‘i’ before ‘e’

posted in: Spelling | 1

I have just finished reading an interesting and informative book by David Crystal titled ‘Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling’. David devotes a chapter to arguing that the teaching of spelling rules fails to work because of … Continued

Spelling Rules Rule

posted in: Spelling | 0

If you are not a particularly good speller, the more spelling rules you know and understand, the better your spelling becomes because it gives you a framework to determine the most likely spelling of a word and this is supported … Continued

Subject Specific Vocabulary

posted in: Categories, Spelling | 0

Every subject has vocabulary that students need to understand in order to make sense of the content being taught. The current research suggests (see for example Rastle, 2018) that skilled adult readers routinely use morphological knowledge in addition to knowledge … Continued

Digraphs, Split Digraphs and Split Vowels

posted in: Spelling | 0

English is a confusing language!!  However, like every language, the written form of English is a code for the spoken language.  For many children to become proficient in reading and spelling they need direct explicit instruction in this language code.  … Continued

Grrrr

posted in: Spelling | 0

Many words in English (and other language) are a reflection of natural sounds (or our interpretation of natural sounds) – onomatopoeic words. Frogs croak, cats meow, horses whinny. Quite a few words in English reflect the sound of frustration or … Continued