At this time of year, writing - in particular, spelling - is a huge focus in primary classes.
Teachers in Year 6 are thinking about Sats, and looking closely at children’s writing in relation to the Teacher Assessment Framework. The framework places enormous emphasis on the nuts and bolts of writing: the transcriptional elements of the correct and consistent use of punctuation, a range of grammatical elements, handwriting and - if I dare mention it - spelling.
Spelling matters; spelling errors in writing can cause the reader to judge the work negatively and it can have an impact on a child’s perception of themselves as a writer. There is also a correlation between spelling and reading: the two processes seem to support each other.
Nevertheless, teaching (and learning) spelling can feel like a never-ending battle; no matter how much you practise, more mistakes appear. It is fair to say that for many (perhaps most) children, spelling is not something that is “caught” easily. The road to becoming a good speller is long and involves sustained and continued practice, and there are some for whom it is much harder than others.
KS2 Sats: How to teach spelling skills
So, what can teachers do to help children acquire effective spelling skills? Firstly, the regular, formal introduction of spelling patterns (orthography) and how words work (morphology) is important. We need to introduce children to the vagaries of how the complex English spelling system works. Indeed, as researchers Steve Graham and Tanya Santangelo found in 2014, the more spelling instruction there is, the better.
It is worth remembering that if a child cannot read the word, they are unlikely to be able to spell it. But it is also important to help children believe that they can be spellers; that they can be good at learning spellings and developing a bank of ways of getting to the correct way of writing a word.
The tried and tested method of “look, cover, write, check” can be a useful approach. But what do we do about those difficult, frequently misspelt words? Researcher Michelle Newlands suggests that we teach children seven principles to help them become “noticing” and effective spellers. The strategies include being able to notice patterns in words, having many different strategies to spell a word and having fun with spelling.
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Another way of helping children to recognise different ways of remembering words is to use an approach called “cued spelling”, developed by Keith Topping at the University of Dundee. In contrast to teaching words and word patterns, this approach supports children to identify ways of “cueing” themselves into the words they are spelling and learning how to remember them correctly.
In this approach, the child works with a partner to consider a word and develop a way of remembering it that is personal to the speller. They might use a joke about the word or a rhyme or have a visual image they recall that helps them remember the difficult bits. The partner and the speller work together until the word can be remembered, and then move on. They do this for five words a week, and recall of the spellings is practised at the end of each week.
In the constant struggle to help children become good spellers, we need a pedagogical toolkit stuffed with strategies that go beyond the traditional approaches. Helping children to learn about how they learn to spell is just one possibility.
Megan Dixon is a doctoral student and associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University
