18 Ways to Practice Spelling Words ▬ Thought Co

18 Ways to Practice Spelling Words

Spelling Words

Thought Co:  4.01.2020 by Amanda Morin

As your children learn writing and spelling, they are likely to come home with spelling word lists. It’s their job to study and learn the words, but simply looking at them isn’t always going to do the trick - they will probably need some tools to help them remember the words. Here are 18 creative and interactive ways to practice spelling words.

1 Make a Spelling Word Origami Fortune Teller

2 Make and Use a “Word Catcher"

3 Magnetic Letters, Alphabet Blocks, or Scrabble Pieces

4 Create Your Own Crossword Puzzle

READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 9

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 13-15 yrs. old

(Eighth and Ninth graders)

Games to Learn English ▬ Essential Skills Quebec

Games to Learn English

Essential Skills Quebec

Essential Skills Quebec: 2020

Play these basic vocabulary games to practice and learn English.

28 Games

Vocabulary: Fast English

Fast Phrases

Spelling Bee

Describer

Sight Words Are So 2016: New Study Finds the Real Key to Early Literacy via Parent

Sight Words Are So 2016: New Study Finds the Real Key to Early Literacy

Parent: 4.12.2017 by Kate Koch-Sundquist

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Published in the January 2017 issue of the journal “Developmental Psychology”, the study concludes that the most valuable early literacy skill to encourage in kindergarten is neither alphabetic knowledge nor memorization of key sight words. In fact, it’s not a reading skill at all.

Cn u rd ths?

A Guide to Invented Spelling

Great Schools

The best indicator of future success as a reader is actually a child’s ability to use invented spelling as he writes.

Researchers assessed 171 kindergartners on measures of oral vocabulary, alphabetic knowledge, letter-sound association, word reading, and invented spelling. The same students were assessed a year later, and modeling revealed a causal relationship between invented spelling and increased literacy skills.

Simply put, children who used invented spelling developed stronger reading skills over time, regardless of their existing vocabulary, alphabetic knowledge, or word reading skills.

So, what exactly is invented spelling?

Invented spelling refers to a young child’s beginning attempts to spell words. Using what they know and understand about letters and writing, children who use invented spelling are encouraged to create their own spellings based on their own phonetic knowledge. As their phonetic knowledge grows, their invented spellings become more and more similar to actual word spellings.

For example, a very young child might begin writing words by using a series of non-letter scribbles. As that child progresses, he or she will begin to use random letters, and then consonants consistent with the first sound in a word. Eventually, the child will grasp both the first and last sounds, and finally the vowels or other syllables in between.

A child writing the word PEOPLE might progress from random scribbles to:

P

PPL

PEPL

PEEPL

PEEPLE

before finally reaching PEOPLE.

A recent article in Psychology Today underlines the importance of this process, pointing out that “reflection about how to spell a word allows the child to actively practice making decisions, rather than passively memorizing.” In this way, students internalize letter-sound associations rather than simply attempting to memorize the rules as instructed.

How can we help our children develop this integral skill?

To encourage development and progression of invented spelling, children should simply be encouraged to write. While writing has previously been thought of as a skill separate from reading, and one that can only be applied once a child has a basic grasp on reading, the new study suggests that writing and reading skills emerge concurrently, and that reading may actually rely more heavily on writing, rather than vice versa.  READ MORE >>

Alphabet Updated With 15 Exciting New Replacement Letters

Alphabet Updated With 15 Exciting New Replacement Letters

NEW YORK—Dynamic, sleek, and even sexy is how a panel of typographic and marketing experts described the 15 new replacement letters they unveiled Monday in an effort to reinvigorate interest in the faltering English alphabet.

"Forget everything you thought you knew about reading and writing," announced David Greenberg, 34, lead designer of the exciting ABC makeover. "These new letters are hip, fresh, and sure to forever change the way English speakers everywhere form their words."

"Move over 'M' and 'P,'" Greenberg continued. "Because this ain't your grandfather's alphabet."

According to Greenberg, the exciting new set of consonants and vowels will be rolled out over the next few months, and should find its way into most newspapers, magazines, and popular works of fiction by early spring.

The result of nearly a year of focus-group testing, the new letters are reportedly more than just an aesthetic update. Studies found that more than 87 percent of Americans rarely ever use the letter "X" in their daily lives, a discovery that led to a complete reworking of the neglected consonant that has transformed it from unpopular alphabet pariah to something "people will be dying to write down."

By contrast, the vowel "E" was found to be by far the most used letter in the alphabet, giving designers the idea to cash in on its popularity by adding a third horizontal line to the less desirable "F."

A series of PSAs for alphabet users of all ages is also scheduled to air this month, with such titles as "Coming Soon To A Paperback Near You" and "The New Alphabet: It Puts The In Fn!"

So far, reaction to the new replacement has been positive.

"I've never reay pai much aenin wrd an ff like ha, ell y he rh," 10h-graer Parick Reyno ai. "B hi i fn. I barey even feel like I'm wriing."

READ MORE ! @ The Onion: 12/10/09

Samuel Johnson 300th Anniversary

There's Never a Last Word on Spelling
As Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster can attest, the test of time can be rough on dictionaries.
LA Times: May 27, 2009 by David Wolman

This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, and were the master wordsmith alive today, I suspect he would be both a fan and a critic of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking place today and Thursday. Johnson penned the first annotated dictionary of the English language. At 3 million words in length, with 43,000 entries, it is one of history's greatest lexicographical achievements. As it happens, Johnson also believed that no word should ever end with "c." Had he successfully persuaded the public of this sentiment, today we would be writing not just "publick" but also "gothick," "pedagogick," "musick" -- you get the idea.

Johnson would appreciate the celebration of words inherent in bee mania, and likewise this week's etymological feast. But he (by which I mean I, using Johnson for cover) might also ask: As dramatic as the big bee may be, with its multimedia medley of spinoff movies, books and musicals, does it suggest a capital-C Correct English that paints a false impression of fixed orthography and a strict constructionist view of language? Is English at the bee more rigid than the real thing?

Two generations after Johnson's dictionary took the (literate) English-speaking world by storm, a fiery patriot and obsessive word nerd from Connecticut published his own magnum opus, "An American Dictionary of the English Language." Noah Webster nixed all those extra "k's" -- few people other than Johnson had paid them much attention anyway -- while leaving his own orthographic mark on the lexicon.

In the United States, "gaol" became "jail, "masque" became "mask," "centre" became "center" and "humour" became "humor" -- all because of Webster. He was particularly adamant about purging the "u" in words like "humour" and "colour," a spelling convention that he called a "palpable absurdity." READ MORE !

David Wolman is the author of "Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling."

English Spelling

English is too hard to read for children
Baffling spelling system is blamed as literacy falls short of level in other European nations
EducationGuardian: June 8, 2008 by Anushka Asthana (The Observer)

The English spelling system is 'absolutely, unspeakably awful'. That is the conclusion of new research that has found that children face 800 words by the age of 11 that hinder their reading because of the way they are spelt.

Monkey, asparagus, spinach, caterpillar, dwarf, banana, hankerchief, pliers, soldiers, stomach, petal and telescope have all been included on the long list of words that baffle children because they contain letter combinations that are more commonly pronounced in a different way.

The words have all been identified as problematic for reading, as opposed to writing, because of their 'phonic unreliability', according to the study The Most Costly English Spellings. It was presented yesterday at the conference of the Spelling Society, held at Coventry University. Masha Bell, the literacy researcher who carried out the work, argued that there were 200 words on the list that could be improved by simply dropping 'surplus letters' such as the 'i' in friend or the 'u' in shoulder.

Bell argued that the spelling system was a huge financial burden on schools and was to blame for poor literacy results compared with the rest of Europe. In Finland, where words are more likely to be pronounced as they look, children learn to read fluently within three months, she said. In the UK, academics have found that it takes three years for a child to acquire a basic level of competence. The tricky spellings make English particularly difficult for children with dyslexia and those from disadvantaged families, who are less likely to be read to regularly by their parents. READ MORE

100 of the most difficult words

Orange, foreign, rhinoceros, properly, vomit, tambourine, tournament, tourist, heaven, engine, exquisite, opposite, advertisement, gnarled, rigid, risen, sinister, spinach, video, vinegar, tie, wheelie, quiet, science, crier, pliers, soldier, Monday, mongrel, monkey, courage, magic, manage, palace, four, journey, gnash, gnaw, gnome, ghastly, guard, miracle, miserable, pigeon, pity, prison, month, mother, nothing, once, smother, son, sponge, tongue, wonder, almost, both, comb, ghost, gross, most, only, post, programme, deny, reply, July, obey, caterpillar, chapel, damage, dragon, fabulous, family, famished, garage, glacier, habit, hazard, hexagonal, imagine, panic, radish, miaow, powder, cauliflower, plant, pyjamas, raft, rather, salami, task, vast, kiosk, kiwi, machine, encourage, somersault, swollen, souvenir.

Understanding English Spelling
by Masha Bell – Pegasus, 2004