Spelling Strategies

This blog is dedicated to all those teachers out there! How many of us are horrible at spelling?! I know I struggled with spelling growing up and I still do even as an adult. So, how can we make spelling less of a struggle and a headache and make it more fun and exciting for our kiddos.

Here are some strategies to help kids with spelling and how you can adapt it to children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Most of these strategies I found are from one website, I know there are so many websites to help teachers with spelling out there, but I found this website to be very helpful.

• Strategy 1: Word Hunt

I found this strategy from this website:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/spell3.htm#note. This strategy is written by an instructor, Diane Snowball. It is a pretty simple strategy but I doubt that a lot of teachers actually do it. I would love to implement this in my classroom. The teacher would read a book and then have the children point out words with a certain theme, for example, words that end with -ed, or -ing whatever is the focus of that week. I think this is a great way to have the children realize that placing -ed or -ing at the end of the word has an important role in spelling. You can make it a little game so the children can be focused on paying attention. However, this strategy has to be done in a careful way when working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. You should read a small portion of the book and had it sign in English (where you add the -ed and the -ing) to each word this way you can include the child in the game. Another thing you can do is have a listening objective attached to the lesson. If the child has a mild to moderate hearing loss and is having a hard time picking up the last sounds of words you can do this game (only a portion of it) and really have the child focus on those ending sounds of the words. It would be a great tool in developing those ending sounds that aren't really emphasized in connected speech.

• Strategy 2: The Rhyming Clap

This strategy is from the Diana Snowball too from the same website as listed above. This one helps children with rhyming and teaches them that if you change the first letter of the work it can become a different word. She suggests you start off with a word from a book that the children are very familiar with. Then as you read the book you can write a few words down on a chart that has the same sound then encourage the children to suggest words with the same sound. She used the example from the Chant, "Mary Mack" (which I don't know). Write the words: Mack, black, back, quack on the chart and then have the children pick out words they know with the same sounds like: pack, sack, whack track. When it comes to spelling, a child who is hearing focuses on sounding the words but with a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. How can you focus on rhyming with them when you know rhyming is an important part of teaching spelling? Well, I think that is a good question. If a child had amplification on you can print various pictures of rhyming and then maybe one or two pictures of words that don't rhyme at all. Then when working on rhyming words, you can have a set of 2 or more (depending on the child) and then ask them which photo here sounds like "Mack" and then go over each photo so they can hear the sounds. For example: "Which picture sound like Mack. This (point to the picture) is the color black and this one (pointing to the other photo) a dog. Listen, which one sounds the same as Mack: Black or dog." You can have the word printed on the paper so the child can see that both Mack and Black end with -ck where the word dog doesn't. You can ask them which words they know end with -ck depending on the child and their ability in that area or you can have a word wall or a word bank where the child can actually see all the words that you been working on in class.

• Strategy 3: Word Storting

This strategy I found on this site:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/684579/effective_spelling_strategies_and_games.html. This strategy talks about how much our brains can learn when they are asked to organize various lists. A teacher can send a list of 10 spelling words home and have the child write the words down in difference kids of lists. The possibility of what different lists they can make are endless. Some lists can be sorted by sounds, by characteristics, by syllables. Be creative when doing this assignment. For children who are deaf and hard of hearing you can still do this strategy you might need to narrow how many lists they are excepted to put the words in and you might need to model it in class before sending it home as homework. I think this is a good strategies because it can get the kids thinking about words in a different way and maybe the spelling of the words might stick a little bit more but I could also could see the children getting bored and feeling like this was just busy work. Maybe it would be good for a sub to do or to do on a raining day when you are stuck in the classroom all day!

• Strategy 4: Chain Spelling Game

I also found this strategy on this site: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/684579/effective_spelling_strategies_and_games.html. This strategy is a cleaver one. Its like the song, "There was a farmer who had a dog and BINGO was his name-o" Who know that song was a fun way to teach children how to spell. This strategy says to write the spelling word on the top of the page and the fold it over, so it is not showing. Then write and say the word again but this time leaving off the last letter (still have the child vocalize the last letter, but not write it) , then folding the down so it is hidden. This continues until the child has to spell the word without writing anything down. So the paper will look like this.

Top: S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N

S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G

S-O-V-E-R-E-I

S-O-V-E-R-E-

S-O-V-E-R

S-O-V-E

S-O-V

S-O

Bottom: S

I think this would be a fun way for children who are deaf or hard of hearing because they can see how the word is spelt on paper and they are actually dividing it up themselves. Instead of saying it the child can fingerspell the word as they write it down. You can make it into a game if you want to challenge the children's speed. The only thing that I don't like about this strategy is that you are breaking down the word instead of building it up. I would probably reverse it and have the children add a letter on each line. Either way I think it is a great strategy.Strategy 5:

• Strategy 5: Using a Memory Aid

I found the last strategy on this site http://www.paec.org/david/reading/general.pdf, which was taken and adapted from expanding expectations: spelling. I think this strategy is something everyone does. We all know how much we struggled with spelling or knew someone who struggled. This strategy takes a word, for example, friend and says, "I see the word 'end' in friend." Then makes up a saying or a sentence like: "I want a friend to the end." I think this strategy has been around for ages. It's an oldie but a goodie. I still use it to this day for words I keep spelling wrong.