SPELLING

Hi, Liset,

I am glad you asked this question. I personally do not believe that giving kids a list of spelling words to memorize is really spelling instruction. I spent a good deal of time last year helping my child’s school find a spelling program, because they did not have a structured spelling program. I find as a teacher that sometimes I have to buy the materials I need if it will benefit my students. The public schools are not always on top of the best methods, unfortunately. Here is an article on spelling that I like:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/teachstrat/foorman.htm

Janis

A very good spelling program is Spelling Power distributed by Castlemoyle. I use it after the Super Speller which is in Phono-Graphix, teaches basic reading skills, SP takes it one step further. SP has the most used 5000 words listed by sound.

Hi,
You didn’t mention the age or grade level of your group. I am working in a VE classroom with 20 primary aged “angels”, most are assigned the LD label. I am teaching the most common used words in the language and taking them straight from their reading series. That way they see them in print and can practice them.

As for web sites………. two good ones.

Try www.flashcardexchange.com

You have to sign up but it doesn’t cost you anything. You can make flash cards for the students to take home and also words for you word wall. If you don’t know what a “word wall” is…. check them out.

www.puzzlemaker.com

I use this site to make seek and finds for my students. They love them and I hate making them…. this site makes them for you. Also, if you have an older group, you can make crossword puzzles.

Good Luck,
Daniel

If it is appropriate break words into digraph, diphthongor blends. Like your consonant blend families bl, cl, tr, dr. Or your vowel diphthongs ee, ea, oa, oi, oy ect… Teach students to recognize those sounds in words they spell. Help your student segment phonemes. If the children you teach are just beginning spelling do try simple word families -ad, ab. Example of words bad, mad, sad, glad, dad and so on. I usually brainstorm all the ones I can think of and them I do making words to help students discover these patterns theirself.

Liset, check out Looking Glass Spelling at www.gwhizresources.com. I am the author, and even though I’m biased, I can say that people have been using it at my school with great success. It was designed to take the burden off the teacher while teaching the students strategies that are also used for decoding, so it improves decoding too. The books have 20 or more 12-page reproducible units that the kids can do independently with little teacher-directed input. That frees you to provide any individual instruction. Each binder provides enough material for more than one year. Hope you like it!