1. Spelling Getting it write, wright, right!
Normanby-by-Spital Primary School

2. Aims
To know the implications for spelling within the new primary curriculum
To understand how spelling is being taught in school and what is considered to be good practise
To have the opportunity to ask questions
To know how you can support spelling at home

3. Task
In a puiltacibon of teh New Scnieitst it siad you cuold jublme all teh letetrs in a wrod adn as lnog as teh frist adn lsat were the smae, reibadailty wolud hadrly be aftcfeed. My ansaylis did not cmoe to mcuh beucase of teh thoery at the tmie but raserceh sugsegts we may hvae smoe pofrweul palrlael prsooscers at wrok, which seepd up regnicoiton. We olny need the frist and lsat letetrs to spot chganes in meniang.
‘The Significance of Letter Position in Word Recognition’  PhD Thesis, 1976, Nottingham University, by Graham Rawlinson
As competent readers, we rely heavily on visual patterns but many of us still revert to phonics for unfamiliar words.

4. Spelling is a mental process To support children well, we need to be aware of the mental processes involved
Say the word
Visual memory of the word
The feeling of correctness
Correct spelling

5. New Curriculum Expectations
Significant increase in expectations across all year groups
Greater focus on spelling rules and conventions
Greater focus on word roots and origins
Word lists are particularly demanding
Skills need to be embedded

6. Spelling Test! accommodate committee desiccated battalion
gauge privilege
zoology fuchsia 6 6

7. GHOWBTAPTEAU spells..? GH OW BT A PT EAU
GH is P, as in hiccough OW is O, as in bow BT is T, as in doubt A is A, as in acorn PT is T, as in pterodactyl EAU is O, as in beau

8. Spelling Tests: Problems
Children rarely commit spellings learnt for a test to their long-term memory
Some get 10/10 but then fail to spell these words correctly in their writing
Can lead to poor self-esteem for children who practice but then don’t get many correct
Can create an unhealthy competition
Gives teachers little information about the spelling skills children need to develop

9. What Does The Research Say?
Teaching children strategies for correcting spelling is far more important than giving them the correct spelling of a word
Spelling strategies and major spelling patterns are taught much more effectively through lessons than through workbooks or spelling tests
If children learn spellings for tests and don’t use those words in their own writing, they will forget them within days
Individualised spelling dictionaries are useful as children are trying to get a grasp of new spellings 
Children often get key rules wrong. The top 12 misspelt words were the same for the 7-10 age group as for children aged  
There’s a need for both schools and parents to spend more time on the basics 
Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries for OUP and OUP lexicographer Jane Bradbury

10. What Does The Research Say?
We often wrongly assume that if children read widely they will be good spellers. This presupposes they are understanding and processing every word
Children need to be taught why words are spelt as they are. They love to hear where words come from e.g. ‘ghost’ has an ‘h’ because Flemish typesetters brought it over here used the Flemish word, which was ‘gheest.’
Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries for OUP and OUP lexicographer Jane Bradbury
Professor David Crystal, linguist

11. What Are Effective Schools Doing?
Arranging training for all staff
Structuring spelling so that it is taught across several sessions each week
Using the teaching sequence:
Revisit Teach Practice Apply
Providing opportunities for children to investigate, make generalisations, discover rules and embed their learning
Supporting the use of individual spelling logs
Using a range of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approaches
Assessing spelling termly through children's writing and activities (e.g. cloze procedures)
Building the word list words into teaching as appropriate
Keeping parents informed

12. What we will do at N-by-S:
Single Word Spelling test to be carried out with all Y1-6 pupils to create a standardised spelling age
Use a nationally accredited spelling scheme to be used through school consistently by all teachers/pupils (Nelson)
Teach National Curriculum spelling objectives
Teach phonics 4x per week in ability sets
Have specific SPAG lessons
Blending books for identified children
Termly test of phonemes, selected HFW and spelling rules
Spelling tests covering spelling rules taught and a selection of the Year 1/2/3/4/5 &6 New Curriculum spelling list-where appropriate
Hold a Spelling Bee! (pupils have requested this!)

13. Website Resources http://www.spellingcity.com/ www.nessy.com/uk/

14. Vocabulary Spelling City Spell with Pip Abc pocket phonics
Recommend Apps
Squeebles
Vocabulary Spelling City
Spell with Pip
Abc pocket phonics
Spelling Monster
Pirate Phonics

15. Final Thought… I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, tough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead –
For goodness sake don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart –
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five! 15 15