How to Study Spelling

Video Transcript

"So if you're looking at how to study spelling there might be two things you're looking for, one, maybe you've got a spelling test tomorrow and you want to know how do I study this stuff, two, maybe you're looking for just to get better at spelling on your own and it's not about school, so lets look at both cases. So first of all lets say- we'll use the second one first actually, lets say you want to become better in spelling. The best way to do it actually is to look up on-line or in various reference books at the library, there's a couple of lists of most commonly misspelled words and those are great. Like let's say you find the five hundred most commonly misspelled words, it's a pretty available list, I'm sure you can find it on the Internet or at your library, and then what you want to do is study those words. And believe it or not if you get better at those five hundred words your spelling will improve dramatically, number one, because those are the ones you're most commonly misspelling, and number two, once you get into spelling you actually do get a feel for it, and your spelling, even for words that you haven't just studied will actually improve, so that's great. Okay, so now the other situation, how do you do that, how do you- you got the words now, you want to be a better speller, how do you study them. Best way to do it is, first look through the words, study them, look at them, if you're a person that likes to write, write each one a few times, look them over, and then have someone test you, this is the most important part. Have someone test you, they'll say them out loud. If you don't have anyone to work with you can record them into a recorder, into your computer, into your iPod, whatever, record them or have someone say them to you and then write them, you have to do that, or you can't just look at them and see if you know it or not. So have someone test you, and out of those five hundred words see how many you got wrong, it doesn't matter, maybe you only got ten, maybe you got 450. Take those words and divide them up into lists, and then take the words that you don't know and study them. So again, you can study them by saying them out loud, if you're somebody that learns that way, you can study them by writing each one five times, if you learn that way, or you can study them just by looking at them over and over again, flash cards or something, if you learn visually, if you learn that way, study them for a while and then have someone test you again. The ones you've learned cross off, the ones you still don't know study again. So that's the best way to study for a spelling test is study them have someone test you, study them again, have someone test you again until you know them."