Most Often SPELLING is MORE DIFFICULT for Dyslexics Than READING!
Think about this for a moment:
Most often spelling is even more difficult for dyslexics (and other struggling students) than reading!
It’s easy to become so focused on the struggling reader’s reading struggles, that spelling gets left behind. Spelling gets a little bit “ignored”. And yet, the truth is, spelling IS more difficult than reading for dyslexics and many other struggling students.
There’s an underlying unproductive thought: “Spelling will come along. They’ll get it!”
This way of thinking contributes to struggling students’ continuing feelings of inadequacy.
Now that you are expertly teaching phonics with Silent Elephant “e” and seeing amazing growth in reading in your children, you will be able to knowledgeably and successfully teach spelling too!
The first thing to understand about spelling instruction is that it must be taught concurrently with phonics instruction. While students are learning a particular phonics rule and utilizing it in learning to read, they need to be applying that same exact phonics rule in learning to spell. When learners do this, both reading and spelling make sense. They have confidence in both areas.
Here is why reading and spelling need to go hand-in-hand:
· They are like two sides of the same coin.
· They both represent sound-symbol relationship—just on the opposite side of the coin.
· Reading is a decoding skill; spelling is an encoding skill.
Decoding is translating printed words to sounds; whereas encoding is the opposite—using sounds to create printed words.
Decoding and encoding use different parts of the brain. Since different brain parts are constantly communicating with each other, it’s imperative that your skillful teaching of reading runs parallel to your skillful teaching of spelling.
Let me say that again—
Spelling instruction must correlate with phonics instruction.
Unfortunately, many basal reading and spelling programs often introduce a new phonics rule and the exceptions to that rule in the very same lesson.
And worse, often there is no correlation between phonics (reading) instruction and spelling instruction, because two different programs from two different publishers are utilized within one classroom.
The struggling learner is led to feel like there is no connection between the reading they are trying to learn and the spelling they are trying to learn.
This lack of correlation between the two and the introduction of the rule and the exceptions in the same lesson compounds the confusion that dyslexic people or any struggling student is feeling when trying to comprehend the abstract concept of a phonics rule.
This confusion makes it almost impossible for them to internalize and master the rule being taught, much less the exceptions to that rule.
Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” teaches reading and spelling together.
When teaching with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, you will be able to expertly teach each abstract phonics rule through sequentially organized, multi-sensory, whole body lessons guiding students to a concrete understanding of each phonics rule.
Your children will feel so confident in their understanding of a phonics rule, that they will eagerly accept the challenge to spell words that follow that rule.
Because I created Silent Elephant “e” so that all learners could learn to read and spell at the same time, I included lengthy, leveled word lists (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3) moving from simple to complex as an integral part of each phonics lesson in Silent Elephant “e”.
These word lists provide you with NUMEROUS words focused on each phonics lesson’s objective—words to use for word recognition, for vocabulary development and for individualized spelling lists.
I’ll address individualized spelling lists in my next blog post.
If you have further questions about spelling the Silent Elephant “e” way, feel free to contact us.