How to Teach a Teenager With a Learning Disability How to Spell

Every child learns differently and excels using different learning strategies. Here are some ideas to help your student with a learning disability learn how to spell.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Children's Dictionaries
• Dictionaries
• Recipe Boxes
• Have-a-Go Worksheets
• Index Cards
• Spiral Notebooks

1. Encourage reading. Read together. Listen to books on tape. Let your child choose reading material that is interesting to her. Good readers become good spellers.

2. Praise and motivate. Praise your student for every attempt to spell independently. You will want to eliminate any feelings of failure a student might have with misspelling words, but don't sugar coat your praise. A teenager will pick up on fake praise. Say things like, "You did a great job getting this or these words right. Those are hard letter combinations to remember, good job. Now let's think about how we can fix this or these words. This part of the word is correct. What do you think is another way to spell this word?"

3. Try several different approaches to teach spelling. Introduce several techniques and let your student choose which one to use.

4. Have-a-Go. This spelling strategy uses a worksheet with two to four "spelling" columns on it. Your student will use the sheet while completing a writing assignment, whether it is a sentence or a composition paper. In the first column the student will list the words that are misspelled, as the student originally spelled them. Go over the list with the student, putting check marks over the parts of the words that are correct and underlining the parts that need to be fixed. In the second and third columns your student will Have-a-Go at spelling the word a different way and you will perform the same check for correct and misspelled letters. By the time your student reaches the fourth column most of the words will be spelled correctly or be close enough to look up the correct spelling in the dictionary. This strategy encourages students to think about the way is word is spelled, mentally classify word groups and families and recognize mistakes while taking independent steps to fix them.

5. Chunk words. Chunking is a strategy that involves breaking words into smaller, more easily remembered parts. You can chunk single syllable words like great - gr / ea / t - or multi-syllable words like fantastic - fan / tas / tic. This strategy is helpful for remembering spelling or vocabulary words. Encourage your student to look for and think about smaller words within large words - fan is in fantastic. Point out similarities of words and similar letter groupings - great is a "gr" word and a "ea" word.

6. Make word families. This is a visual strategy that allows students to see the similarities of words by putting them in lists or families. Make a huge chart in your classroom or home and add words to the list as you come across new words. Have a word of the week and come up with as many words in the family as you can. If you notice your student struggling with a particular combination, make a chart for that word family. Make families for beginning and end sounds like gr, sh, bl, st, ss, dd, ing. Make word families for vowel combinations like ea, oa, ee, ai, ou.

Tips & Warnings

• Have your student make a personal dictionary with a spiral notebook or note cards and a recipe holder.
• Let your students help each other and give feedback on spelling words.
• Choose spelling words from your students' journals or writing assignments.
• Let students choose spelling words they want to master.
• Encourage your student to use the dictionary instead of telling her how to spell a word.
• Know when to give your student a break. Focusing on a problem area for too long can prove frustrating and make efforts of instruction futile.

Who Can Help:

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on 11/22/2005 I am a Special Education teacher and I make the students write the spelling lists on the computer, or give them magnetic letters, that helps. Some children love to spell the new spelling lists in shaving cream. They put some on a tray and start spelling with their fingers. They have fun and use the sense of touch.