Myths about Spelling'

1
Myths about Spelling.

• If you want to learn to spell you should read
  more.
• Reading and spelling are two different skills.
• Reading depends on your recognition skills.
• Spelling depends on your skills of recall.
• Its still important for you to read, though, as
  it helps you visualise the correct spellings.

2
There is no logic in English spelling thats
why its so hard.

• The English spelling system is 85 regular.
• There are rules and conventions but many English
  words come from other languages, so the spelling
  of some words is dependent on how that word is
  spelled in the original language.
• khaki kh ?? A Hindi word.
• gnu gnu?? An African Bantu word.

3
There is one correct way to learn spellings.

• There are many effective ways of learning to
  spell.
• Some people can see or visualise words and store
  them in their memories. (Catchers)
• Others use an oral way of learning to spell
  learning the sounds that make up words. This is
  the basis of the Phonics work we do.

4
I make spelling mistakes because I dont speak
properly.

• Accent or dialect can affect how we speak a word.
  If you have a strong accent it can make spelling
  some words a little more difficult. Irish people
  may drop the h in three and say tree instead.
• No accent or dialect has a particular advantage.

5
If you get stuck, just sound it out.

• This method can work, but there are many cases of
  similar sounding words with different meanings
• theyre, their and there
• Find different ways to learn spellings
• eg visual ones, or look at the structure of a
  word.

6
If you learn the rules, youll be able to spell.

• Unfortunately, most rules in English are not
  rules at all, just regularities.
• For every rule there is an exception.
• i before e except after c
• (but neighbour and weight are exceptions to
  the rule)
• Our Phonics work will look at regularities in
  words found, sound, round we will find
  patterns that will make it easier to learn
  batches of correctly spelled words.

7
Look it up in a dictionary.

• Dictionary skills are useful, but looking for
  enough under inuff will be a waste of time.
• Dictionaries are very useful if you are making
  just small errors.
• eg. independant for independent.
• We have a special dictionary which you might find
  useful the ACE Spelling Dictionary.

8
Disguise your spellings with messy handwriting.

• Clever! But it doesnt help much. You need a
  clearly written word to learn a word visually.
• Good handwriting can help you learn spellings.

9
I dont want to learn to write, I just want to
learn to spell.

• Spelling cannot be learned in isolation. We need
  to regularly write the words we want to learn to
  spell.
• We need practice.
• We need to understand the word.
• We need to understand when to use the word in
  context.
• Without writing we have no need for the
  spellings!
• The points above are the basis of our lessons.

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Another S.J.Dillingham Production forSalendine
Nook High School2003