Foundation Stage - Spelling

• Develop the pupil’s visual sequential memory through routines with the alphabet arc and letter strings on a small card (starting with 2 letters and progressing to 5):
  • Show the pupil a card with letters from the alphabet - a, d, f, r
  • Remove them and ask the pupil to recall the letters
  • Strategies which help, hold a picture in his / her mind’s eye, imagine the letters on a wall or coat hooks, remember them in 2 groups - a, d and f, r

EA Guidance Video: Visual Sequential Memory (2:20 mins)

A pupil may be very insecure in grapheme/ phoneme correspondence 

• Introduce new letters and sounds by using the alphabet 
• Provide daily phoneme / grapheme correspondence practice:
  • Cards with visuals of letter name ‘a’
  • Corresponding sound /a/
  • Associated picture:      

EA Guidance Video: Introduce the flashcard and flashcard routine (1:03 mins)

• Teach the new grapheme each week using a Guided Discovery Strategy:
  EA Guidance Video: Guided Discovery (auditory) (3:10 mins)
  • Auditory introduction - Listen to these words and tell me what is the same in all the words - ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘flat’? The pupil should identify - ‘at’
• Follow up auditory discovery by introducing the grapheme using either a visual or a tactile approach as this consolidates the learning and builds up automaticity. The teaching of the new letter sound is multisensory
• Introduce the new grapheme:
  EA Guidance Video: Introducing the grapheme (1:59 mins)
  • Explore the new sound and discuss articulatory factors using a small mirror
  • Ask the pupil - “How are you making that sound - is it blocked or opened?”
  • If blocked - “How are you blocking it - with your mouth, tongue, teeth or lips?”
  • “What part of your tongue is blocking it - front, side or back?”
  • “Is it a vowel sound or a consonant sound?”
  • “Is it voiced or unvoiced?”
• Teach the Stimulus Response Routine to consolidate and build automaticity with new sounds. This repetitive approach develops automaticity in learning: EA Guidance Video: Stimulus Response Routine (1:51 mins)
  Teacher Guidance: Instructions for the Stimulus Response Routine       
  • Teacher makes the sound /ă/
  • Pupil moves around the other three points in a clockwise direction: says ‘a’ (letter name), writes ‘a’ and then says the clue-word ‘apple’
  • The teacher then starts from step 2 by saying the letter name and the pupil responds by going ‘clockwise’ around the other 3 steps
  • The routine is repeated until all four starting points have been used by the teacher. Once familiarity with the steps has been established, it should become a quick routine to develop automaticity (less than 1 minute)

A pupil may find it difficult to retain a visual memory of the word so are unable to recall the correct letters

• Follow an explicit, structured, sequential, cumulative, multisensory and phonics-based literacy programme which focuses on introducing one item of learning at a time, such as, one grapheme-phoneme pattern 
• Use modelled, shared and guided work when spelling all the words in that orthographic pattern, at whole class, group and individual levels:
  • Teach medial vowels through onset and rime patterns which aid the introduction of vowel sounds, for example - cat, mat, fat
  • Teach blend beginnings or consonant blends - /fl/, /gl/, /cl/
  • Teach consonant digraphs - /sh/, /ch/, /th/
  • Use the same colour for the rime but the colour for the onset can be changed to highlight the change in initial sound. Focusing on the rime element such as - ad, ag, am, ed, eg, in, ip, on, op, ud, ug and um will help the pupil to learn spellings of one syllable word patterns
• This approach can boost confidence, as the pupil learns to spell many words through the application of one analogy - as the onset is changed, for example, lip to clip, rim to trim, bud to thud, fog to frog and hum to chum, whilst learning the rime endings (metacognitive strategy)

• Anchor charts are useful tools for using with onset / rime approach where the initial sound is changed to make new words with the same rime endings:
  Teacher and Pupil Printable: Anchor Chart
• Teach the strategy - Listen, Search, Select, Write (LSSW) to build an orthographic memory of the cvc words, for example, ran, can, man, pan, tan:
  • Listen: to the word when it is called out. Listen carefully to the sound at the beginning of the word
  • Search: look carefully at the words in your list. Look at the beginning of the words
  • Select: Choose the word that starts with the sound you hear
  • Write: Copy the word down carefully
• Activities to reinforce words:
  • Select correct words in cloze procedure passage
  • Complete jumbled sentences
  • Progress to writing a sentence under the picture
• Use concrete materials such as magnetic letters or letter tiles to support a pupil’s ability to build words prior to writing them:                        
• To efficiently map cvc words the teacher should ensure his / her pronunciation is accurate and aligns with the sequence of the letters in the word
• Use multisensory visual spelling strategies:
  Printable Resource - Multisensory Spelling Activities Visual Focus

A pupil may be unable to hear the individual sounds in words making it difficult to segment and spell them 

Difficulty in discriminating between final consonant sounds such as /d/ or /t/ for example writes ‘cot’ for ‘cod’ 

• Auditory Sequential Memory Routine:
  EA Guidance Video: Auditory Sequential Memory (3:01mins)
  • The teacher says 3 letters selected from the alphabet and asks the pupil to memorise them - d, e, f
  • The learner must select the same letters and check against the original model
• Strategies which help:
  • Say the letters over and over
  • Write them in the air with his / her finger
  • Say them in a rhythm
• Teach using multisensory spelling techniques using an auditory approach:   
  Printable Resource: Multisensory Spelling Activities - Auditory Focus
• Categories Game - pupil can find words beginning with chosen letter / sound which belong to a certain category; animal, food, game, country 
• Use Elkonin / sound boxes / phoneme frames and sound lines to support spellings 
• Consider use of auditory discrimination activities such as ‘Same or Different’ - telling the pupil 3 or 4 words and asking him / her to identify if he / she has the same sounds (use for initial or end sounds, such as: 
  • Map, mop, mat, mad = same initial sound
  • Fun, sun, run, bud = different end sound
• Use multisensory approaches when introducing a new sound and engage all the senses - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This will consolidate learning for the pupil

The pupil may find it difficult to recognise and hear vowel sounds, and spelling is incorrect, for example, writes ‘jug’ for ‘jog’ 

• It can be very helpful to provide the pupil with a small mirror when articulating sounds. If the pupil practises the mouth positions for producing short vowel sounds, the visual awareness will heighten his / her ability to discriminate the vowel sounds, for example, / ĕ / makes you grin, / ĭ / drops your chin
• Use visual cues for short vowel sounds, such as, a picture of an apple for the short /a/ sound 
• Teach the pupil the symbols to use the breve for short vowel /a/ as in cat = /ᾰ/ 
• Sort words - giving only two sounds to discriminate, for example, sort /e/ words and /i/ words into two groups (hen, leg, pet, then, when), (fin, pig, jig, sit, slim and trip)

A pupil may find it difficult to remember the letters needed to spell words

A pupil may spell using the incorrect phoneme choice, for example, ‘hem’ for ‘him’, ‘bot’ for ‘but’, ‘vat’ for ‘that’, ‘cob’ for ‘cop’

• Teach strategies to support a pupil’s working memory:
  EA Guidance Video: Working Memory (2:33 mins)
  • The teacher asks the pupil to remember 3 letters and then give them in reverse order
  • The pupil practices the following strategies:
    • Says the letters out loud
    • Says the letters over and over 
      Flips the letters
• Use the Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) Routine - say each letter name as you write the word:
• Write the word in cursive 3 times without lifting your hand, for example, in a sand tray, on a whiteboard, chalkboard or page. Writing a word in cursive creates a unique grapho-motor memory:
  Simultaneous Oral Spelling Instructions 
  
  EA Guidance Video: Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) (4:39 mins)
• Use the target words within your teaching session, discuss word meaning by giving definitions
• Compose short sentences progressing to short paragraphs containing the words and use the dictation routine:
  • Teacher says the sentence
  • Pupil repeats the sentence
  • Teacher says the sentence again to ensure accuracy and retention in working memory
  • Pupil says the sentence again checking for complete accuracy in each word
  • The pupil writes the sentence
  • Use visual prompts / checklists for pupil to check work:

Teacher Guidance: Dictation Routine

Printable Resource: COPS Proofreading for Dictated Sentences

Printable Resource: COPs Proofreading Prompt

• Using the target words, fill in the blanks with the word containing the target pattern, such as, fish - The boy had _______ from the chip shop
• Sort groups of words (for example, with different consonant initial and end blends)
• Find target spelling pattern in a short passage and underline
• Fill in blanks - using silly stories that will use target sound and the pupil must select correct spelling pattern by underlining or circling, for example:
  • The wicked which / witch had pumpkin soup for tea
  • A rabbit lives in a hutch / huch

• Use mnemonics for phonetically irregular words, such as: 
  People - people eat oreos people like eating 
  Any - ants never yawn
  Said - Sally Anne is dancing:
  • After highlighting the tricky bit provide the mnemonic sentence and read with the pupil
  • Ask the pupil to highlight the first letter of each word in the mnemonic
  • Ask the pupil to name the letters they have highlighted and guide them to identify that these letters spell the tricky word
  • Give the pupil an opportunity to say the mnemonic as he / she writes the first letter of each word in the mnemonic
  • Finish by telling the pupil “think the mnemonic, but name each letter as you write the word”

                   An island - is land

Printable Resources: Spelling Mnemonics 

• Provide support for parent and guidance to use these resources at home

• Rhyming - The pupil writes a word that rhymes with the target word such as, fox -I hid in a brown ______
• Model examples of rhyming words using ‘Big Books’

The pupil may have a difficulty with counting syllables in a word, making it difficult to spell multi-syllabic words

• Count syllables in 2 / 3 syllable words
• A syllable is a beat in a word that can be heard and felt (put your hand under your chin to feel it as you speak)
• Teach the pupil the following strategies to detect syllables:
  • Count
  • Clap or tap
  • Jaw-drop
• Provide one syllable word story - Ask the pupil to write 3 short sentences with one syllable words only, for example, ‘The dog jumps in the pond’. ‘Come with me to the shop’:
  • Ask the pupil to read his / her one syllable sentence aloud
  • Progress to using two syllable words and so on

The pupil may have difficulty with storage and retrieval of letter / sound knowledge 

• Provide the pupil with time to make the alphabet arc daily and teach the letter names and the letter sounds:
  Teacher Guidance: Alphabet Arc Activities
  
  Ensure the correct articulation of each phoneme is introduced, avoiding the schwa sound, an unaccented vowel whose pronunciation is like ‘uh’ as with the ‘a’ in ‘about’. It is made involuntarily at the end of pronouncing some phonemes, for example, /b/ is often pronounced /buh/ as air escapes when the lips open after forming /b/
• Use multisensory approaches when introducing a new sound and engage all the senses - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This will consolidate learning for the pupil
• Follow a daily Flashcard routine for overlearning:
  • Letter sound, for example /a/
  • Letter name ‘a’
  • Representative picture - ‘apple’ or pupil’s own picture:
    EA Guidance Video: Introduce the flashcard and flashcard routine (1:03 mins)
• Use Guided Discovery methods to introduce the new sound. Use both auditory and visual channels:
  EA Guidance Video: Guided Discovery (auditory) (3:10 mins)
  • Auditory introduction - Listen to these words and tell me what is the same in all the words - ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘flat’? The pupil should identify - ‘at’
  • Visual introduction - ask the pupil to read the first three words, ‘bat’, ‘flat’, ‘cat’ - encourage them to identify the similarity
  • Ask the pupil to colour code the recurring orthographic pattern
• Introduce the flashcard routine:
  • Letter sound, for example /a/
  • Letter name ‘a’
  • Representative picture - ‘apple’ or pupil’s own picture:
    EA Guidance Video: Introduce the flashcard and flashcard routine (1:03 mins)
• Introduce the new grapheme:
  EA Guidance Video: Introducing the grapheme (1:59 mins)
  • Explore the new sound and discuss articulatory factors using a small mirror
  • Ask the pupil - “How are you making that sound - is it blocked or opened?”
  • If blocked - “How are you blocking it - with your mouth, tongue, teeth or lips?”
  • “What part of your tongue is blocking it - front, side or back?”
  • “Is it a vowel sound or a consonant sound?”
  • “Is it voiced or unvoiced?”
  • Use the Handwriting Routine to consolidate letter formation.  Using cursive script can help the pupil with directionality and formation of each letter - introduce the lead in and lead out stroke:
  • Pupil traces over the teacher’s model
  • Pupil copies the letter
  • Pupil writes the letter from memory
  • Finally, the pupil writes the letter with eyes closed 
    EA Guidance Video: Handwriting Routine (2:27 mins)
• Teach the Stimulus Response Routine to consolidate and build automaticity with new sounds. This repetitive approach develops automaticity in learning: 
  EA Guidance Video: Stimulus Response Routine (1:51 mins)
  
  Teacher Guidance: Instructions for the Stimulus Response Routine   
  • Teacher makes the sound /ă/
  • Pupil moves around the other three points in a clockwise direction: says ‘a’ (letter name), writes ‘a’ and then says the clue-word ‘apple’
  • The teacher then starts from step 2 by saying the letter name and the pupil responds by going ‘clockwise’ around the other 3 steps
  • The routine is repeated until all four starting points have been used by the teacher. Once familiarity with the steps has been established, it should become a quick routine to develop automaticity (less than 1 minute)

A pupil may struggle to hold all the sounds in a word, long enough to spell the word correctly - difficulty remembering more than two sounds in sequence

• Use analogy to spell words. From orthographic rime patterns, entire lists of words can be generated, if sufficient phoneme knowledge is in place. By changing the initial sound, we can build a pattern of ‘at’ words, which will support efficient storage in long-term memory
• Present words together that are consistent in sound / pattern mapping
• Avoid groupings that show lots of variations of the one sound, such as: why, night and tie
• Chunk information to support memory, for example, teach ‘ight’ words, ‘y’ as i’ words and ’ie’ words separately 

• Teach word patterns - onset and rime is useful in establishing patterns. When the same patterns are seen in many words there is more likelihood of them being stored in long-term memory

Spelling of some words is stored inefficiently; the pupil keeps spelling the same words incorrectly 

The pupil often avoids spelling more difficult words

• Use the Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) Routine to learn new word in a word pattern - say each letter as you write the word:
• Write the word in cursive handwriting 3 times without lifting your hand:
  • In a sand tray
  • On a whiteboard or chalkboard
  • On a page

Writing a word in cursive creates a unique muscle memory and aids automaticity:

Simultaneous Oral Spelling Instructions 

EA Guidance Video: Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) (4:39 mins)

• Teach spellings in structure - The teacher can call out the structured sentences using:
  Teacher Guidance: Dictation Routine
• Simple structured sentences ensure the best chance of successful spelling for the pupil and can be used to assess progress:
  • Teacher dictates the sentence
  • Pupil repeats the sentence
  • Teacher dictates the sentence again (to ensure accuracy and correct pronunciation)
  • Pupil repeats the sentence checking for accuracy
  • Pupil writes the sentence (the use of a cursive script helps to develop automaticity in spelling the new word, hence freeing up the working memory to focus on content)
  • Pupil checks the sentences using 
    Printable Resource: COPS Proofreading for Dictated Sentences
    
    Printable Resource: COPs Proofreading Prompt
• Spell target word using magnetic letters or letter tiles:

The pupil may have slow recall of spelling of High Frequency Words (HFWs)

• Use the Look, Visualise, Say, Cover, Say, Write, Check (LVSCWC) routine to overlearn HFWs
• Recap and overlearn all spelling knowledge
• Write target word in a tray of sand, rice, lentils, flour, glitter or shaving foam
• Write or trace the word on textured surfaces such as sandpaper, sequenced material, or bubble wrap 

• Use multisensory approaches when introducing a new sound and engage all the senses - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This will consolidate learning for the pupil
• Use Guided Discovery Methods:
• Auditory introduction - Ask the pupil to listen to these words and tell you what is the same in all the words- ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘flat’ The pupil should identify - ‘at’:
  EA Guidance Video: Guided Discovery (auditory) (3:10 mins)
• Visual introduction - ask the pupil to read the first three words - ‘bat’, ‘flat’, ‘cat’- encourage them to identify the similarity
• Ask the pupil to colour code the recurring orthographic pattern
• Introduce the new grapheme:
  EA Guidance Video: Introducing the grapheme (1:59 mins)
• Explore the new sound and discuss articulatory factors using a small mirror
• Ask the pupil - “How are you making that sound - is it blocked or opened?”
• If blocked - “How are you blocking it - with your mouth, tongue, teeth or lips?”
• “What part of your tongue is blocking it - front, side or back?”
• “Is it a vowel sound or a consonant sound?”
• “Is it voiced or unvoiced?”
• Use the Handwriting Routine to consolidate letter formation. Using cursive script can help the pupil with directionality and formation of each letter - introduce the lead in and lead out stroke:
• Pupil traces over the teacher’s model
• Pupil copies the letter
• Pupil writes the letter from memory
• Finally, the pupil writes the letter with eyes closed 
  EA Guidance Video: Handwriting Routine (2:27 mins)
  • Teach Stimulus Response Routine to consolidate and build automaticity with new sounds. This repetitive approach develops automaticity in learning: 
    EA Guidance Video: Stimulus Response Routine (1:51 mins)
    Teacher Guidance: Instructions for the Stimulus Response Routine
• Teacher makes the sound /ă/
• Pupil moves around the other three points in a clockwise direction: says ‘a’ (letter name), writes ‘a’ and then says the clue-word ‘apple’
• The teacher then starts from step 2 by saying the letter name and the pupil responds by going used by the teacher. Once familiarity with the steps has been established, it should become a quick routine to develop automaticity (less than 1 minute) ‘clockwise’ around the other 3 steps
• The routine is repeated until all four starting points have been

The pupil may have difficulty recalling a specific letter name or HFW or topic word

The pupil may frequently confuse specific letters, such as, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘p’, ‘q’

• Have tabletop prompt cards - for the pupil during writing activities:
  • Target sounds 
  • Letter names
  • High Frequency Words
  • Topic words
• Mnemonics will provide a memory prompt on directionality of letters:
  Printable Resource: Letter Orientation Prompt 
  Ensure these mnemonics are explicitly explained. Do not assume prior knowledge has been linked. English readers, read letters left-right across the page. A pupil may be confused as the ball could sit on either side of the bat. Explain that you draw the bat first and then the ball (left to right):
  • Thumbs up for ‘b’ and ‘d’, thumbs down ‘p’ and ‘q’
  • Explain that in the alphabet arc Mr ‘b’ comes first and he must face Mr ‘d’ who comes after ‘c’, as he wants to chat’; ‘b’ and ‘d’ stare at each other and poor ‘c’ is stuck in the middle. Then, comes Mr ‘p’ who needs to face Mr ‘q’ also to chat. The teacher can model this using his / her thumbs and demonstrate the 2 letters chatting: 

• The pupil will need to be explicitly taught word patterns to develop frequency sensitivity to how certain words look, for example, trap, drag, crab
• Mnemonics will help with tricky words, like, ‘said’ and ‘because’ 
   Printable Resources: Spelling Mnemonics 

• Explicitly teach some of the basic spelling rules:
  • When to use /ck/ in a word or /k/ in a word:
  • The doubling rule: When a word has one vowel before a single consonant, double the consonant before adding the ending. The word ‘sit’ becomes ‘sitting’
  • ‘W’ Rule 1: ‘a’ after ‘w’ saying /o/
  • ‘W’ Rule 2:’ar’ after ‘w’ saying /or/
  • ‘W’ Rule 3: ‘or’ after ‘w’ saying /er/
  • If there is a silent letter before ‘n’ it will be ‘k’ and if there is a silent letter before ‘r’ it will be ‘w’
  • No English word ends in ‘v’ there is always an ‘e’ after it
  • Sometimes ‘c’ says /s/ when it is followed by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
    Teacher Guidance: Advice for Teachers on Spelling Rules

• It is important to use modelled, shared and guided work when spelling all the words in that orthographic pattern, at whole class, group and individual levels
• Use Simultaneous Oral Spelling Routine (SOS) to write words. Say each letter name aloud as you write the word when spelling in structure, as this repetitive process of learning a new word helps develop automaticity:
• The pupil says each letter name as he / she writes the word (use of cursive handwriting aids automaticity and establishes a grapho-motor link):
  Simultaneous Oral Spelling Instructions 
  EA Guidance Video: Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) (4:39 mins)

The pupil may work at a slower pace than his / her peers

Does not get all spellings complete during a weekly assessment

• Give pupil more time to complete activities; be patient
• Reduce the quantity of words the pupil is tested on
• Allow the pupil to record his / her spellings in a different format, for example, on a whiteboard
• Repeat target words in spelling assessments
• Provide practice and repetition - overlearning to aid automaticity
• Give clear, step-by-step instructions for tasks at a slower pace

• Model examples of a simple sentence
• Provide visual supports and reminders
• Introduce accessibility tools, such as Clicker 8

The pupil finds it difficult to spell HFW

• Use multisensory activities to support learning spelling of HFW
• Lay out a selection of HFWs. Use a fly swat to swat the word the teacher calls out and then write the word on a whiteboard
• Sight word ‘Treasure Hunt’ in the classroom or playground. Read the words you find, then spell them
• Provide the pupil with the opportunity to move as he / she says the letter names of a HFW. For example, jump up for tall letters, squat down for hanging down letters, clap for small letters - ‘said’ - clap, clap, clap, jump

The pupil may repeatedly spell the same HFW incorrectly

He / she makes common mistakes when spelling HFWs, such as, spelling them phonetically

• Consolidate and re-visit HFWs. Give repeated exposure to and plenty of practice writing HFWs
• Teach HFWs using Look, Visualise, Say, Cover, Write and Check (LVSCWC) Method - this strategy strengthens the visual and movement memory the verbalisation of letter names will provide reinforcement through auditory memory 
  • Look - Write the word for the pupil in the grid, ask the pupil to look at the word for about 10 seconds 
  • Visualise - Look at the size, shape, position / orientation of each letter in the word
  • Say the word - pupil says the word (combining his / her auditory memory with the visual memory)
  • Cover the word
  • Write the word from memory (cursive handwriting is an effective strategy for combining the kinaesthetic channel and muscle memory)
  • Ask the pupil to say each letter name aloud as he / she writes it
  • Check his / her word against the correctly written word
• If incorrect, notice the errors and repeat the procedure 
• Use the COPs mnemonic to help a pupil remember how to proofread a sentence or paragraph:
  Printable Resource: COPS Proofreading for Dictated Sentences
  Printable Resource: COPs Proofreading Prompt
  • Heart words may also be used - Highlight the tricky bits in colour, such as, was. Help the pupil to understand why this part of the word is tricky, for example, ‘the letters that we see, in this part of the word do not match the sounds that we know’ - permanently irregular words
  • For temporarily irregular words, ‘the letters that we see, in this part of the word do not match the sounds that we know - at this point’:
    HFW & Heart Words Organised Phonetically
    EA Guidance Video: Heart words and Irregular HFWs (8:03 mins)
• Use Read, Build and Write mats:
  • The teacher shows the word to the pupil
  • The pupil says the word
  • The pupil builds the word using magnetic letters
  • The pupil writes the word (cursive handwriting can help develop a grapho-motor memory of the word)
• Using I do, we do, you do approach, allow the pupil opportunities to verbalise the word in his / her own sentence
• Oral Modelling:
  • Show the pupil the flashcard with HFW written
  • Teacher writes the spoken sentence on reverse of that flashcard 
  • Pupil draws a related picture above the sentence
  • Pupil holds the flashcard, looks at key word on the front, reads the word and tries to recall the sentence on the back

• Motivational strategies are essential as they allow the pupil to see his / her progress
• Target boards and beating personal bests motivates and builds self-esteem
• Adding to the word flashcards that the pupil knows and reminding the pupil how many words he / she could spell at the start, compared to the present, can be a powerful self-motivating strategy
• Using I do, we do, you do approach, allow the pupil opportunities to verbalise the word in his / her own sentence
• Build metacognition by talking to the pupil about how he / she can remember spellings and consider what strategy helps
• In pupil-friendly terms, explain that we remember what we hear, see and do:
  • Say letter names aloud to help our ears remember a word
  • Look closely at the letters to help our eyes remember a word 
  • Use our body to build, make and write a word to help our brain remember a word
• Learning spellings should always be used to extend vocabulary
• Meanings of unknown words should be explained and examples given in sentences
• ‘Word of the week’ activities are helpful for embedding meanings of ‘new’ words
• Use mnemonics for phonetically irregular words, such as: 
  People - people eat oreos people like eating 
  Any - ants never yawn, 
  Said - Sally Anne is dancing:
  • After highlighting the tricky part of the word, provide the mnemonic sentence and read with the pupil
  • Ask the pupil to colour highlight the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Ask the pupil to name the letters they have highlighted and guide them to identify that these letters spell the tricky word
  • Give the pupil an opportunity to say the mnemonic as they write the first letter of each word in the mnemonic. Finish by telling the pupil to think the mnemonic, but name each letter as they write the word
• Visual clues also help, for example, writing out the mnemonic but highlighting or writing the first letter of each word in a different colour: Printable Resources: Spelling Mnemonics 
• For some long words, where there are tricky bits, a mnemonic for those bits may be better than trying a long sentence, for example, Wednesday – ‘Never Eat Sweets’ day
  An island - is land
• Use a personalised pocket dictionary of High Frequency Words, include pictures were required
• Clicker 8 supports the pupil as they write sentences:
  Free on C2K - Clicker 8

The pupil spells with limited knowledge of whether the spelling ‘looks right’ 

The pupil may spell the same word in different ways in the same piece of work

Spelling is a visual activity. The pupil must know what the word he / she is trying to spell looks like, because many words in English involve the correct selection of letters from a range of possible choices, for example, ‘cat’ not ‘kat’, ‘said’ not ‘sed’

• Develop the pupil’s visual sequential memory through routines with alphabet arc and letter strings on a small card (starting with 2 letters and progressing to 5):
  • Show the pupil a card with letters from the alphabet - a, d, f, r
  • Remove them and ask the pupil to recall the letters
  • Strategies which help, hold a picture in his / her mind’s eye, imagine the letters on a wall or coat hooks, remember them in 2 groups - a, d and f, r
    EA Guidance Video: Visual Sequential Memory (2:20 mins)
• Developing visual discrimination by explicitly teaching pattern recognition such as: common letter strings, common word rimes, beginning blends and end blends. This develops visual precision and draws attention to visual detail in words
• Motor memory can also be an aid to recall spellings. Joined handwriting has been found to be of particular benefit as each word becomes a unique muscle movement when the letters are joined

The pupil may have difficulty spelling HFWs

He / she may have the correct letters in the word but they may be in the wrong positions, such as, ‘siad’ for ‘said’ or ‘left’ for ‘felt’

• Display the word where it will be seen lots of times:
  • In school - on the pupil’s desk or a poster in the classroom
  • At home - on a mirror, on the fridge beside the bed
• Track the word in a word search: Colour it in when you find it 
• Teach HFWs using Look, Visualise, Say, Cover, Write and Check (LVSCWC) Method - this strategy strengthens the visual and movement memory the verbalisation of letter names will provide reinforcement through auditory memory 
  • Look - Write the word for the pupil in the grid, ask the pupil to look at the word for about 10 seconds 
  • Visualise - Look at the size, shape, position / orientation of each letter in the word
  • Say the word - pupil says the word (combining his / her auditory memory with the visual memory)
  • Cover the word
  • Write the word from memory (cursive handwriting is an effective strategy for combining the kinaesthetic channel and muscle memory)
  • Ask the pupil to say each letter name aloud as he / she writes it
  • Check his / her word against the correctly written word
  • If incorrect, notice the errors and repeat the procedure 
• Using I do, we do, you do approach, allow the pupil opportunities to verbalise the word in his / her own sentence, this is oral modelling:
  • Show pupil flashcard with HFW 
  • Teacher writes the spoken sentence on reverse of that flashcard 
  • Pupil draws a related picture above the sentence
  • Pupil holds the flashcard, looks at key word on the front, reads the word and tries to recall the sentence on the back
  • The pupil turns the card over to check or remind himself of the sentence
  • When correct the pupil is asked to write the word

Incorrect and inefficient storage of onset and rime / spellings

• Words can be presented with the rime and the onset highlighted in different colours, such as, cat, mat, sat. This will support the pupil and help them to recognise and chunk the word, so he / she can read c/at 

The pupil may be confused over grapheme / phoneme correspondence

• Use multisensory approaches when introducing a new sound and engage all the senses - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
• Use Guided Discovery Methods to introduce new sounds:
  EA Guidance Video: Guided Discovery (auditory) (3:10 mins)
  • Auditory introduction - Ask the pupil to listen to these words and tell you what is the same in all the words - ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘flat’ The pupil should identify - ‘at’
  • Visual introduction - ask the pupil to read the first three words - ‘bat’, ‘flat’, ‘cat’, next encourage the pupil to identify the similarity
  • Ask the pupil to colour code the recurring orthographic pattern
• Introduce the grapheme:
  EA Guidance Video: Introducing the grapheme (1:59 mins)
• Use the Handwriting Routine to consolidate letter formation. Cursive script can help the pupil with directionality and formation of each letter - introduce the lead in and lead out strokes:
  • Pupil traces over the teacher’s model
  • Pupil copies the letter
  • Pupil writes the letter from memory
  • Finally, the pupil writes the letter with eyes closed 
    EA Guidance Video: Handwriting Routine (2:27 mins)
  • Teach Stimulus Response Routine to consolidate and build automaticity with new sounds. This repetitive approach develops automaticity in learning: 
    EA Guidance Video: Stimulus Response Routine (1:51 mins)
    Teacher Guidance: Instructions for the Stimulus Response Routine
  • Teacher makes the sound /ă/
  • Pupil moves around the other three points in a clockwise direction: says ‘a’ (letter name), writes ‘a’ and then says the clue-word ‘apple’
  • The teacher then starts from step 2 by saying the letter name and the pupil responds by going ‘clockwise’ around the other 3 steps
  • The routine is repeated until all four starting points have been used by the teacher. Once familiarity with the steps has been established, it should become a quick routine to develop automaticity (less than 1 minute)
• It is important to use modelled, shared and guided work when spelling all the words in that orthographic pattern, at whole class, group and individual levels
• Teach multisensory spelling strategies with a visual focus:
  Printable Resource - Multisensory Spelling Activities Visual Focus
• Teach multisensory spelling strategies with a kinaesthetic focus:
  Printable Resource - Multisensory Spelling Activities Kinaesthetic Focus
• Teach multisensory spelling strategies with an auditory focus: 
  Printable Resource: Multisensory Spelling Activities - Auditory Focus