Spelling Strategy Matrix
Name/Description of spelling strategy|Purpose of the strategy|Example to show how the strategy works(Sample Learning Activity)|How the strategy might be adapted for specific students|
1. Your Turn My Turn|To practice the proper spelling of words by recalling the order of the letters.|Using a dry-erase board, teacher or student will call out a Spelling word. Teacher will offer the first letter and write it down with a red marker. Student will write the next word with a blue marker. Whenever the student forgets, the teacher will supply the letter. Then they will count who supplied the most letter, and the winner is declared. |The strategy works with students with learning challenges because it helps them zoom in and focus on one specific word and its particular letters. The student will interact with the teacher in a non-threatening way where the teacher offers full support. ELL students will benefit similarly in that they can recognize a word in print by the order of its letters.|
2. Hangman|Filling out the missing letters in a word. |It helps the student discern the order of phonemes in a word as in “Your Turn My Turn”. Students can add a context cue to make it more sensical.|Students who are learning the meaning of words will benefit from understanding the actual formation of the word, from sound to symbol. This includes students with learning challenges and ELL.|
3. Frayer Model|It helps students spell the word, get a meaning, an example, a non-example, and a paraphrased meaning.|When a student has a doubt about the meaning of a word, a Frayer model will present the word in 5 different perspectives. |Although it is more of a Semantics exercise, the Frayer also helps students familiarize themselves with the word by understanding it from a variety of points of view. |
4. Play Dough Chunk|From a lump of clay, students will pull out as many chunks as they hear in a word. |They will place the chunks in front of them, then write the word down and place the said chunks above the place where they feel that the word chunk is|This helps students who are ELL or challenged in this area to understand the parts of a specific word by breaking it into syllables (chunking).|
5. Word Web|An advanced exercise, students will break down the word into its main parts in order to understand the word to its root.|Students can use programs such as Inspiration and Pixie to break a word into its main components, locating the root, isolating the pre and suffixes, and extrapolating the meaning from inference.|Enrichment and gifted students will enjoy reading up on root words and their origins, tracing them back to Latin and Greek, and learning how, even in English, we still speak Greek-ish and Latin-ish when we use root words.|