Spelling Strategies Teach our Children to be Independent Spellers

2. Visual strategies: LOOK - this is the recognition of common letter strings and reading skills.

3. Phonic strategies: SOUND - rhyming, segementing and blending skills. Visit phonics and phonemes.

4. Morphemic strategies: Units of Meaning - word families and thinking skills

(DEPT of Education and Children's Services, South Australia (1997). Spelling: From Beginnings to Independence. Campbelton, SA:Curriculum Resources Aust.)

Here I have included a number of the spelling strategies that I have used in the past, that children are taught to use from the early years.

• Look, Cover, Write, Check or sometimes referred to as Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check - this strategy is often given to help children with spelling. It is a good strategy for the early years when used with the phonics program, but can be less efficient in the later grades when the words become more complex (can work well if children use other strategies as well).

  Using this strategy:

  LOOK- Get your child to look at the word; encourage them to see blends or letter groups they know; break the word up into syllables or chunks.

  SAY- Get your child to say the word (maybe as they would sound it out)

  Cover- Cover the word with paper or another book. Get your child to picture the word in their mind.

  Write- Get your child to write the word out on paper or in a book.

  Check- Get your child to check their word against the original word.

  - my son is currently in grade 2 and has had some difficulties with letters and sounds. He finds spelling and writing difficult. He recently brought home his first spelling homework and one word he found difficult was "chicken". Using this strategy we broke the word down and looked at each bit. Ch the sound of the week at school; i; ck (this was the tricky bit) We talked about how both these letters make the "k" sound so it made it a little easier to remember and picture; and en. The 2 "k" sounds in the word stuck in his head, he was able to visualise it.

• Break the word up into syllables and learn by visualising and remembering the groups of letters. Get your child to clap the syllables of the word and then work out how each is spelt. For example a word like miscellaneous may look difficult but once broken into syllables it looks more manageable to learn - mis-cell-an-e-ous

• Look for smaller words inside the word. For example: believe - be, lie, eve. Words can also be compound words (a word made up of 2 smaller words) which can make learning easier if they know how to spell the smaller words. For example - sunshine = sun, shine; football = foot, ball.

• What looks right? Try to write the words in different ways and choose the one that looks right.

• Take a picture - pretend your eyes are a camera - look at the word and take a picture, close your eyes and see the word in your mind. You can add colour and an image or picture if it helps.

• Tricky letter combinations - pay special attention to the part of the word that is tricky and learn it by being able to see those letters together in that word. For example: mnemonic - this is a tricky word so we would focus on the mne to remember and then the rest of the word can be sounded out using syllables.

• Group words into word families. For example: if you know how to spell sand, you could apply the "and" sound to the words land, hand, band.

• Using base words - in this strategy you often have a base word that has a prefix (letters in front of the base word) or a suffix (letters after a base word). For example using the base word slow: we can have slowly, slowing, slower.

• Using mnemonics - Mnemonics are memory tricks used to help you remember tricky words. Your child just needs to learn the trick (which can be easy as some mnemonics are quite silly) to remember the words. Help your child to make up some of their own mnemonics to remember some difficult words. An example of a mnemonic is: You hear with your ear Follow the link at the bottom of the page for more mnemonic examples.

• Use a dictionary or thesaurus - this is a good skill to model with your children. Children will learn how to use a dictionary in school but it is a good idea to reinforce it at home as well - always keep one handy.

Teachers give children many strategies to learn words.

When your child brings home spelling words, ask them what strategies they could use, or how can they try to spell that word out? Many children often rely on sounding out which doesn't always work - it is important for them to try different ways. You can help them by suggesting other strategies they might use.

These are just some of the many strategies for spelling. Your child's school may have a more comprehensive list of the strategies they use - ask your child's teacher what are some of the spelling strategies they use in their classroom.

Most imporantly, make sure they have a go. It is always good for children to try. Attempting builds confidence.

However, sometimes they may just need to ask you - and that is a strategy in itself - ask someone, a teacher or a friend.


The bottom line is you want to help your child to be confident and achieve spelling success.

For a real comprehensive guide to spelling rules and spelling strategies, have a look at the Spelling Rules Guide. A resource you can your children can and will use again and again.

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