It is the holiday season again! As we near the end of the calendar year, it gives us the opportunity, as homeschoolers, to look at what we are doing. We can reevaluate what is working, and what is not. With a little thought here at the end of the years, we can figure out what direction we will head into as the new year dawns before us, like a clean sheet of paper.
I just love clean sheets of paper. For me, it is a clean slate, full of potential. know for some people it is not, for some people it is a plate, to be filled as soon as possible, heaped to overflowing. For some people it is an artistic venture.
Enjoy the holidays, take a deep breath, evaluate your direction, and change course if you need to, or want to , for that matter.
Happy Holidays, and prosperous New Year!
In the end, will you teach spelling?
Is spelling part of your home school? In the end, some parent choose not to include formal spelling in their curriculum. Perhaps these parents decided that their child is a good speller already, or is a very effective reader. Sometimes those parents allow the children to learn spelling words as needed for particular assignments. Unschoolers sometimes decide not to include formal “workbook” spelling. Whether or not you decide to teach spelling in your homeschool depends on your homeschooling philosophy and your child’s own personal learning style. You have to take into account your own teaching style as well. Over the course of the previous articles we have talked about many methods of teaching spelling, and helping your child retain what they learn. Hopefully you have found something that works for your child, and your home school. If you have not found something that works, yet, do not despair. Spelling doesn’t have to be painful or unlearn able. And while the English language may be evolving into something else, influenced by the abbreviated spelling of instant messages and texting, we are unlikely to see that evolution complete in our children’s time in school. Spelling well will remain important during their academic career and eventually in their work environment. Model to your children that spelling well is important, help them learn, by whatever methods your can come up with. Share with other homeschooling parents, and get advice from those who have successful spelling programs in their schools. Make spelling fun, and you are likely to see greater success. Enjoy, and spell well!
More memory games for spelling
We all want our children to remember what they have learned, especially when it comes to spelling. If your student’s learning style indicates that they learn better when doing something with their hands, then by all means, let them do something with their hands while spelling. We have already talked about using letter tiles, and singing the spelling words. Here is one other method that will help your physical learner to remember. Try the bean bag toss, or stuffed animal toss, game. Another plus to this game is that you can use it with multiple children. Start by tossing the bean bag to an older student. As they catch the bean bag, ask them to spell one of their spelling words. If they get it right, they can then toss the bean bag to another child. As the parent here, you will want to ask each child spelling words according to their lists, or abilities. Your kindergartener might be spelling “red”, your fifth grader might be spelling “establishment”. The rules are the same regardless of age an ability. Another benefit of this game is that all students are exposed to the spelling of the other words. They might not learn them, but the exposure is important, too. If the older children need a longer session to get all of their words done, allow the younger ones to drop out of the spelling part and toss the bean bag without requiring them to spell. You can probably think of other ways to use physical games to help your child retain their spelling words.
Sing-song spelling
If you have ever witnessed your child forgetting words she once knew how to spell, then you might be looking for another way to teach spelling so that your child has better retention of words she learned previously. One way we are working on that is to put spelling words to songs. Here is an example: the word is patriot. Have your child pick a song, like “Mary had a little lamb.” The first phrase of that song has seven syllables. Now have your child sing the letters of “patriot” Once your child can sing the letters to the tune, you can then ask your child to spell the word, if she needs a hint, tell her “Mary had a little lamb”. The additional memory jog of knowing that the word patriot has the same number of letters as the first phrase of Mary had a little lamb has syllables, means your child knows if she doesn’t have enough letters, or too many. This may seem like a lot of trouble for every spelling word, but this is just a hint to go the extra mile. Maybe every word doesn’t need this level of attention. Use it for the words that do. The ultimate goal here is to increase your child’s spelling memory and retention. A perfect example that this method, singing spelling, works is to think of Aretha Franklin. She sang a song in which she spelled “respect”. While you may not know the words to the rest of the song, you will probably never forget how to spell that word!
Is spelling an antiquated subject?
Is it important for us to still teach spelling, and expect our students to learn spelling? Some people would argue that learning to spell is like studying calligraphy. It is a wonderful skill to have, but learning it takes up time that could be better used on learning keyboarding, or computer programming. Additionally, learning to spell, like learning calligraphy, has been replaced. When you have your choice of 1000 fonts on the computer, is it necessary to learn the art of fine penmanship? When you have spell checkers on many everyday devices, why learn the rules of spelling? We further devalue spelling because texting seems to be here to stay, and it uses abbreviated and alternate spellings for many words. Some people would argue that perhaps the English language is just undergoing a much needed overhaul. I do not disagree that standardizing the spelling of English would make it easier to learn. I would argue, however, that when a people can not even spell its own language, it is in danger of losing that language identity. Learning to spell still has value in our society, ask the guy who made an obvious spelling error on his resume, then printed and distributed 500 copies of it, but got no job offers. Our world is becoming more competitive, and our students are going to have to compete more globally than our parents did. Learning to spell is just part of being well educated. Making time in our homeschools to teach our students spelling can only make them better spellers, better readers, and overall, better educated.
Using syllables to teach spelling
Teaching spelling by using syllables is just a way to make spelling easier. The first thing that must happen to use this method is that your student must be able to figure out what a syllable is. One way to do this is to have them clap out a syllable. Puppy is a two syllable word. Have your child clap when they say “pup”, then again when they say “py”. Then teach them to spell each syllable. After they have figured out how to spell each syllable have them put the word together, spelling both of the small, syllable divisions. It is less intimidating to child to spell smaller word segments than to try to spell an entire multi-syllabic word. Remind them that each syllable must have a vowel. This helps them round out their spelling, remembering to put a vowel in the mix. Once they can clap out single syllable words, and two syllable words, they are one their way to spelling much bigger words. While trying to spell “elephant” is a daunting task, elephant is a long word, after all, learning to spell “el-e-phant” is not nearly as scary. Another way for your child to work out syllables besides clapping, is to tap it out on the desk, or their leg. Or have them place their hand under their chin and say the word. Have them notice that if their chin drops, they have spoken a syllable. Learning to spell using syllables makes spelling small words easy, and large words less frightening.
More spelling rules
Last time we looked at a few very basic rules for learning to spell in English. I would like to mention a few more rules that will be of help as your student works their way through elementary school. The first one I would like to mention is an odd little rule about the letter “Q”. In English, the letter “Q” does not stand alone. Let your child think of the word queen, then explain that a queen never goes anywhere without her knight. Just like a queen would never go anywhere alone, a “Q” will not go anywhere without its “u”. The second spelling rule that might help your child is a silent “e” rule. If the “e” at the end of a word is not willing to stand up and say its name, then the other vowel in the middle of the word must stand up and strongly represent the vowel family. In other words, a silent “e” usually makes the vowel in the middle of the word sound like the long or stronger sound of that vowel. The last rule I will mention this time is the “I before E except after C” rule. You probably remember this from when you were learning to spell. If you can come up with a cute tale to explain this rule, it might make it easier for your young child to remember. While these few rules by no means fully encompass the list of rules for spelling in English, they are a foundation on which your beginning speller can build.
Teaching spelling rules
English is a difficult language to learn to speak. It is even more difficult to learn to spell. There is a saying that every rule has an exception. Some people believe that that saying was developed about the English language. So how are we to teach our children to learn to spell? One method is to teach the spelling rules. Even if a particular word is the exception to the rule, at least the rule give some basis to begin to figure out the words. There are some very basic rules that young spellers should learn. The first and most basic rule in spelling English is that every word must have at least one vowel. The second most basic rule is that there are five vowels, A,E,I,O,U, ok six if you count Y! (See, an exception to the rule already!) If a letter is not a vowel, it must be a consonant. Some letters do not always make the same sounds. “C” is an example, it can sound like an “s” or a “k”. “G” can also be tricky, it can sound like a “g”, or a “j”. “X” can sound like an “x” or a “z”. It seems like teaching that letters can have more than one sound is teaching the exception rather than the rule, but when you learn the exception, then everything else must follow the rule! There are many other spelling rules, but learning just those few can help your student spell better right from the start.
Spelling and dyslexia
Dyslexia is a language processing disorder. A student with dyslexia was probably born that way, though there are cases where traumatic brain injury or seizure activity has produced dyslexia in students who previously did not show signs of dyslexia. A student cannot “outgrow” dyslexia. Children with dyslexia are often very poor spellers. They often have difficulty have trouble associating a letter with a particular sound and so learning to spell phonetically can be very difficult for them. There are so many words in the English language that simply memorizing words will never provide the student with all of the words they will need in life. Does this mean that there is no hope of getting your dyslexic student to the point where they can spell and read? Absolutely not! Students need to be taught coping skills. Sometimes teachers must think outside of the box where spelling and reading are concerned. Let your dyslexic child do spelling orally. Let them tap out syllables on the table, a-rith-ma-tic. Each part of that word becomes more manageable and less intimidating than the whole word, arithmetic. While phonics may be hard for dyslexic children, learning the spelling rules will go a long way with helping them decode words. English is said to be a hard language, a language of many exceptions, but learning the basic spelling rules will give your child tools to help them navigate those difficult spelling assignments.
Letter tiles and spelling
Another way to teach spelling is by the use of letter tiles. Letter tiles are small plastic or wooden tiles with letter and letter combinations printed on them. One way to use them is to recite the spelling word for the child, then have them select tiles to complete the spelling of the word. Visual learners sometimes find it difficult to write a word they have heard recited. Somehow, arranging tiles seems to make the spelling process easier for these students. They look at the word, as formed by the tiles they arrange, and are often able to decide that the word does not look right, and rearrange the tiles. This uses spelling linked to word recognition and is related to reading ability. I haven’t been able to figure out why the tiles work better than writing the words. Maybe it is because writing requires additional brain power and moving the tiles around does not. It might have something to do with seeing the letter printed in a similar way to how the student sees printed words when reading, the words look familiar in the printed form. I was very skeptical about letter tiles, but a fellow home schooler with a dyslexic child, offered to let me borrow the tiles. We practiced with them for a couple of weeks, and amazingly, my reluctant speller, who is an incredible reader, became a better speller. I can only speak from experience here, but the tiles are working for my child who is very advanced in reading, and behind in writing. If you are facing similar problems try letter tiles and see if using them takes some of the pain out of teaching spelling.
