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Spelling

Writers need to be able to spell words accurately to communicate through writing. Spelling (encoding) means recording words correctly and consistently. Expert spellers use a range of strategies to work out unknown words. Before they can develop spelling strategies, learners must have developed some basic prerequisite skills and understandings, including phonological and phonemic awareness. Learners also need to be able to form letters correctly. While some adult learners may not have developed all of these prerequisite skills, the first step in this progression describes learners who have acquired them and can write some basic words correctly.

Most adults will be able to: Activities
1.
  • have a bank of high-frequency words they can write automatically and accurately
  • have in their spelling bank high-frequency words that have regular spelling patterns and irregular spelling patterns.

Writers spell unknown words by using a number of strategies. These include applying letter–sound correspondence rules, analogy and recalling from memory (for example, the is an irregular word that must be committed to memory). Areas of study can include:

  • learning letter-sound relationships, for example, single consonants, consonant blends (such as sp, tr, cr), consonant digraphs (such as ch, sh, th) and vowel sounds, and producing them in writing
  • learning to use analogy (if you can spell bat, you can spell hat, sat, mat, cat)
  • learning common words with irregular spelling patterns, such as are, have and you, by rote.

Suggestions for teaching spelling: step 1

Suggestions for teaching and learning that can be used with all learners, or with those learners who require support with one or more progressions only.

Phonological awareness

Information and teaching activities about the ability to hear and work with the sounds in words. This involves an awareness of the sounds that operates at different levels including whole word, syllable, onset–rime and, finally, phoneme.

Sound-letter relationships

Information and teaching activities about the relationships between sounds (or phonemes) and letters (or graphemes). This involves the connections between the sounds in words and the letters that are used to represent those sounds. Included are two other related concepts: the alphabetic principle and letter recognition.

Using a shared approach to writing

Tutor and learners contribute to the plan, the ideas, and the language of a text they construct together.

Sharing quality work

Learners read and analyse good models to gain a clearer understanding of what they are expected to write.

2.
  • have a large bank of words they can write automatically and accurately
  • use reliable strategies for spelling everyday words with some fluency and accuracy
  • have an awareness of the accuracy of their spelling attempts
  • use appropriate levelled dictionaries to check spelling attempts.

Writers spell more difficult words by using more complex sound-letter relationship rules, analogy, memory and by applying spelling rules. They realise that some letters may represent more than one sound, for example, c in cat, cent and cycle. They have an awareness of the accuracy of their spelling attempts and they can ask themselves “Does that look right?”. Areas of study can include:

  • exploring spelling patterns, for example, consonant blends, consonant and vowel digraphs (such as au, ea, ou)
  • building word families (for example, sit, sitting, sits, sat)
  • learning spelling rules (for example, silent e rule, rules for adding suffixes)
  • using analogy to infer the unknown from the known (for example, if you can spell black, you can work out slack)
  • using simple tools (such as word lists or a computer spell-check) to confirm or correct spelling.

Suggestions for teaching spelling: step 2

Suggestions for teaching and learning that can be used with all learners, or with those learners who require support with one or more progressions only.

Using a shared approach to writing

Tutor and learners contribute to the plan, the ideas, and the language of a text they construct together.

Sharing quality work

Learners read and analyse good models to gain a clearer understanding of what they are expected to write.

3.
  • use with confidence strategies for spelling most everyday words with fluency and accuracy
  • use word analysis to spell common three and some four syllable words (for example, hospital, information).

Writers spell most familiar everyday words with fluency by using strategies they already know to write longer or more complex words. Writers are able to monitor their writing for accuracy, for example, by asking themselves “Does that make sense?” and by checking against a printed text, or by using a spell-check or a dictionary. Areas of study can include:

  • practising making analogies by comparing the word to be spelled with a known word
  • charting spelling patterns (for example, the long e sound in ee, a-e, o-e, ew, ay (me, tree, Pete, meat), or the long u sound in u-e, ew, eu, ue (tune, new, feud, due))
  • selecting important or commonly-used irregular words to learn (to commit to memory). Examples include through, though, which, straight, another
  • identifying ways to form the past tense (for example, hop/hopped, carry/carried, cry/cried).

Suggestions for teaching spelling: step 3

Suggestions for teaching and learning that can be used with all learners, or with those learners who require support with one or more progressions only.

Using a shared approach to writing

Tutor and learners contribute to the plan, the ideas, and the language of a text they construct together.

Sharing quality work

Learners read and analyse good models to gain a clearer understanding of what they are expected to write.

4.
  • use strategies to spell more specialised words, including words of many syllables, with fluency
  • use knowledge of how more complex words are built (prefix + Latin root + suffix) to spell more advanced words
  • monitor their writing for accuracy and sense.

Writers use their knowledge of spelling patterns, sounds and their visual memory to spell less familiar or recently learnt specialised words fluently. They can identify patterns for spelling plurals or the past tense. Areas of study can include:

  • charting and analysing specialised words that are important for learners in their work or study
  • more advanced spelling rules (for example, admit + ance = admittance)
  • exploring the different ways of spelling a suffix that is pronounced the same way (for example, -tion -cian, -sion).

Suggestions for teaching spelling: step 4

Suggestions for teaching and learning that can be used with all learners, or with those learners who require support with one or more progressions only.

Using a shared approach to writing

Tutor and learners contribute to the plan, the ideas, and the language of a text they construct together.

Sharing quality work

Learners read and analyse good models to gain a clearer understanding of what they are expected to write.

5.
  • have developed the ability to spell a wide range of unfamiliar, less familiar, or recently learnt words rapidly and accurately.

Writers are able to spell a wide range of unfamiliar, less familiar, or recently learnt words automatically by drawing on a range of strategies, including visual memory. Areas of study can include:

  • spelling words used in specific contexts including academic and topic-specific words, such as examination, ceremonial, magnetic, Waitangi
  • proofreading with a specific focus such as contractions, plurals, or the addition of suffixes.

Using a shared approach to writing

Tutor and learners contribute to the plan, the ideas, and the language of a text they construct together.

Sharing quality work

Learners read and analyse good models to gain a clearer understanding of what they are expected to write.

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