Learning to Spell
These are some practical methods children can use to practice their spelling. In addition, this article offers certain principles that educators and learners alike should remember because practice makes perfect.
Visual Memory: Also referred to as “orthographic” memory, visual memory is the capacity to recall written word appearances. Learning to spell requires the capacity to picture words, particularly sight words that frequently cannot be “sounded out” and do not follow a standard spelling pattern.
Spelling Memory: A child’s ability to recall consistent letter sequences is improved by phoneme awareness (also known as speech sounds). A child’s expanding understanding of word usage in both written and spoken language helps to shape his spelling memory.
Spelling memory at higher levels depends on a child’s understanding of word structure, the meaning of a word’s constituent components, how one word relates to other words, and other concepts. A child’s vocabulary of existing words serves as the foundation for their methodical understanding of new terms. Teachers love to see cycles of success like this one.
There are two types of spelling knowledge to develop: Phonetic and Morphemic.
Phonetic
Studying the link between sound and symbol, or the sound’s encoding units, helps one acquire phonetic (or sound) spelling expertise. Students can improve their decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) skills by studying letter-sound correspondence and syllable patterns.
Learners can practice identifying correspondences between sounds and their spellings with the help of the Initial Sound Speller and Final Sound Speller. Students who practice these fundamental phonics skills will be better equipped to mix words both in writing and speaking.
With SillyBulls (formerly known as Syllables), kids can practice one of the most important aspects of word decoding: figuring out how many syllables a word has.
Morphemic
Studying morphemes, the smallest linguistic units that contain meaning in a word, helps one acquire morphemic spelling expertise, also known as meaning spelling. Morphemes consist of suffixes, roots, and prefixes. By allowing students to produce several variants of a word, studying morpheme patterns can considerably enhance their spelling skills. As an illustration, consider the terms believe (root), believable (root+suffix), and unbelievable (prefix+root+suffix).