1. How to Improve Students’
Spelling Skill
BY
JAVED IQBAL PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT TEACHER OF PDCN FOR
EDIP PROJECT

2. Outline
 Session Learning Outcomes
 Why Teaching Spelling
 How do we Know and how to spell a word
 General rules
 Plural Words
 Patterns

3. Session Learning Outcomes
 By the end of this session C.Ps could be able to;
 1. Share the importance of spelling skills in
writing,
 2. Discuss some rules to students’ spelling skills,
 3. Devise some strategies to improve students’
spelling skills.

4. Question for Debate
In which language Spelling
is difficult Urdu or
English?

5. Why Teach Spelling
 Ensures accuracy of communication
 Boosts confidence
 Encourages writing fluency
 Helps with reading
 Rewards / exams / career plans
 Integral part of English language!

6. General Rules
 Understanding basic alphabetic concepts
 Understanding variations in grapheme/phoneme
relationships
 Using syllabification
 Get hold of a dictionary book/digital/mobile and a
notebook. Look up words and add them to the
notebook .

7. Cont….
 Use the computer spellchecker to your advantage.
 Using context and meaning
 Look –Say- Cover - Write - Check Westwood
(1994)
 Break the word into syllables
 Look at the base word
 Categories the word according to spelling pattern
e.q ie, ei


8. Plurals, Part 1
 Most words become plural by adding
s:
chickenchickens, bookbooks, kitekites
 Use
es for words ending in s, sh, x, z, or “soft”
ch: beachbeaches, fixfixes, quizquizzes

9. Plurals, Part 2
 Words ending in a vowel +
o become plural by
adding s: rodeorodeos, duoduos
 Words ending in a consonant +
o become
plural by adding es:
tomatotomatoes, heroheroes
 Our ears were glued to the radios as we listened
to news about the tornadoes.

10. Plurals, Part 3
 Many words that end in
f or fe become plural with
ves: leafleaves, lifelives, knifeknives
 Words that end in
ff or ffe become plural with just
an s: knockoffknockoffs, giraffegiraffes
 Our lives would improve if the giraffes quit
eating the leaves off our shrubs.

11. Final E Words
 If a suffix begins with a
vowel, you will usually
remove the final e:
hopehoping, loveloving, participateparticipati
ng
 If a suffix begins with a consonant, you will usually
keep the final e:
lovelovely, amuseamusement, hopehopeful
 Climbing to the top of the mountain was too
challenging, so we gave up and wallowed in
discouragement.

12. Patterns
A pattern is a repeating unit
Spelling patterns are repeating sounds in words.
Example: mouse, house, out, cloud are all words that
repeat the sound “ou”
Spelling patterns are not always spelled the same but
the sound is the same.
Example: The “ow” sound in the word flower is the
same sound as

13. Cont…..
 i before e, except after
c
 achieve, believe, bier, brief, hygiene, grief, thief, frien






d, grieve,
chief, fiend, patience, pierce, priest
ceiling, conceive, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive,
deceit, conceit
and in words that rhyme with hay
neighbor, freight, beige, sleigh, weight, vein, and
weigh
and some other exceptions
either, neither, feint, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure,
weird, seize

14. Cont….
 When adding an ending to a word that ends in a




consonant, we double that consonant when the
ending begins with a vowel and the last syllable of
the word is accented and that syllable ends in a
single vowel followed by a single consonant
ADMIT + -ed = ADMITTED
FLAP + -ed = FLAPPED
BEGIN + -ing = BEGINNING
DESPAIR + -ed = DESPAIRED Why

15. References
 Jacari Workshop MT 2009: Teaching Spelling
 1998, NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum Support Directorate
 http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2009/09/helpi
n-children-with-spelling-skills.html

16. Message of the Day
Educating minds
without educating heart
is not education at all.
Aristotle

17. Any ?