Welcome to this week’s wrap where I share some of the successes and challenges of being a specialist dyslexia teacher.
Plus – Fun spelling games
I always leave time at the end of a tutoring session to play a spelling game. It’s a nice, positive way to end a session, especially if it has been particularly grueling. A few weeks ago I shared a list of 35 spelling games that you could try with your students. You can find that article by clicking on the link:
35 Spelling Games For Students Of All Ages
I decided to try one of the games from the list with my older student. This particular student has come a long way in the time we’ve been working together and she is always after a challenge and to be extended. I decided to try the Spelling Battleship game.
This was just the right game to pick with this student, she was motivated to play and even asked for copies of the game board to take home. I picked 6 spelling words from the ones we had been learning that day, they all focused on the /ie/ sound and included: highway, nitrogen, silently, flying, triangle and providing. But rather than write a letter in each square, we placed a sound in each square. This was also a way for me to check that the student was hearing each sound in a word. As we were playing a sound per square, I decided not to pick any words that had the split spelling of the sound, e.g. i-e.
I would highly recommend this game for your older students. The student was pretty excited to take the game home and to play with her Mum. And of course I did not win!
Minus – Constant errors
One of the things I find challenging with tutoring students, is how I help them not to make the same spelling errors again and again. I have a few students that no matter how much we practice the word (and in different ways), and talk about which spelling to choose for a sound and the meaning of the words, they continue to spell the word/s incorrectly.
Some example include: idle, spelled idel; politely, spelled politly; brake for break.
If you have any good ideas of other ways I can help with these types of errors, I’d love to hear them in the comments below.
Interesting – Phonics File Folder
I came across this great idea over at Make, Take and Teach and wanted to share it with you as well. File Folder Phonics are a great way for your students to get some more practice on word sorting and writing of different sound families. Students sort the words, write the words and then fill in the missing words. It’s great as it is all contained in the file folder, so easy storage and great for independent work. You can read more about this idea by clicking on the picture below.
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