Five Guidelines for Learning to Spell and Six Ways to Practice Spelling

By: Susan Jones (1999)

Five guidelines for learning to spell

1. Practice. Did somebody tell you practice made perfect? That's only if you're practicing it right. Practice makes permanent. Each time you spell a word incorrectly, you're 'practicing' the wrong spelling. So, if you're not sure how to spell the word, find out, *then* practice that spelling. Keep an ongoing notebook of words, so you have your own personal dictionary and you can see your progress. Start small, though!
2. Don't try to learn all the words at once. Even if you learn them all in one sitting, practice them a few at a time. Then, add another word to your list, or start on different ones. Each time you learn another word, go back and practice the ones you learned before it, because, after all, practice makes permanent.
3. Review the words you know. If you already know some of the words on your list, practice them each once or twice before you start tackling the ones you don't know yet. It's a good confidence booster (practice makes permanent!).
4. Use the words you've practiced. That's the point to learning them, anyway. Have a list of words you're learning handy, in a notebook, and you can look them up to make sure you're spelling them right. Besides, using them is practicing them, and practice…

Six different ways to practice spelling

1. "Trace, Copy and Recall"
   • Make a chart like this with 3 or four spelling words you want to learn:
   • Then fold over the "recall" part so that only the first two columns show:
   • Then
     • Say the word to yourself.
     • Trace it in the first column, saying the letters as you trace, and say the word again. You might put a little rhythm into it. ("WORD . W - pause - O - pause R-D - WORD!).
     • Go to the second column, say the word, and write it the same way.
     • Then, while the rhythm and the sound and the feeling are fresh in your mind, flip the paper over and say the word and spell it out -- the same way, saying each letter (because, after all, practice makes permanent).
     • If it's a hard word, put it on the list more than once. If you're feeling particularly smart, trace and copy TWO words, and try to remember them both before you flip the page over. However, if your short-term memory isn't big enough to hold all that, do one at a time because you want to practice the words RIGHT, not make guesses!
     • After you've gone through all the words this way a few times, start doing them two or three at a time, and when you feel like you know them, go through the list again. However, skip the tracing, or, when you're feeling VERY confident, skip both the tracing and the copying.
2. Reverse chaining by letter
   1. Say the word. Then write it out, saying each letter aloud (see number one about putting rhythm into it). W - O - R - D
   2. Skip a line and say it and write it again -- minus the last letter. Say the last letter, but don't write it. W - O - R - ____
   3. Skip a line and say it and write it again -- minus the last two letters. Say them, but don't write them. W - O - ___-____
   4. Do this until you're only writing one letter.
   5. Go back to the top. Read the word, then spell it aloud.
   6. Fold the page over so you can't see the whole word. Say the word, spell it, and add that last letter.
   7. Fold the page back again. Say the word, spell it, and add the last two letters.
   8. Keep going until you spell the whole word.
   9. GO BACK AND CHECK and make sure you didn't leave out a letter!
3. Reverse chaining by syllable (this is harder and should be used for longer words)
   1. Say the word, then write it out, saying each letter aloud (see number one about putting rhythm into it). S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E
   2. Skip a line and say it and write it again -- minus the last syllable. Say the last syllable and spell it out loud, but don't write it. S-E-P-A-______________
   3. Continue until you aren't writing anything -- but continue to say the spelling aloud.
   4. Go back to the top. Read the word, then spell it out loud.
   5. Fold the page over so you can't see the whole word. Say the word, spell it, and add the last syllable.
   6. Fold the page back again. Say the word, spell it, and add the last two syllables.
   7. Continue until you spell the whole word.
   8. Go back and check and make sure you didn't leave out any letters!
4. 4. Highlighting the hard parts:

   Some words, like separate, are only hard in some parts. You might be getting these right on a test -- but always spelling them WRONG when you write, frustrating you and your teachers. As practice makes permanent, every time you practice it incorrectly, you're making it more likely that you'll write it incorrectly the next time. This exercise should help you focus on the troublesome part of the word.

   This is also helpful for learning rules and patterns. If you want to learn to spell IE words -- that "I before E" rule that so many people find so hard to use -- this is a good way to do it.

   Get different color pens or pencils or markers, and index cards. Write the words boldly on the cards -- and make the difficult part of the word a different color than the rest. Make a mental picture of that card, read the word aloud and spell it aloud, and change the way you *say* the difficult part, perhaps saying it louder, or using a British accent. So, you'd write:

   When you write the whole word, think about how the difficult part looks or sounds. So, while you're writing "separate," you might be thinking "sep AY rate" and/or that bold, red A.

   Again, the keys here are to NOT overwhelm your brain -- don't try to learn five words at a time like this unless you've got an amazing visual memory. Better to do one word five times -- and start spelling it in your writing.

5. Using a tape recorder to test yourself, and to practice using them.

   Pronounce the words correctly into a tape recorder. Record it like it's a spelling test (For example, you'd say " Separate. Put the papers in separate piles. Separate.")

6. Practicing using the words in short phrases.

   If separate is the word, see if you can think of 5 *different* phrases containing the word and write them out. For example: separate rooms, separate cars, separate houses, A Separate Peace. Or, try to use 20 of your words in the same story. You can get pretty silly!