Good Spellers…

• look for patterns
• look for word parts
• try several ways to write a word
• write sounds in words
• write a vowel in each word and in each syllable
• think about words that look the same
• check to see if words look right
• think about what words mean
• practice words
• use a dictionary to check
• look for words in the classroom
• ask someone if they can’t figure it out

Practice these skills with your child

Prompts to Solve Words in Reading and/or Writing

To help the student notice errors:

• You noticed what was wrong.
• Find the part that’s not quite right.
• Check to see if that looks right.
• Where’s the tricky part? (after an error)
• Underline the tricky part.
• Get a good look.
• There’s a tricky word on this line.
• What did you notice? (after hesitation or stop)
• What’s wrong?
• Why did you stop?
• Do you think it looks like _____?
• Were you right?

To help the student problem-solve words:

• Did you write all the sounds you hear?
• Did you write a vowel in each part you hear?
• There are two vowels together in the middle.
• What could you try?
• What do you hear first? Next? At the end?
• Write the ending.
• What’s that like?
• Listen for the first part. Next part, last part.
• It starts like _____.
• It ends like _____.
• Listen for the ending.
• Look at the parts.
• There are _____ letters.
• What do you know that might help?
• Do you see a part that can help?
• Do you know a word like that?
• Do you know a word that starts with those letters?
• Ends with those letters?
• What’s that like?
• Think of what the word means. It is like another word you know?
• What other word do you know like that?
• What letter do you expect to see at the beginning (or end)?
• Do you see a part that can help?
• What could you try?
• Look for/write a part you know.
• There’s a silent letter at the beginning.
• Try it.

To help the student notice errors and fix them:

• Does it look right?
• One more letter will make it look right.
• That sounds right, but does it look right?
• You only have one letter wrong.
• It starts like that. Now check the last part.
• I like the way you worked that out.
• That’s one way to write it. It s there another way?
• You made a mistake. Can you find it?
• You wrote all the sounds you hear.
• Think about how that word looks.
• Something wasn’t quite right.
• You’re nearly right.
• You almost got that. See if you can find what is wrong.
• You’ve got the first part (last part) right.
• Try that again.
• Try it another way.