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Spelling tests - a perennial part of the weekly Primary class timetable. A tiny part of the assessment process, they seem to hold disproportionate weight in the minds of some pupils and parents. This can probably be explained by the fact that the spelling test has traditionally been one of the very few times that children in a Primary school are given a raw score based on their performance. Scoring a test in this way is problematic in itself, and it has been long recognised that rote learning of an isolated list of words is very unlikely to lead to lasting spelling improvements in independent work. So is there still room for the spelling test in our already jam-packed class schedules?
In short, yes, spelling will remain an important consideration for any teacher or pupil and, in turn, so will its assessment. The importance of good spelling - especially in a language as, let’s say, unique as English in its spelling patterns and rules - lies in the need to communicate ideas clearly. While some typos or misspellings may provoke mirth - a dialog box that asks users closing a computer program: ‘Are you sure you want to exist?’, for example - others can prove very costly indeed. But is the traditional approach to teaching and testing spelling really the best way to encourage a love of words and an interest in the rich and complex stories of their evolution?
The problem with rote practice and ‘teaching to the test’, whether this is in the classroom or at home, is that it results in surface level learning. Yes, the pupil might end up acing the weekly spelling test, but how many of the correct spellings will they retain just a week or so later? Do they actually understand the words they are being asked to spell, or are they simply learning a string of letters, not dissimilar to memorising a pin code or telephone number? Learning to spell should be about discovering the rules that underpin groups of words and the relationships between them. What is the point in being able to spell ‘sigh’ if you don’t realise that this knowledge also allows you to spell ‘high’, ‘night’ and ‘frighten’? And perhaps even more pressing, what is the point in being able to spell ‘sigh’ if you don’t know what ‘sigh’ means!?
At BCB, pupils are asked to look deeper into the words that they are learning and engage with the task of improving their understanding of the peculiarities of English spelling through a range of activities and exercises. Spelling lists are often themed around a topic that the class is currently studying, which also helps the students to see the value in the words that they are learning. Digging into the meaning of the vocabulary is a lot simpler if you are surrounded by resources on the subject, and retaining the spelling after the test is a much easier proposition if you continue using the word in your day-to-day work for the rest of the term. Phonics plays an important part in the process of learning to spell, and this is not confined to Early Years and Key Stage 1. All of our pupils are taught and encouraged to segment and blend to form the words they are learning; to see words as composed of units of sound rather than individual letters. We also have a subscription to the Rising Stars spelling programme, which provides our teachers with resources and activities that place spelling words in lively, engaging and relevant contexts.
A lot of spelling work goes on in the home, so I would like to finish with a few suggestions about how to make these homework sessions more valuable and, hopefully, more enjoyable for all concerned. Firstly, and most importantly, rote learning isn’t helpful here. Focus on the spelling pattern or the ‘sound of the week’. Much better that a pupil only gets half marks on the test but makes progress with a key sound than a perfect test score born out of the memorisation of letter strings. Try picking a ‘word of the week’, perhaps the most challenging spelling in the list, and doing a ‘deep dive’ into the word: write it down in strange and exciting places (on the sole of your foot, in the steam on the bathroom mirror, using dried pasta or frozen peas, upside down under the dining table with a colander on your head...the possibilities are endless!), play games with it (How many times can you say it in ten seconds? What happens if you swap the letters round? How many nonsense rhymes can you make up?), learn the etymology of the word (often more interesting than you would think!), translate it into different languages and make your own travel dictionary, learn its number of syllables, its word class, its pronunciation in different parts of the English-speaking world. Of course, you needn’t limit these activities to just the ‘Word of the Week’, you could cover the whole list in different ways. There are so many fun and engaging approaches to analysing and retaining a new word, or list of words, and all of them will result in a deeper and more meaningful learning experience than drilling them by rote will ever achieve.
