Spelling
There is no one way to teach spelling. Some teachers prefer not to teacher spelling as an isolated subject but, instead, by incorporating spelling strategies into their daily reading, language, literature, history, geography, and science programs, to name just six. Others, this retired teacher included, use more structured programs, one such program being Spelling in Language Arts. Such spelling sessions usually include one or more of the following steps: studying a specific list of words, using a dictionary and/or a thesaurus to define word meanings or to teach antonyms and synonyms, dictating the same words but within meaningful sentences back to the student, and often, seeking mnemonics devices as handy memory reminders.
As to that latter spelling strategy, here are two types of mnemonics that I have found successful. First, to teach students that an easy way to remember the difference between "desert" and "dessert", I comment: "I would never want to cross the Sahara desert once but would surely enjoy a second dessert. Secondly, to teach students how to remember the names of the Great Lakes, I tell them to think of the word "HOMES", as the letter "H" stands for (lake) Huron, the letter "O" stands for Ontario, "M" stands for Michigan, "E" stands for Erie, and "S" stands for Superior. Such memory 'tricks' tend to stick in a memory store for a long period of time.
Clifford Morris
July 14, 2002