Learning to Spell: A Manual for Teachers Using the Aldine Speller

Use of Story

At the beginning of Part II, the story of “The King’s Rules” was given to the children. This story should be reviewed for it emphasizes three important factors in learning to spell.

1. To listen carefully when the word is spoken.

2. To say it correctly when you speak it.

3. To look at the word thoughtfully to get an exact picture of it in your mind.

The work of the fifth and sixth grades opens with another story to emphasize the same three points in a different way. The story of “The Two Scouts” emphasizes the fact that a good speller is a good speller because he

It is hoped that fifth and sixth grade teachers will continually emphasize these three fundamental principles.

Dictionary Work

The new work of grade IV consisted in the presentation of the formal use of the dictionary. Many drill lessons were given in connection with language, reading, and spelling lessons. A good habit has been started. The children, however, have not become sufficiently familiar with the dictionary to make the finding of words easy. Much practice in searching for words needs to be given so that such searching becomes more or less automatic. They have little need outside of school to use the dictionary, and there are many matters which the fourth grade teacher did not have the time to teach, even if the children had been prepared for it. To give all the drill that is necessary without the work becoming a burden which the children will approach with little or no interest will tax the best ingenuity of the teacher.

The fifth grade teacher, therefore, must continue the good work begun in the fourth grade. She must attempt to make the habit more automatic. Children must be taught that they have a real need for the dictionary. The fourth grade was taught the use of the long and the short vowels in the word. The fifth grade completes this work by presenting the other sounds of the vowels and the use of the key at the bottom of the page in every dictionary. This work is presented in Lesson 7. Accompanying this lesson is a list of words which present some difficulty in pronunciation. Pupils are asked to look up the pronunciation in the dictionary. This should be done under the immediate supervision of the teacher. Directions are given the pupil as an aid in fixing this phase of the work in the memory, not as a substitute for the teaching.

Toward the latter part of the year a further phase of the use of the dictionary is presented. Lesson 145 deals with the subject of finding the spelling of a word of which the pupil is not quite sure.

Steps in finding the spelling of a word:

1.

Think carefully how the word might be spelled.

 

(a) Note the syllables.

 

(b) Note the sound of vowels and consonants in each syllable.

 

(c) Note the possibilities to represent each sound.

2.

Find the word in the dictionary.

 

(a) Call attention to the fact that the first two or three letters will approximately locate a short word.

 

(b) The first four or five letters will approximately locate nearly every word.

 

(c) Every word in the dictionary is arranged in exact alphabetical order.

Words in Lessons 3, 17, 39, and 40 illustrate a third phase with the development of root words and derivatives which will be taught formally in the seventh grade. These lessons bring together words which have a common root. The teacher should be continually on the watch for these common roots and call the attention of the children to them. In undertaking to develop a spelling consciousness there is probably nothing that will help so much as this phase of the work. In agree, agreeable, disagreeable, and agreement, agree is the common part. Children do not always recognize this, as shown by the fact that children spell the derivative with a lower degree of accuracy than they spell the root word. (See page 19 of this manual.)

Along with the teaching of the various sounds of the vowels and consonants should come at this time a strong effort to impress the need of clear enunciation. Great care should be taken that a vowel is given its true value, that all sounds are given, that silent letters are not sounded, and that the syllabication is correct.

Poor enunciation is a common source of error. Do not permit “in” for “ing,” final “ed” to be sounded like “t,” or “body” to be pronounced “buddy.” Remember that a word correctly pronounced is half spelled.

Teaching of Rules

In the text of the earlier grades, emphasis has been frequently directed toward the changes in words in forming plurals and adding suffixes and prefixes. Very little has been said when the only change has been the adding of “s.” This regular form causes no great trouble.

During the fifth year a few simple rules are presented. These have been frequently illustrated in earlier grades. The rules presented are those for which there is frequent use.

On pages 14, 17, and 19 the rule for writing derivatives of words ending in y preceded by a consonant is given with many illustrations. Throughout the year’s work, however, these words are occurring. Such words will be found in Lessons 20, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 50, 59, 91, 114, 115, 156. On page 28 the rule for writing the plurals of nouns ending in f or fe is given with illustrations. After these rules are taught the teacher should take every advantage offered for fixing the rules.

Spelling demons have been described as words which give trouble and need to be attacked as the knights of old attacked and overcame dragons and demons that brought trouble to mankind.

In Lessons 64 to 75 the hundred words described by Dr. Jones as the Hundred Demons of the English Language are given. Each of these words has been previously taught, some of them as early as the second grade. It is very probable, therefore, that for some children only a few of the words are “demons,” for a demon conquered is a demon no longer.

These lessons, therefore, should be used as a test to find out which children need further drill or new presentations of these difficult words. These words should have been fixed in previous grades, but if any pupil has not mastered the word now is the time to attempt to master it. However, it is individual work, not class work, which is needed.

On page 42 have been collected 132 of the 1,000 commonest words as selected by Ayres. This list should be used in a similar way. All of these words have been taught. The method to follow, then, is to test first to see what words, if any, need to be taught again to the class, and then what words should be emphasized with individuals.