Five Essential Practices for Improving Your Students’ Spelling

Janet Giannotti

Janet Giannotti

Presenter Bio:

MA/TESL, MEd Reading Education Associate Professor of ESL

Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria, Virginia

I currently teach ESL reading, composition, and spelling & vocabulary in NOVA’s academic college ESL program. My students are generally one to two semesters away from beginning freshman comp.

Do your students make these errors?

He put them in mach box and dinning table.

He trys to figure out . . . Everyone tryed to kill all of scopian. I read about who caches the scorpion. He took the box insade his home. He took that instate of taking the right

one. The writter likes the scorpion. Then he pote them inside the box.

Or these?

He caught the mother and her baby’s.

The mother schorpion and its babyes came. .

He went to dinning room to joine family.

The scorpion jomped out of the box. The family members started

moveing it. When he turn on the lump they

stoped moving.

How about these errors?

Can you beleive we have classmate all around the world?

Firstable the teacher introduced her self to us.

I hopped to meet you for my first day at NOVA.

We individualy introduced ourselves. I learned my classmates’s names and their

country’s. I hope you will read my latter. Let me berief you some of them.

How do we teach spelling?

Memorize lists ? Write each word 10 times?

Why do these techniques work, if they DO work?

What does it mean if they don’t work?

Internalize rules?

Students who spell well probably see patterns and internalize rules.

Some students may treat every new word like a “sight” word.

Some students may know some rules and apply them inconsistently.

“Word Study”

In L-1 Reading Education:

A student-centered approach to spelling instruction that actively engages the learner in constructing concepts about the way words work.

Provides students with opportunities to investigate the patterns in words. Knowledge of these patterns means that students needn't learn to spell one word at a time.

Spelling INSTRUCTION

Can accelerate the natural process that successful learners go through in internalizing the rules of English.

Can be a separate class, but combine with vocabulary or pronunciation.

Or set aside 15 to 30 minutes a couple of times a week in another class.

FIVE ESSENTIAL PRACTICES

TWO PRINCIPLES Link oral and written language Use kinesthetic activities

A THREE-STEP PLAN Teach short vowels first Introduce long vowels with silent –e,

then introduce other patterns Pay attention to syllable junctures

Two General Principles

ALWAYS . . .

link ORAL and WRITTEN language.

use kinesthetic activities.

Three Steps to Follow

Apply the principles in this order:

Teach 5 “short vowels” first.

Then introduce 5 “long vowels.”

Pay attention to syllable junctures.

Link Oral and Written Language

Listen and repeat.

Listen and respond.

Listen and write.

Dust off your old dictation exercises.

Use Kinesthetic Activities

Use of a variety of muscles aids in memory.

Spelling instruction can be boring; get students moving a little!

Word Study uses MOSTLY kinesthetic activities, but adult learners don’t need so much. Save them for the spice of your class.

Listening Discrimination

Vowel Cards:

Listen to the word I say. Hold up the card with the vowel that you hear.

Listening Discrimination

SORT!

Word Study uses sorts to ask students to notice or discover patterns.

Unless adults are very low literacy, keep sorts to a minimum, but try them to illustrate to students that they can analyze exemplars to see patterns.

Sorting for Plurals with Final -o

Groups Work on Sorting

Almost Finished!

Short Vowels Trigger Consonant Patterns!

Teach short vowels and the consonant clusters (blends and digraphs)that follow them.

Try a sort to discover consonant patterns.

Caveat: Don’t introduce more than one at a time with your class!

You Try It!

Get into groups [always sort in pairs or groups!]

Open your baggie. Sort the cards into groups BY FINAL

CONSONANT(S). Say each word as you put it down.

WHAT DO YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE ENDS OF THE WORDS?

Your Sort Might Look Like This:

Help Students Notice RULES

In our sort, we noticed that after a short vowel,

the sound [č] is spelled –tch. the sound [j] is spelled –dge. the sound [k] is spelled –ck.

and most other consonant sounds are represented with a single consonant.

White Boards Are Fun!

Introduce 5 LONG vowels

Once short vowels patterns are solid.

While they may not actually be LONG, they are in a distinct category.

Long vowels “sound like the name of the letter.”

First Day: LONG VOWELS

Introduce LONG vowels with silent –e first.

What happens when I add just one letter? can // cane pet // Pete sit // site hop // hope cut // cute

A Fun Kinesthetic Activity

Flip it open and you have a new word!

Teach Long Vowel Patterns

Use some reading material to search for long vowel words. This helps students see frequencies.

I use a short novel for vocabulary, idioms, and as a source of words for our spelling.

Long Vowel Search

Five long vowels, all patterns

Investigating Patterns

Pay Attention to Syllable Juncture

Typical ESL spelling practice asks students to add endings: big + er = biggest shop + ing = shopping

You should also ask students to HEAR the medial consonant by attending to the vowel before it.

The Most Powerful Spelling Rule

In a two-syllable word,

a short vowel in the first syllable is followed by TWO consonants or a DOUBLE consonant.

a long vowel in the first syllable is followed by A SINGLE CONSONANT.

And Don’t Forget to Work Backwards

Given what you know about word endings and the changes that occur to the base, write the base forms of these words: stitches, judges hopping, hoping copied, studying reddish, redness scarves, heroes

Spelling Don’ts!

Don’t assign lists of unrelated words to be memorized.

Don’t explain meanings of unfamiliar words.

Don’t get too stuck in exceptions.

Don’t teach rules to be memorized.

Don’t confuse intelligent nods with acquisition.

Spelling Do’s!

Do mimic real-world tasks as often as possible.

Do point out exceptions.

Do teach sight words separately.

Do use some real text to search for exemplars.

And Keep in Mind

Deliver spelling instruction in small doses.

Use a variety of activities, including kinesthetic.

Quiz often.