-ONYMS
You are probably very familiar with the terms synonym and antonym. Yet there are actually quite a few words in English that incorporate the Greek root word ‘onym’ which means ‘name’. Scroll down for a list of the more common … Continued
Teaching Spelling Logically
Are you one of those people who believe that ‘English spelling is crazy’? Sure, at times English spelling can seem ridiculous, but usually if you have some understanding of the ‘code’ and/or some understanding of the history of the word, … Continued
Crosswords
There is quite a bit of research showing that crosswords can be an effective teaching tool (see list of references for some examples). Crossword puzzles enhance vocabulary and spelling by requiring precise letter placement to match clues, which reinforces word … Continued
Why Don’t We Pronounce the ‘k’ in Knife???
Spelling would be so much easier if we either pronounced the ‘k’ in words like ‘knife’, ‘knob’, ‘knit’ and ‘know’ or if the ‘k’ was just omitted. So, why do we have an unpronounced ‘k’ in these words? A little … Continued
Teaching Schwa
Schwa is the unclearly pronounced vowel sound that occurs in multisyllabic words. It is the most common sound in English and can be represented by every vowel grapheme. Schwa is a spelling issue not a reading issue. If students can … Continued