In support of the British Dyslexia Association’s sponsored Spell for Dyslexia Awareness Week, Nessy has created a series of spelling strategies that will help all students spell better.
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Strategy #1 – Mnemonics
The story “sam and i dance” help people spell the word “said”, which is a tough word to spell, as it is not spelled the way that it sounds. It also helps to start with the word that you are trying to remember. The story “which horse is Charlie having” is a helpful way to remember how to spell the word “which”.
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Strategy – Rules ~ part 1
This book of rules helps with determining which vowel combinations to use (ai, oi, oa, & ui compared to ay, oy, ow, & ew), which depends on whether the vowels (y & w are considered vowels in these instances) are used in the beginning, middle, or the end of the word. Suffixes (or tails as the video calls them) do not change this rule.
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Strategy #3 – Mispronouncing Words
Mispronouncing words in your head is particularly helpful when spelling words like “Wednesday”.
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Strategy #4 – Words Within Words
It helps to look for words within words. I use this myself, and I teach this to students in class. In middle school, the word hypothesis is misspelled frequently. I remind students that the words “the” and “sis” are in hypothesis. The example the video provides is to learn to see the word pie in the word piece, as in a piece of pie.
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Strategy – Using Pictures
Learn how to associate words with pictures.
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Strategy #7 – Chunking
Breaking longer words into smaller chunks can make them easier to spell.
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Strategy – Flossy words
This video explains when to use one or two f, l, s, or z’s, and it is all dependent on how many vowels word has.
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Strategy – ‘ould’
This strategy provides a new way to remember how to spell ‘ould’ as in the words could, would, and should.