S P E L L I N G

Spelling has always been an issue for our school. We haven't found a reliable way to incorporate it into our literacy programmes. Earlier this term one of my colleagues had a student teacher join her in her class and I decided to give one of her ideas a go.

Our entire class did a spelling test. I marked each test and highlighted each incorrectly spelt word. Each week the students have 5 new words to learn and I select them based on their spelling test. Every Wednesday as part of their literacy contract, the students will complete a number of spelling activities in their spelling books (which I can see as it's one of their must do's). The, each Friday, during literacy I will test each of the students on their words for the week. The girls especially, are responding really well to spelling. They're able to use their colourful gel pens which they're not able to use during writing. They find it fun and creative, and most of my class are scoring 4 or 5 every week. This is much better than last year as their spelling books where barely touched!