Spelling

Introduction

At Kingswood, students learn the four forms of spelling knowledge.

Spelling is a tool for writing, and when we spell words, we draw on the four forms of spelling knowledge, these being:

• Phonology - how words sound

• Visual - how words look

• Morphology - parts within words that signify meaning, grammar, such as adding "ed" to the end of words.

• Etymology - the historical, cultural origin of words.

No one can expect to learn all the words by memorizing them one at a time. There are too many, and our brains are not that good. When we want to write a word, we do not search our memories for the right order of letters. We call up our knowledge of patterns and construct words as we need them. Doing this allows us to spell words we do not use often, and even many that we have never seen before. The better knowledge of patterns we learn in words, the fewer spelling mistakes we are likely to make.

In addition, at Kingswood, we also teach rules/generalizations and the acceptions to rule.

We have included some resources and activities to help you support your child with learning about patterns.