Send page to a Friend February 2007 Literacy Tutoring Tip: Spelling Hints Children are often reluctant to write because they feel they can't spell. Here are a few things to help: Remind them that you are interested in their ideas first, and you'll worry about spelling later -- and stick to that promise; Encourage them to use "invented spelling" (spelling words the best way they can) for now even if they just put one letter down to represent a whole word. Avoid talking about spelling as "correct" or "incorrect", "right" or "wrong." Remember that children learn to spell just the way they learn to talk and read, in stages, over time, with lots of experience and practice. Talk about how people learn to spell by doing a lot of reading and writing, and that there are lots of ways to learn how to spell words over time. Talk about some of these ways to figure out spelling: For Emergent and Early writers: Say a word and listen for the sounds, especially the beginning sound and then maybe the end sound. Think about where you saw the word and look for it in a book or around the room to copy Help the child use a picture - letter chart (i.e.: "A" and Apple, "B" and Box, etc) For more advanced writers who are already writing fairly comfortably, suggest the following: Close your eyes and see if you can remember the way the word looked Think of a word that rhymes with word you're trying to spell ("If you can spell cent, you can spell rent.") Write down the word three times, using three possible spellings, and see which one looks right. Think about parts of the word, which parts do you know? (i.e.: 'going' -- 'go/ing') Look in a dictionary or other book. Adapted from Bank Street College Curriculum