ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

At the most basic level, teachers can encourage students to use a dictionary or a word processor with a spell check program to assist them with spelling. However, the use of a spell check program does not replace proofreading. Many words (such as she for he) will not be caught by a spell check program.

Students sometimes believe that by the time they've reached high school they are either good spellers or they aren't. However, they can sometimes improve their spelling abilities with some direct instruction.

• Although many words in the English language seem to break the rules for logical spelling, teachers can instruct students in some of the common rules that can be applied in most situations. For example, students can be shown that nouns which end in "o" preceded by a consonant (such as hero or tomato) generally add "es" to form the plural (heroes, tomatoes).
• Teachers can instruct students in Greek and Latin roots which can help them make more informed guesses when trying to spell words. For example, if students learn the roots "pre" (which means "before") and "cede" (which means "go"), they can learn the correct spelling of "precede" which is often misspelled "preceed."
• Students can learn to self-assess their own spelling errors by taking a diagnostic test to see what they already know so that they focus attention on learning specific words. For example, Weinstein (2001) refers readers to a diagnostic spelling test at http://www.ncte.org/books/59133/resources which helps students check their ability to appropriately select frequently confused words (such as effect/affect).
• Sometimes students need help focusing on individual words in their writing. For example, students who read quickly often miss proofreading errors in their own papers. To slow down their reading, they can read the paper starting from the end and read backwards one word at a time. Or, using a notecard with a word-size hole in it they can read the composition focusing on one word at a time.
• Teachers can introduce students to content-specific vocabulary and help them internalize the spellings by using the terms often, engaging students in using the terms in their own writing, and posting the terms in the classroom.

Example
In Biology, students learn Greek and Latin roots such as "anthropo," "logy," "derm," and "ortho" which they apply to course content and use as they learn to spell new course vocabulary.

Example
In Instrumental Music, students check the spelling of letters they are writing to the local newspaper to criticize proposed cuts in the arts budget of the local school system by using a word processor with a spelling check program and then reread the composition again to proofread for errors that the program might not catch.

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