man-ship.

Use Unique Materials Whiteboards and Magnetic Letters Many children are hands on learners which means they learn better by doing it. Children love getting at our classroom whiteboards and many teachers use a class set to teach many mathematical concepts. The same can be done with a whiteboard, have your child write the words on the whiteboard, like the cover and copy technique. Whiteboards can often be found for purchase at the dollar store. Magnetic letters is another wonderful teaching tool, kids can build the words on your fridge or the back of a cookie sheet.

How Do I Help My Child Spell Unfamiliar Words?

When children are in the initial phase of story writing or any other writing piece they are encouraged to focus not on how to spell words but on getting their thoughts and ideas down. If they stop to ask how to spell a word it interferes with the writing process and they often forget what they were writing about. Spelling is important but it is addressed during the editing phase of the writing process. Once your child has written down their ideas it’s time to edit and address spelling, capitalization and punctuation errors. Instead of being your child’s personal dictionary there are a variety of editing techniques that we use in school that you may want to try.

1. Personal dictionary or dictionary-a book with the letters of the alphabet listed on top with words that your child commonly misspells. You can add words to the dictionary as needed. 2. List of most frequently spelled words-(I’ll send a copy home with your child so you can use it at home if you like) 3. Environmental Print-this means using the words that you find around you, like on cereal boxes, posters, books, etc. If your child needs to spell a character’s name from a book, he/she could just look at the book. 4. Google- if you have internet access this is a great trick, type in the word you are trying to spell and often it will come back with the correct spelling. “Did you mean ______” 5. Have a Go or Buddy Check-this is the one that I use to edit 20 students work at once without giving them the words. It’s similar to hangman. In the first column students write down the words that they think they have misspelled. Then in the second column I put down the letters that are correct with blanks for the letters that they need to fix or add. They fill in the blanks and in the third column if it’s correct I put a check or I spell the word for them. It’s a great way to help your child become a stronger speller. First Try Second Try Third Try stdnt st__d__nt student