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Monday, December 27, 2010

How to Memorize a Spelling Word

HOW TO MEMORIZE A SPELLING WORD
  1. Look at the word carefully.  Really pay attention to it!
  2. Close your eyes and picture the word in your head.
  3. Notice natural groups of letters, like the root, syllables, prefixes or suffixes.
  4. Notice if there are any other words within the word, like to-get-her in together, or ear in hear, or pie in piece.
  5. If the word does not look like it sounds, try saying it a different way to remember the actual spelling.  For example, exhaust sounds like egz-awst but you can say it with x and h sounds in it just for the purposes of remembering the spelling.  (Just remember how it is really pronounced for saying it at other times!)
  6. Think of other words that have a similar spelling pattern, such as thought and brought.  Think of a sentence that uses both words to link them in your mind.
  7. Copy the word three times. 
  8. Spell it out loud while you are looking at it.
  9. Spell it out loud while you are NOT looking at it.
  10. Write it down while someone else says it.
Those are just some tips I came up with by myself.  There is also a comprehensive list of spelling tips at All About Spelling.  Just follow the instructions to sign up for the free report 
20 Best Tips for Teaching Spelling.  They will also continue to send you helpful e-mails about teaching spelling.

1 comment:

  1. Hi

    You've got some great tips here.

    Another thing that is really useful is to draw around the outline of the word, to imprint the shape of the word on the memory. It is often the shape that tells us that a word 'looks right' or 'looks wrong'.

    Johanna

    ReplyDelete

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