Attitude

Click on a picture to see a larger version

More Ideas

Would you like to show your magical spelling powers by adding your own slideshow to our website? Here are some ideas:

• How do you teach yourself?

  • Question: What happens when people stop teaching you to spell?

  • Answer: You teach yourself.

  • But how do you teach yourself?

  • Oh look! There’s a word I don’t know how to spell. I must remember it.

• The best learning happens when you use as many senses as possible to improve your spelling powers.

  • Listen: Make the sounds out loud, exaggerate the sounds, listen for similar sounds, find an amusing way to remember a sound (short grunty sounds: a, e, i, o, u, oo; long surprised vowel sounds: ay, ee, igh, oh, you, ooh; other vowel sounds: er, oy, ow)

  • Look: Notice patterns, word shapes, mnemonics

  • Do: Magnetic letters, actions, air writing, more?

  • Taste: I'm struggling here. Make some bread in the shape of a letter or word?

  • Smell: Scratch 'n' sniff spelling lessons haven't been developed yet. If someone did, which smells could help you to improve your spelling powers?

• Should you expect to be able to spell every word correctly? The English language has more than 250,000 words. It has been added to for over 1,500 years by Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans and others. How long do you think it would take to learn all these words? What are 'Have a go' and 'Try it out before you write it out' words?

• What is the point of learning to spell correctly?

  • Henry: For a job application.

  • Yasmin: Other people won't understand.

  • Safie: It helps with reading and writing.

  • Rahul: For tests

  • Mr S: If you don't need to think about spelling too much, you can use more brain power to make your writing interesting.

  • Rohan: You could write something fantastic, but no one would understand it.

Step to Success: Spelling

· Investigate a spelling rule with all your senses.

· Learn the rule with your magical memory.

· Learn to spell the examples you have been given. How could you show that you have learnt it?

· Use it in your writing.

· Notice more examples in your reading.

Introduction Overview