The world of spelling

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The world of spelling

• Lyn Wilkinson
• SAETA Convention
• August 15th 2009

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Focusing on success

• The most important thing we can do at the
  secondary level is to focus on what students CAN
  do, and build their sense of success.
• Success builds success.
• Learners are more willing to engage with what
  they are good at, rather than what they are
  failing at.

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Year 7 students creative writing

• It was a Monday afternoon and I just road home
  from school. As soon as I walk in to The door mum
  said you have won a cricket bat and I did yes you
  did I censt asked mun when are I going to get and
  two day time and I could no wait and I told all
  the boy in the crast clars and My all said what
  king is and I said dont know yet and one day
  parse like it was one year and on the last day it
  went like a year. But in it was Wenday and I
  could get it tonight and I was that exsited I
  could not sit down at all and then I got and it
  was a niper I said and I have goat now.

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What can we do to help students develop their
spelling?

• Build our understanding of the spelling system
• Build our understanding of the range of ways in
  which people learn to spell
• Build the repertoire of strategies students can
  use
• - to develop automaticity
• - to self-correct
• - to track their increasing success in spelling
  words
• conventionally

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Learning to spell is complex

• 26 letters in the alphabet / approximately 44
  sounds in Australian English
• the spelling of English words reflects meaning,
  sound, derivation, historical factors
• the pronunciation of words may reflect derivation
  (ballet denouement)

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Learning to spell is complex because the English
spelling system

• first and foremost preserves meaning
• (ie. uses morphemes)
• does have phonic elements, but there are 26
  letters to represent 44 sounds
• has rules about letter placement uses common
  letter combinations and strings use of vowels,
  etc. - all delimit choice
• sometimes reflects language of origin
• (either in spelling or pronunciation)

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Spelling instruction should students
opportunities to -

• develop a range of information that will help
  them to learn the conventional spelling of words
• develop strategies for remembering and locating
  the spelling of words
• apply the strategies and information they have
  learnt
• assess and articulate their development as
  spellers
• (see Spelling From beginnings to independence
  DECS 1997 p.11)

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What am I aiming for when Im teaching spellers?

• Enjoyment and engagement
• Confidence
• - willing to have a go
• - each student knows what they can do
• - each student is prepared to keep learning
• Competence
• - intelligibility of attempts
• - appropriateness for the context
• - accuracy
• - automaticity

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• How can teachers help students with spelling?

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Create an ethos

• Foster an I can do this attitude
• Make conventional spelling important, in the
  appropriate contexts

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Work with individual students

• Help students to articulate what they know
• and
• whether this encompasses the full range of
  information available to spellers

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• Help students to identify whether they are using
  the full range of strategies
• - visual strategies
• - morphemic strategies
• - phonic strategies
• - kinaesthetic strategies

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Incorporate activities that build spelling
knowledge and strategies

• ask the question
• hypocoristics
• word clines
• invented words
• There is no rhyme for silver
• word trivia
• editorial team or proofreading partners
• spelling standards squad
• sharing mnemonics
• old way / new way

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Examples of ask the question

• Would you say that this workshop is a numinous
  occasion?
• Did you employ a servomechanism on your way to
  this workshop?
• Can you eat the topography of Adelaide?
• In what part of the body would you find ptyalin?

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Hypocoristics

• I had a few weeks holiday from uni, and being a
  sports tragic I spent most of it watching replays
  of my heroes Warnie bowling at the Gabba
  Thorpie breaking the world record Acker giving
  the footy a nudge. In between I managed to cook a
  few barbies for my mates Wilko and Johnno, and we
  downed the odd tinny or two. We finished off with
  the traditional pav shop bought, of course.
  Next hols were going to put the boards in the
  ute and take off for Cactus.

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Use whole class strategies for making spelling
important

• Separate assessment for spelling and/or other
  conventions

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Emphasise self-monitoring and self-correction

• Explicitly teach proofreading skills
• Scaffold proofreading
• Help students to develop ways of tracking their
  improvement

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In her November 1996 article in Primary Voices,
Sandra Wilde suggested The Speller's Bill of
Rights

• The right to express yourself in first-draft
  writing regardless of what words you do and don't
  know how to spell.
• The right to do a lot of reading, which is
  probably the greatest single factor in spelling
  acquisition.
• The right to actively construct knowledge about
  the spelling system.
• The right to developmentally appropriate
  education in spelling.
• The right to learn that spelling does matter.
• The right to know about and have available a lot
  of ways to come up with spellings (including just
  knowing how to spell the word).
• The right to learn to proofread.
• The right to have spelling placed in its proper
  context as a small piece of the writing and
  language-learning process.
• The right to be valued as a human being
  regardless of your spelling.