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Students are going to make spelling mistakes. Making mistakes is all part
of the learning process. It's your job to correct those mistakes without
interrupting the learning process or creating other difficulties.
Here are some specific techniques to correct spelling mistakes both during
the lesson and at other times.
Correcting spelling mistakes during the lesson:
- Ask the student to read exactly what he wrote and to do so slowly. Often,
the student will see his own error and be able to fix it.
- Look at the cause of the spelling mistake. Does the student pronounce
the word incorrectly? Is he unclear on a particular concept or rule? Do
you need to re-teach something? Did he segment the word correctly?
- If you need to review a phonogram or a rule, do it now.
- Have the student spell the word again, first with the letter tiles and
then on paper.
Correcting spelling mistakes outside of the spelling lesson:
- Only hold your student responsible for writing the word correctly if
it includes concepts she has already learned.
- If the word (or words with a similar pattern) has been taught, ask the
student to segment the word.
- As he segments the word, he should write down the letter or letters for
each sound.
- If your student asks how to spell a word she hasn't learned, tell her
how to spell it.
Avoid inventive spelling
Whether you are in a lesson or not, avoid inventive spelling. Inventive
spelling reinforces incorrect spelling that will have to be corrected later
on in the student's education. In addition, students need to be able to recognize
incorrect spelling in their own writing, and rewrite the word correctly.
For more ways to avoid, recognize and correct common spelling mistakes,
check out these resources:
Five
Ways to Handle Misspelled Words
Teaching Spelling
With Letter Tiles
Why
Teach the Phonograms and Spelling Rules?
Marie Rippel is the author of the All About Spelling series,
the multisensory spelling program that is guaranteed to work. Visit her
at www.all-about-spelling.com.
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