Welcome to my Spelling Teaching Resources page. On this page, you will find free flashcards, Dolch Spelling Lists, Fry Spelling Lists, high frequency word lists, commonly misspelled word lists, powerpoint spelling presentations, and resources for teaching common spelling rules.
Do you believe that teaching spelling is an important part of teaching your students to become successful writers?
If you answered "no" to this question, please consider the following:
Poor spelling creates a bad impression because it's the first thing a reader notices.
Anxiety about spelling inhibits a child's writing, especially their choice of words.
Examiners, teachers, and prospective employers often place undue weight on spelling.
Even with the advancement of computers and using a spell checker, students can not rely on spell checkers to correct all of their spelling errors for them.
"Knowing how to spell the often used words in everyday writing is, and will continue to be, one quality society expects of a literate person."Rebecca Sitton
"It is possible to teach spelling and still remain true to the philosophy of whole language."Regie Routman
In the years of rapid technology development, many computer users have expressed that they don't need to learn how to spell because the spell checker in their computer will solve their spelling mistakes. The poem that follows illustrates the problem that homophones, and other spelling quirks, can present for the spell checker:
Owed to My Spell Checker
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea see
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait aweigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew. (Author Unknown)
I believe that teaching spelling skills and strategies is part of teaching our students to become proficient writers. It is not the most important skill in the writing process, but I feel that spelling needs to be taught as a part of any writing program. On this page, you will find spelling teaching resources and information to assist you in building your own spelling program.
The primary goals of a classroom spelling program should be:
to recognize that spelling is a developmental process and inventive spelling is a natural step in the process
to develop your students' spelling mastery of high-use words, the words they use most often in their writing
to introduce students to strategies that lead to spelling success
to integrate spelling
with listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking
to teach spelling and proofreading skills within the writing process
to provide daily writing opportunities across the curriculum to build student's personal spelling word banks
Consider the following recommendations as you evaluate a spelling program:
Spelling words used the most frequently in writing should be the words studied by students.
Spelling words should be presented in list form, rather than in sentences or paragraphs.
Use a pretest when introducing a list of spelling words. Then, each student only needs to study the words that are shown to be difficult for him or her. The test-study-test method is superior to the study-test method when working with most students.
Under your direction, allow students to self-correct their own test, as this is an important factor in learning to spell.
Spelling words should be words that are already known and used in reading by your students. It should not be necessary to spend time on word meanings.
The practice of having a student copy a word several times in quick succession has little or no value in learning how to spell.
Invented spellings play an important role in a student's spelling development. Once a word has been introduced and practiced, however, the student should be expected to use the standard spelling of that word.
Spelling ability is defined as the abilty to write a word rather than to spell it orally. You should not formally assess students on their oral spelling skills.
When you are teaching spelling rules to your students, chose rules that apply to a large number of words and that have few exceptions.
Spelling words should be presented and written in print form. The visual image of the word in print will match what everyday reading requires, reading words in printed text. The best time to practice cursive handwriting is during dictation exercises and actual writing activities.
With a teaching degree in learning disabilities and 22 years of teaching experience, I have come across a lot of spelling programs. I have been in schools where my principal has refused to allow teachers to use a spelling program, and she felt that spelling skills would develop naturally in our students. I have seen teachers use programs that spend hours during the school week on teaching spelling through drill and practice.
I have found that there is a happy medium between these two extremes. Many of the parents that I have talked with have felt that spelling has been neglected in recent years, and that this neglect shows up time and again in their child's everyday writing.
Spelling instruction should take up approximately one hour of instructional time during the school week and should be broken into time slots throughout the week. The five key components that I focus on during my spelling lessons are:
Learning high frequency words.
Learning common spelling rules.
Reviewing commonly misspelled words.
Using weekly word lists to build up knowledge of important words.
Students' personal lists of frequently misspelled words.
Below are spelling teaching resources that you can use that I have created in focusing on these five areas of spelling instruction.
1. High Frequency Words
After students have mastered reading their high frequency sight words, they should also be able to spell these words correctly in their own writing. Sight words are the most frequent words that students use in their writing, so it is important for them to learn the correct spelling of these key words.
The Dolch Sight Words are a list of the most frequently used words in the English language. These sight words make up 50 to 70 percent of any general text. The Dolch list contains 220 wordsthat have been arranged by levels of advancing difficulty, as well as a list of 95 Dolch nouns.
Below you will find free spelling teacher resources for Dolch flashcards and lists.
The Fry 1000 Instant Words are a list of the most common words used for teaching reading, writing, and spelling. These high frequency words should be recognized instantly by readers. Dr. Edward B. Fry's Instant Words are a list of the most common words in English ranked in order of frequency.
Below you will find free spelling teacher resources for Fry flashcards and lists.
There are some spelling generalizations, or rules, that can help your students remember unique spelling features. By teaching your students these common spelling rules, you are helping them to generalize the concept of one spelling rule that will apply to many words.
Teachers should focus on teaching spelling rules that apply to a large number of words, and that have very few exceptions to the rule.
Doubling Rule: Some words double the final consonant when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. (ex. get + ing = getting)
Final E Rule: Some words drop the final E when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. (ex. have + ing = having)
Y Rule: Some words change Y to I when adding a suffix not beginning with I. (ex. try + ed = tried)
Changing Singular Nouns to Plural Nouns By Adding S: Most nouns form the plural by adding S. (ex. dog + s = dogs)
Changing Singular Nouns to Plural Nouns By Adding ES: Nouns ending with S, SS, SH, CH, and X form the plural by adding ES. (ex. inch + es = inches)
Changing Singular Nouns that End in Y to Plural Nouns: Some nouns form the plural by changing Y to I when adding ES. (ex. country + es = countries)
Changing Singular Nouns that End in F or FE to Plural Nouns: Some nouns form the plural by changing F or FE to V when adding ES. (ex. half + es = halves)
3. Commonly Misspelled Words
Here are some spelling teacher resources for words that students commonly misspell.
Students should be given a weekly list of spelling words to master. This list should contain between 10-25 words, depending upon the grade level that you teach. Students who find spelling challenging, should be given smaller lists to master each week.
On Monday, students should be given a pretest of the words on this list. They should grade their own paper, marking or highlighting the words that they need to practice during the school week.
On Wednesday, you should assess all of the students in your classroom on this word list. Again, students should grade their own papers. Students who miss words on this day, should continue practicing the words that they missed.
On Friday, only assess the students who did not show mastery of their spelling words on Wednesday.
As you select the spelling words for your weekly lists, you must first consider your students. I consider the following when I am selecting spelling words for a list: high frequency words, commonly misspelled words, and the spelling rule that I am currently reviewing with my students.
For my Grade 4 and 5 students, I compile a list of 20 spelling words: 6 high frequency, 7 commonly misspelled, and 7 from a spelling rule that is currently being reviewed.
5. Students' Personal Lists of Frequently Misspelled Words
During the writing process, students should check their own work for spelling errors and keep a personal list of words that they need to learn how to spell correctly. This should be on-going throughout the year and a part of your writing program.
Periodically, you should give individual informal and formal spelling assessments to each student based on his/her own personal list of words that he/she commonly misspells.
I usually do this informally while I am doing individual writing conferences with students. During a writing conference, I will have a student get out his/her personal list of misspelled words. During the writing conference we will decide together if the student needs to add any new words to this list, and then I will ask the student to practice spelling a few words that are on his/her personal list. My students enjoy this individual attention that it directed at their own spelling ability. This works equally well with students of lower and higher spelling abilities.
Please bookmark and return to this spelling teaching resources page often, as I will be frequently adding new spelling teaching resources to my website.
If you have any ideas for spelling teaching resources that you would like to see on my website, please use my contact page to let me know your ideas and suggestions.
Thank you for visiting this spelling web page. Please be sure to check out the other pages on my website for a large variety of teaching resources that will engage your students in learning and save you valuable time.
Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Creator and Site Manager
Unique Teaching Resources
Welcome to my Spelling Teaching Resources page. On this page, you will find free flashcards, Dolch Spelling Lists, Fry Spelling Lists, high frequency word lists, commonly misspelled word lists, powerpoint spelling presentations, and resources for teaching common spelling rules.
Owed to My Spell Checker 
