Susan Miller Fryrear's

     

Since this didn’t always carry over into their writing, I continued to improve upon my method; however, in 1992 I started my job as the primary writing consultant for the Kentucky Writing Program and have been out of the classroom for several years.

During this past year in workshops with over 2,500 teachers I presented them with this problem: How do you figure out how to spell a word you don’t know? I gave them carageen, an oriental deciduous plant.) Invariably, I’ve gotten the same list of strategies:

• sound it out - using phonics
• divide the word into syllable
• find small words I know inside the larger word - chunking
• use knowledge of root words, prefixes, and/or suffixes
• think of a familiar word and use that in the spelling (like KERA or Caribbean for carageen)
• think of where the word might have appeared (like a science book)

By 1992, there was considerable discussion about spelling, so I decided to pursue my burning question: What is the best way to teach spelling? I talked to teachers at my workshops, other professionals at conferences,

• look it up in the dictionary (if I can figure out how it starts)
• visualize the word
• write it several times and pick the one that looks right
• ask a friend
• spell check on the computer
• use a Franklin speller
• keep track of words most often requested and most often misspelled on a hand-held spelling computer

By 1992, there was considerable discussion about spelling, so I decided to pursue my burning question: What is the best way to teach spelling? I talked to teachers at my workshops, other professionals at conferences, and read books by the spelling gurus: Richard Gentry, Connie Weaver, Regie Routman, Marlene and Robert McCracken, Sandra Wilde, and others. I was validated by the discovery that many of the techniques and strategies that I had been using were sound teaching practices.

During this past year in workshops with over 2,500 teachers I presented them with this problem: How do you figure out how to spell a word you don’t know? I gave them carageen, an oriental deciduous plant.) Invariably, I’ve gotten the same list of strategies:

• sound it out - using phonics
• divide the word into syllable
• find small words I know inside the larger word - chunking
• use knowledge of root words, prefixes, and/or suffixes
• think of a familiar word and use that in the spelling (like KERA or Caribbean for carageen)
• think of where the word might have appeared (like a science book)
• look it up in the dictionary (if I can figure out how it starts)
• visualize the word
• write it several times and pick the one that looks right
• ask a friend
• spell check on the computer
• use a Franklin speller
• keep track of words most often requested and most often misspelled on a hand-held spelling computer