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Short Summary
Class Information
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Description
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If you are like most speakers of English, you’ve been taught to spell a word by “sounding it out.” But you probably also know that this strategy only works a small handful of times. Between silent letters, letters that can make more than one sound, and words that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently…..the number of obstacles in the way of “sounding out” words makes this strategy inefficient at best and frustrating at worst.
If rote memorization of lists of spelling words, copying sentences, and applying spelling “rules” that have dozens of exceptions just isn't working for your learner, it may be time for a different approach. Most spelling programs leave students with serious misunderstandings about how spelling really works. This class will reveal that English spelling is actually highly ordered and logical, once you have unlocked some of its secrets. Students will learn to break words apart into bases, prefixes, and suffixes, and use those parts to make informed decisions about how to spell and understand what words mean. Students will learn to think like “word scientists,” making a hypothesis about spelling patterns, testing their theories, and discovering rules of spelling that actually work.
This class will boost not only their spelling skills, but expand their vocabulary as well. It’s an exploration of etymology and morphology that will transform the way they think about words and the way English spelling functions. Each class will begin with a lesson that will include information about the concept being presented and examples of what these ideas look like as applied to English spelling. Students will then have the chance to complete some practice words on their own with teacher guidance. After some lessons, some optional homework or additional practice will be posted if it supports the lesson. This is an ongoing class, so each class can stand alone and students can join at any time. However, I would recommend students plan to join for a longer term as they will get more out of it and have a deeper understanding of the concepts and approach to spelling that this class will present.
Every week in the class could look different; in some lessons, we'll be looking at particular sounds in English, other weeks at particular groups of words such as compound words or words that come from Greek, other times we'll be looking at conventions such as spelling changes that happen when adding suffixes.
I sometimes hear from parents that they feel the class was "too easy" and "my learner already knows how to spell the words you were looking at in class." I see this class as more about the "why" of spelling rather than the "how." My goal in each lesson is not to present learners with a list of words to practice and memorize, as some other approaches to spelling might do. Rather, this class is about getting to the bottom of the English spelling system and how it actually works, learning ??? words are spelled the way they are. I promise we will learn something new every week about the design of the English spelling system!
Neurodivergency Specializations and Accommodations
Structured Word Inquiry is an excellent strategy for learners with dyslexia as it removes the need to guess at a spelling, memorize lists of rules or rely on visual memory. Students study words in in the context of their word families; those words with whom they share a common base and therefore connections in spelling and meaning. Rather than being taught "tips and tricks" that overload working memory, students are taught to analyze words and that spelling is a system of logic and order.
