TEACHING SPELLINGS

Spelling facilitates writing.It is a courtesy to the reader.It should be an end in its self,but should further to sentence construction and meaning. Learners should not be given unrelated low frequency words ,thus words seldom used in their writing. It should be done within the context of the writing process and developmental stages of the children.
Stages in spelling development:
(1)Pre-literate stage and letter name spellings. Most first year primary school children in the formal education enjoy writing using pictures drawn from left to right interspaced with letters and numbering form. A -for apple,B -for banana C-for cat.
What pupils at this stage hear the initial letter written or made to complete word for example apple.These children awareness of the final middle letter especially vowels doesn't heard.In the first two terms of the first year of formal spelling not to teach because pupils find it difficult to focus on the whole word. At this stage word awareness is growing. Develop this awareness through labels language experience awareness (LEA)Stories and teaching the letters of the alphabert in meaning word context ,for example word association.
The teacher should let pupils write using their invented spellings accept these since they are not of the formal spelling.Check understanding ask what they have written . Through LEA as look and say methods they will know the spelling word.Let them write as they invent until spelling and pen manship skills catch up with ideas.
(2)Early phonic stage many first grade pupils to start hear the final and middle of the word.The medial consonents and vowels ,for example house,door and window. Formal spellings is not taught ,teacher encourages to write using invented spellings. The teacher continues teaching thr alphabert and LEA .
Inorder raise phonic awareness paying attention to high frequent words.
Teach these words through the use of games like fish-fish. The teacher can introduce activities of sorting words that end in 's' or start with 'th' and those that have 'a' in the middle.
(3)Beginning conventional stage ,after the word and the phonic awareness some children began to learn some words conventionally c-a-t .Begin to show the ability to work common inflected endings ,for example 's ,ed,ing', as in 'walk'.
They also work with compound words and with more common prefixs and suffixs.Pupils begin to be aware of morhemes which means the smallest component in a word,for instance sits=sit†s ,dis-likes=dis†like†s. At this stage pupils begin to edit their own spellings.
(4) The formal stage (conventional)
Pupils 's writing nearly all conventional writing with occassional mistakes. They need continued work in phonics and access to dictionary. Pupils should now circle questionable spellings ''had herd head ,tail tale''. Give the questions such as: ''I --- the news of his death.''
Spellings can be done as group activities or intensive work where informal work instruction is given.
Class activities make use of cross word puzzles ,spelling game ,word scrumble ,targets ,story writing ,selecting correct from destructors ,spelling test,dictionary,alphabertising ,hanging words on a clothes line.
Sources of spelling are common mispelt words,reference words of the root word family for example action. This helps pupils to understand the pattern of words in a language. Vocabulary words used in different subject topics. Ecletic approach spellings for instances 'relatives,animal,vegetable,colour'.
Spelling strategies ,teacher devices ways of remembering letter combination ,copying the word ,home work words,delayed copying,make use of flashcards,dictation,logs write words in a note book and chunging:
(a){TEACHER} can break into words:he,ache,her,hear,eat,at,ear.
(b)IGH: high,thigh,thigh etc
Focusing on trouble some sports embrass,mnemonics never end a friendship. word like soilder can be changed:serve our lord day is ever ready.