Spelling is fun.  Really, it is! But if you find spelling practice boring or repetitive, it’s probably because you’re using the wrong activities. Here are some ways to spice up your spelling practice and become a Master Speller in no time.

Word Sorting: Learn Words in Groups

To learn difficult or hard to remember spellings you can practice word sorting.  Word sorting helps you develop phonemic awareness so that you can know how a sound translates into a word.

For instance, phonemic awareness lets you know that the letter A has two pronunciations. Sometimes it’s pronounced with a short vowel sound (as in ‘mat’) and sometimes with a long vowel sound (as in ‘gate’), but in both cases it’s simply written as the letter ‘a.’

Another example is grouping words by their suffixes, or other similar characteristics. You might make up a list with a group of words ending in the letters –cious. You could also choose to learn a list of words where the letter K is silent, as in ‘knight’ and ‘knee.’

When you truly understand spelling patterns, you will be able to apply these when spelling unknown words. One such spelling pattern could be the soft and hard G.

The letter G is pronounced “hard” in words such as gate, gap, goat and grow but “soft” in words such as gym and giraffe.

You can learn this sound-letter pattern with this rule:

When followed by A, O, or U, the G is pronounced with a “hard” sound.

When G is followed by I or E or Y, then the sound is “soft.”  

Knowing these letter patterns helps you correctly guess the spelling of an unknown word when you hear it pronounced out loud. You will be able to decipher that the correct spelling of ‘gymnastics’ is with a G and not a J, because you’ll recognize the pattern and remember the rule.

This technique of word sorting can be applied to a number of spelling activities. You can learn spelling with groups of words like these:

1) Learning words ending in –at and –an, as in the case of ‘pat’ and ‘pan’

2) Words with a silent E such as ‘cake’, ‘love’, ‘dove’ and ‘jove’

3) Learning words with diphthongs, such as ‘oy’ and ‘ow’

4) Learning the difference between the long and short A sounds in words like ‘hat’ and ‘safe’

Spelling patterns help you make generalized rules on how spelling works. Implementing these rules, once you know them, helps you arrive at the correct spelling of new words.

Once your phonological awareness is expanded through this technique, you can start practicing with games and spelling activities to consolidate that knowledge.

Spelling Knowledge Consolidation: Spelling 24/7

In order for you to truly master spelling you need to practice in a consistent yet fun manner. In fact, you can incorporate spelling practice in almost everything you do! Here are some ways to do it:

Gather together newspaper clips or online content and look for spelling words you’ve learned in the previous week or two. Seeing words in context helps you form a mental image of the correctly-spelled word.

Create a story based on the words you’ve just learned, or use them to practice the one you learned a while back. Collect 5 to 10 words and create a short narrative with them.  The more creative and funny the story, the more enjoyable this will be.

Shrink your spelling “black list” by studying your frequently misspelled words using a technique called “spelling stairs.” In this process, you start with the first letter, then add a single letter at a time until you form your word, like this:

T

Ta

Tab

Tabl

Table

Tablet

Play online spelling games and take advantage of the hundreds of spelling games that are variations of classic word games and spelling activities, like Scramble and Hangman. When you’re having fun, you’ll enjoy the practice, and you’ll spend more time at it.

Mnemonics: The Expert’s Technique

Invent mnemonics for tough words to help you remember them. Sometimes, no matter how much you study a word you always seem to get it wrong, and mnemonic techniques can help. For example, say you always misspell the word ‘dilemma.’ Create a mnemonic for it that helps you remember the correct spelling, like this one:

Emma faced a dilemma.

Here’s another example: you can memorize the sentence “Goofy George always exaggerates” to remember to spell ‘exaggerate’ with a double G.

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