Words! Literacy Club is copyright © Lesley Catterall 2003-2006 All rights reserved.

Melvyn Ramsden in his Real Spelling Charter states that.............

This is a fundamental right of all young learners and yet too often we are led to believe that mistakes are bad and that we should be ashamed of them rather than celebrating them as a prime learning opportunity.

 

The Charter goes on to state the duty teachers have towards their charges with regards to any mistakes made.......................................

So whenever we do make a spelling mistake there must always be a reason for it and it is a function of the educator to determine what caused the error and to determine a way to teach the correct spelling.

Analysing Our Magnificent,  Marvelous, Monumental Misspellings

All the words in our Challenges list have been misspelled in the previous writings of students of “Words!” Every word can be analysed to determine the cause of the misspelling—why it has been spelled as it has. There are many causes for misspellings and, unfortunately, most relate to current teaching methods: what children are being told and what they are not being told.

Besides explaining the likely cause of the misspelling, each analysis also demonstrates the correct spelling for each word and explains why it must be spelled that way. This is an example of true Orthographic Analysis in action. The analysis will also show, wherever possible, the morphological, etymological and phonological connections between the misspelling and the correct spelling as evidence for the fact that, in many cases, children are doing exactly what they are told to do.

If you have ever wondered why these words are spelled as they are then select the word to go to its analysis. All our analyses are works in progress. As new hypotheses are posed, our analysis may change. What you see here is our current understanding of what we believe to be true based on the evidence we have available to us. 

Incidentally, every single one of these misspellings provided a learning opportunity for the writer. That opportunity was capitalized on and has resulted in a higher level of orthographic understanding as a result. These words are now used to provide learning opportunities for other real spelling.

<*sumptus>, <*determind>, <*definate>, <*clenleness>, <*cann't>, <*specilly>, <*intresting>, <*glimps>, <*herd> <*roomers>, <*downstares>, <*sownd>, <*expretion>, <*onley>, <*beataful>, <*yosto>, < *mest>, <*purpul>, <*maintun>, <*whot>, <*drue>, <*sircul>, <*difrent>, <*eny>, <*similer>, <*idiars>, <*posision>, <*supous>, <*instructinal>, <*sikeaye>