Speller for Teachers: Classroom Activities and Lesson Plans

Speller: The Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Spelling SkillsSpelling is a foundational skill that affects reading, writing, and communication. Whether you’re a student, a professional, a non-native English speaker, or someone who simply wants to polish their writing, improving your spelling will boost clarity, confidence, and credibility. This guide covers how spelling works, common problem areas, practical strategies, tools (including apps named “Speller”), exercises, lesson plans, and ways to track progress.

Good spelling:

Improves comprehension — correct spelling helps readers quickly recognize words.
Builds credibility — errors can undermine the perceived quality of your work.
Supports vocabulary growth — spelling and word knowledge reinforce each other.
Aids language learners — knowing orthography helps with pronunciation and reading fluency.

English spelling is an interplay of history, phonetics, morphology, and borrowing:

Historical shifts: many words retain spellings from Old English, Norman French, Latin, or Greek.
Phoneme-to-grapheme mapping: English has more sounds than letters, so many letters represent multiple sounds (e.g., “c” in cat vs. cent).
Morphemes and roots: consistent morphemes (sign, signify) help predict spelling across related words.
Patterns and exceptions: rules like “i before e except after c” help sometimes, but many exceptions exist.

Homophones: their/there/they’re; to/too/two.
Silent letters: knife, island, honest.
Double letters: accommodate, occurrence, committee.
Prefixes and suffixes: misspellings often occur when adding -ible/-able, -ence/-ance.
Compound words and hyphenation: email vs. e-mail, self-esteem vs. self esteem.
Non-phonetic words and irregular verbs: said, friend, enough.
British vs. American spelling: colour/color, organise/organize, travelled/traveled.

Collect samples: take a recent writing sample (email, essay).
Identify recurring mistakes and categories (homophones, suffixes, doubles).
Determine cause: phonological (hearing), visual memory, morphology misunderstanding, or typing errors.
Set specific goals: reduce homophone errors, master 50 high-frequency irregular words, etc.

Active reading and noticing
- Read widely and slowly. Notice word forms, roots, and consistent patterns.
- Keep a personal error log of words you misspell.
Phoneme–grapheme mapping
- Break words into sounds and map each sound to letters; useful for regular words.
- Practice with phonics exercises if you struggle to hear distinct sounds.
Morphological awareness
- Learn common roots, prefixes, and suffixes (tele-, bio-, -tion, -able).
- Use morphology to predict spelling across related forms (decide, decision).
Visual memory techniques
- Look–say–cover–write–check: stare at the word, say it aloud, cover, write from memory, then check.
- Create a “word picture” (mental image of the word) or use colored highlighting to emphasize tricky parts.
Mnemonics and rules
- Use mnemonics for specific words: necessary → “one collar, two sleeves” to remember one c and two s’s.
- Use rules cautiously (many exceptions exist); learn exceptions deliberately.
Repeated retrieval practice
- Spaced repetition systems (SRS) help transfer spellings to long-term memory.
- Use flashcards and self-quizzing rather than passive review.
Typing and proofreading habits
- Slow down when composing to reduce typographical errors.
- Read aloud when proofreading — hearing words helps catch mistakes.
- Use targeted proofreading passes: one for grammar/homophones, one for punctuation, one for spelling.

Daily 10-minute drills: pick 10 problem words; apply look–say–cover–write–check, then test again after 24 hours.
Dictation exercises: listen and write; useful for hearing silent letters and homophones.
Word sorts: group words by pattern (silent letters, prefixes).
Cloze activities: fill-in-the-blank exercises focusing on orthographic patterns.
Multi-sensory learning: write words in sand, trace with finger, or use apps that combine audio and visual cues.

Spelling apps and SRS: apps like Anki, Quizlet, and specialized “Speller” apps offer SRS, audio, and quizzes.
Spell-checkers: built into word processors; helpful but over-relied upon. They miss homophone errors and sometimes suggest incorrect changes.
Speech-to-text: useful for drafting, but always proofread because homophones and punctuation can be wrong.
Browser extensions: offer real-time corrections but check suggestions carefully.

Weekly focus
- Day 1: Introduction of 10 words; morphological breakdown.
- Day 2: Phonics and pronunciation practice.
- Day 3: Mnemonics and visual memory activity.
- Day 4: Dictation and partner quizzes.
- Day 5: SRS review and assessment.
Spelling through context
- Use short passages containing target words; students highlight and define in context.
Game-based learning
- Spelling bee variations, board games, and digital challenges to increase engagement.

Study etymology to predict tricky spellings (Greek vs. Latin roots).
Master discipline-specific vocabulary through targeted lists.
Develop a personalized style guide for uncommon terms and names.
Regularly read high-quality sources in your field to internalize standard spellings.

accommodate, recommend, judgment (US), judgment (UK: judgement), separate, definitely, occurrence, embarrass, restaurant, knowledge.