Spelling Reinforcement

Because they are so broad, it is hard to convey how it is that plentiful and continuous experience in reading and writing teaches spelling very powerfully without special effort. It seems too easy. But by plaguing students too much with isolated small skills, schools prevent them from logging the quantity of reading and writing it takes to show how the big things automatically teach the little.

Spelling Through Writing
The main thing is for the writer to plunge ahead with what he\she has to say without fear of penalties for errors. Spelling improves with consonant trying, but kids who write a lot and with pleasure will make many mistakes for the simple reason that they dare to try to spell any word they can say. But if they are made to feel that spelling errors are shameful, they will not attempt enough writing to practice as much as they need. Whether composing or transcribing, the continual groping to put words onto paper causes students eventually to find out how those words are spelled —to generalize, to memorize, to ask others, to consult the dictionary, and so on. The conditions for success are that they care about what they are saying and that they not feel penalized for misspelling what they are trying to say. The value of dictionaries is slight if students have few occasions to write their own sentences, or if papers go nowhere but to the teacher's desk. But if they care, they will look up the first letter or so, the easiest to spell, then guess tow or three alternatives for the next letter until they find the right one, then look nearby to find the word. You want to so involve youngsters in pushing from speech to print that they take the initiative to spell out what they have to say. (Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner)

Self-Diagnosis -- Taken from Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner

Self Correcting Spelling -- Taken from Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner

Letter-Moving Devices -- Taken from Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner

Spelling Puzzles -- Taken from Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner

Using Single Words -- Taken from Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13 a handbook for teachers, 2nd Ed., Moffett & Wagner