How to teach spelling

05:24 Unknown 0 Comments

Tip #1. Make as many words as you can from the topic title.

When we start on a new topic which has a pretty long title, I usually ask my students to divide into teams and make as many words out of the letters they have in the title as they can. It's a lot of fun and it makes the students to think carefully about the spelling of the word they want to make.

Tip #2. Unscramble the words.

I just love the sites schoolexpress.com and http://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/ where you can generate quite a lot of exercises typing in your own wordlists.
In this exercise, students have to put the letters in the correct order to make a word. Sometimes I ask them to mix the letters for their fellow students. When they do that, they usually pick the most difficult words and in this way, while mixing the letters, they themselves improve the spelling of these challenging words.

Tip #3. Alphabetizing

This exercise is great not only for spelling but also for the dictionary skills, because nowadays a lot of students have difficulties when asked to look up the word in the paperback dictionaries.
I hand out the list of words my students need to learn and ask them to put the words in the alphabetical order. This exercise is most suitable for the secondary school students.

Tip #4. Running dictation

If your students are mostly kinaesthetic learners like mine are, this exercise will get them out of their seats. Running dictation is especially useful as a revision exercise before a test or a dictation.
I divide the kids into two teams and ask them to stand at the back of the room opposite the blackboard. I tell them the word, and one member of each team runs to the blackboard and writes this word. The winner is the team, who has written most of the words correctly.