Explicit Instruction: Spelling
Overview
Explicit spelling instruction helps to improve not only students' spelling, a key part of Foundational Writing Skills, but also supports reading skills development. Learning to spell is a complex cognitive process that is heavily integrated with developing literacy. Preschool age children begin to attempt to write letters, and with instructor support, develop Phonological Awareness and connect letters with sounds to spell words. Teaching learners how to spell by understanding systematic phonetic and spelling patterns can help improve their Vocabulary and their Phonological and Orthographic Processing.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this teacher integrates spelling with Vocabulary using the Word Lab method. She supports students' Phonological Processing skills by going over the syllables and the silent versus pronounced sounds. She also brings learners' Attention to the tricky and interesting parts of the word to help their understanding of the specific word as well as nuances of spelling rules.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Vocabulary SpellingCity helps users practice spelling through games and activities where they see and hear words in context. This interactive exploration can improve Vocabulary, Phonological Processing, and Morphological Knowledge. The app teaches words from ready-made lists from a standards-based curriculum and allows learners and their teachers to make their own lists.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
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