Top Ten Issues Weak Spellers Face Every Day

Note: I am more than qualified to compile this list because I, my friends, am a terrible speller.  I have dyslexia.  I am also a teacher who tries to reconcile spelling issues with teaching methods that work. Welcome to the mind of a terrible speller. 

10. Traditional Spelling Homework.

Copying spelling words can be a mindless activity for poor spellers.  (Not all spellers, obviously.  We will not be talking in absolutes today.) When I copied spelling words I didn’t have to think about the spelling of the word because the spelling of the word was right there in front of me.  I went on autopilot.  (For me, it was a very similar sensation to the feeling you have when you drive somewhere familiar and you zone out for a few minutes, and when you finally zone back in, you look around and think, “I’m already this far?! When did I pass that one landmark?”) When the test came, I couldn’t recall the spelling of the words I copied because the spelling of the words were no longer in front of me.

Cross word puzzles, word searches, and unscramble the word puzzles are busy work.  Personally, I’m great at unscramble the word puzzles because that’s what words look like to me ALL THE TIME. But they don’t help me spell. If anything, they reinforce bad habits.  I can tell you how many letter Is and Es are in the word ExpErIEncE, but don’t expect me to get them in the correct order on my first attempt.  Some students just can’t find the word yellow in a word search sea of letters, and they spend hours trying to find every y, and then make sure an e is next to it, and so on.  When I had to do these kinds of activities, in the back of my mind I was thinking, “I am just wasting time.  I still have to actually practice my words.”  Spelling homework took me HOURS every day.

9. Hours of studying produce little results. 

As I was saying, homework took me hours every day.  I was lucky to scrape by with a C on a test.  Guys, most weak spellers are not lazy.  Usually they work the hardest in the class, and they have nothing to show for it. They just learn differently than the norm.

8. Passing a spelling test does not equal mastery. 

If I did spell a word correctly, I was typically unable to retrieve the spelling of that word in my writing.

7. The amount of new spelling words every week is overwhelming for many students. 

You guys, weak spellers are drowning in new spelling words.  We expect them to learn 20 new words every week, when they usually haven’t mastered the last week’s list, or the week before that, AND SO ON.  We don’t expect a student piano player to play a recital piece after one week of practice.  We don’t expect a student basketball player to master layups in a week. Why do we expect this of our spellers? 

And don’t get me started on the six week unit review tests, in which every complicated word for the last six weeks was required.  The teacher would say, “Oh.  This will be an easy lesson.  You have spelled all these words before.” Dude.  I got most of them wrong, by the way.  And I’ve slept since then.  I haven’t thought about those words for six weeks.  Review lessons always felt like a new lesson: usually the hardest new lesson of the six week spelling period.

6. English doesn’t always follow the rules. 

You say to me,“i before e except after c.”

 “Oh yeah?” I say, “ what about weird?  Huh? Height? Foreign?”

You say to me, “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” 

"Ok, so what about bread? Boa? Field?"

“The silent e makes the vowel say its name.”

“Then why on earth do we pronounce have with a short a?” (P.S. when I found out the answer to this one, I cried literal tears.  I’m not even joking.)

Here’s a truth bomb for ya: Most spelling programs are teaching the WRONG rules. Bam.

5. Learning phonics isn’t enough.

Fonix uloan duz not a gud spelr maik.

4. Homophones. Contractions.

Their, there, they’re.  It’ll be ok. Maybe.

What’s the difference between its and it’s?  I didn’t know until COLLEGE.  College.

3. Suffixes and prefixes. 

AHHH! Why is hurrying spelled with a y, but hurried isn’t?  It was enough to pull my hair out.  And I’ve got very thin hair to begin with.

This struggling speller has improved immensely!

2. Many poor spellers are not great readers.  It’s tough to know how to pronounce though, thought, and through if you can’t remember how to spell them.

1. Bad spellers are some of the most CREATIVE people I know, but spelling inhibits them from getting their thoughts on paper. 

 

Many poor spellers have a lot to say, but they look at a blank page and they have to focus their entire mind on the spelling of each and every word.  By the time they figure out the spelling, or at least a close enough spelling that they can decipher it later, they have forgotten what they were going to say.

Is there any hope for these weak spellers?  Yes.  I have created a program that addresses these issues. You can read about Automatic Spelling here. You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.