| Why Johnny Can't Spellby Mark Pennington, MA | | | | does not know. Use an effective diagnostic test |
| Reading Specialist and author of Teaching Spelling | | | | such as the free Vowel Sound-Spelling |
| and Vocabulary ©2002 Pennington Publishing | | | | Assessment found on to pinpoint his spelling |
| "Johnny could be a great writer, but his terrible | | | | weaknesses. Target those weaknesses with |
| spelling just gets in the way. He just can't get | | | | specific skill worksheets, word sorts, and flashcard |
| down on paper what he wants to say. Johnny | | | | practice. You can find these resources at your |
| repeats the same spelling mistakes over and over | | | | local bookstore, on the web, or in Teaching |
| in his writing, now matter how many times I | | | | Spelling and Vocabulary ©2002 Pennington |
| red-mark them. I've had him write out a spelling | | | | Publishing. |
| word fifty times and still misspell that same word | | | | Next, teach the rules of syllabication and have |
| on his next assignment. It drives me crazy." | | | | Johnny practice sight syllable spellings with oral |
| Know a student like Johnny? Everyone does. Is | | | | drills. Spelling is an auditory process-it is not a |
| there something neurologically mis-wired or does | | | | visual process. Encoding a word involves |
| he have dyslexia? Probably not. Yet, year after | | | | connecting letter relationships to the sounds that |
| year, Johnny lags further and further behind his | | | | make up that word. A wonderful resource for |
| classmates in his spelling proficiency. | | | | developing the automaticity needed to |
| Can we blame the English sound-spelling system? | | | | consistently apply the syllabication rules is the oral |
| Only about half of our spellings exactly match | | | | Transformers activity found in Teaching Spelling |
| their sounds. Or how about blaming the "whole | | | | and Vocabulary. That same book has the sight |
| language" instructional fad in which teachers threw | | | | spelling syllable flashcards that any student must |
| out their spelling workbooks and the traditional | | | | master for conventional spelling. |
| weekly spelling test? Or how about blaming Dad | | | | Finally, connect spelling instruction to vocabulary |
| or Mom? With more brain research, we may find | | | | instruction. Over 50% of our academic words are |
| a genetic predisposition to poor spelling. | | | | built on ancient Greek and Latin word parts. |
| It may be unfair, but society judges poor spellers | | | | Spelling and vocabulary have a reciprocal |
| quite harshly. Misspelling words on a job application | | | | relationship-spelling influences vocabulary and, |
| won't land Johnny a job. And "spell check" and | | | | conversely, vocabulary influences spelling. Have |
| dictionaries are not complete fixes. After all, you | | | | Johnny practice the spellings and definitions of the |
| have to be able to recognize a correct spelling or | | | | most common Greek and Latin roots and affixes. |
| know how to spell a word to use these | | | | Teaching Spelling and Vocabulary has lists of the |
| resources. Frankly, we do a disservice to Johnny | | | | highest utility word parts, flashcards, worksheets, |
| when we excuse his deficiency with a comment | | | | and fun games to aid effective practice. |
| such as "Spelling doesn't matter. Albert Einstein | | | | Who knows? With these strategies, Johnny just |
| was a poor speller, too." So what can we do that | | | | might become a conventional speller. Need more |
| really works to improve Johnny's spelling? | | | | ideas? |
| First, find out what exactly Johnny knows and | | | | |