[senco-forum] spelling using letter names

Of Helen Reidy

Like Mary, I like children to segment words orally before spelling them.  As they are usually confused about phoneme/grapheme correspondences I avoid letter names as much as possible, preferring to present the 'tricky'  graphemes visually by writing them on a whiteboard while saying "The x sound in this word is spelled this way..."  For learning which spelling of a 'sound' goes in particular words I would first get them to practice spelling a set of words all containing the same grapheme, then, when I've covered the commonest representation of the sound, give them a sorting exercise with words containing the sound.  I get the children to say each sound as they write it.  The intention is to link sounds with graphemes and to enable them to have a go at spelling any spoken word.  Chanting letter names seems to break the connection between a sound and its spelling.  I think that successful spelling is ultimately an automatic kinaesthetic response rather
 than a visual recall.  As by the time they get to me they do use letter names I don't discourage it, but I don't encourage it either.

Sorry, it was a very big postcard. 

Maggie

P.S I would surmise that the children noted by the EP were used to learning spellings as letter strings.  I wonder how aware they were of phoneme/grapheme correspondences and how they would fare with being asked to spell an unfamiliar spoken word.

[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf
> Of Helen Reidy
> Sent: 16 April 2008 18:38
> To: senco forum
> Subject: [senco-forum] spelling using letter names
> 
> As a habitual lurker with the occasional foray into the
> limelight, I
> hesitate to ask what may seem an obvious question, but . .
> .  be kind . . .
> here goes. . . . . . 
> 
> A colleague told me today that one of our Ed Psychs had
> found out that a
> couple of the (Junior) pupils she was assessing fared much
> better when they
> were asked to spell words using their letter names rather
> than their letter
> sounds.
> 
> What does this point to/mean/indicate - answers on a small
> postcard please,
> words of fewer than 2 syllables would help.
> 
> Mystified.

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