Quick and Dirty Approach to Spelling

Judy Thompson

How Today is Going to Go

1. What is Literacy? 5 minutes 2. How do we compare internationally? 5 minutes3. What is the big problem? 15 minutes4. What is the solution? 15 minutes5. How to teach spelling 10 minutes

1. The ability to read and write (including spelling)

2. Knowledge that relates to a specific subject

We are going to talk about functional literacy interms of ability to read and understand the directions on a bottle of Aspirin.

Inextricably linked to writing is spelling

What is Literacy?

• The adult literacy indicator measures the proportion of the Canadian population aged 16 to 65 that is able to understand and use information, such as news stories or instruction manuals.

• 51% read at Level 3 • Level 3 is considered to be the minimum level

required by an individual to function in a modern society and economy.(Sources: Employment and Social Development Canada & Canadian Council on Learning)

Adult Literacy

(Conference Board of Canada)

2. How We Rank

• Conference Board of Canada 2013Canada gets a “C” and ranks 8th out of 13 countries on the percentage of adults scoring low on adult literacy rate tests.

• Four out of ten Canadian adults have literacy skills too low to be fully competent in most jobs in our modern economy.

We Aren’t Doing Well

1. English doesn’t make sense as in letters don’t represent sounds

2. Spelling is challenging for the same reason - letters don’t represent sounds

3. If one figures out the game of reading and can intellectually manage the lack of logic, they forget that inglish duznt mayk sens

4. Blame the student when things don’t work out

3. English is Problematic Because:

wuziylsedayt

Play the Game - If English Made Sense

thusiksiyernkwiyer

wuziylsedaytthusiksiyernkwiyer

wasI’ll, isle, aislesaidate, eightthesixironchoir

Did you get?

The travesty is that educators are not straight about the problem probably because we don’t know what to do about it

• ‘Sound is out’ we urge for our non-phonetic language• Is i before e except after c a rule if it has hundreds of

exceptions? (No).• When 2 vowels go walking they can make any sound at

all• Arranging words alphabetically doesn’t work

- the dikshunerey is useless unless you already know what the word means, how to spell it and how it’s used

The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet. - Mark Twain

English doesn’t make sense and we step right over this instead of giving our students half a chance

by dealing with the mess straight on.

inglish duznt mayk sens

Students aren’t really paying attention. The little guy in front on the right is in trouble.

One Saving Grace in the System

The Problem

English Needs A Bridge(How many vowels in English?)

4. The Solution

Regardless of spelling, these are Gray wordsbecause of the main vowel sound:

day, way, playrain, train, vaincane, vane, laneeight, weight, veinthey, heygreat...

Colors hold the vowel sounds that letters don’t.Colors are the bridge from listening to spelling.

Gray Words

The Breakdown is Here

See How Words Sound

‘O’ Makes Many SoundsBlue, Gold, Brown, Mustard...

• Memorize a few hundred words to start• Look at the clues around the word – pictures,

context and other words• Context not grammar is the access to fluency

for ESL (btw)• It is about giving real pathways and

categories for learners to store and access the language they encounter on their own

4. Spelling and Reading

uviziylsedaytthusiksiyernkwiyer

ofisI’ll, isle, aislesaidate, eightthesixironchoir

Spelling with Color

1. Memorize then teach learners the 16 colors and their vowel sounds

2. Read the same books aloud over and over again

3. Run your finger under the words as you read4. Play games with the sounds, “What color is

your name? What color is this word _____?”5. When the learner starts to read prompt

them with the color of the words they stumble on

The system translates seamlessly to multi-syllable words.

How You Teach Your Students to Spell

• The sound & collocation dictionary that categorizes the 2,000 most common words in English into their 16 color chapters

• It includes the spelling, pronunciation and literal meaning of each word and is rife with the expressions and the idiomatic use of every entry

• It is a dictionary for learners

Grass is Black

Beginner Flashcard Word List

Denise Eide the Logic of English

Rita Baker – Brain PowerThe Global Approach

• We aren’t doing well teaching reading/spelling• No one can sound out English, spelling never tells

us how a word sounds

• Learners need a real bridge to connect sounds to symbols.

• Colors are the simple, all inclusive connection from reading/writing to listening/speaking

• Simple books, repetition, awareness and good resources

• Teach colors (vowel sounds) as access to spelling

Recap

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