Spelling

What this covers

• Segmenting a spoken word into syllables and sounds, then spelling each chunk (fan-tas-tic, re-mem-ber)
• Adding endings correctly: doubling the final consonant (hop/hopping), dropping silent e (make/making), and changing y to i (happy/happier)
• Plural rules beyond adding -s: -es after s, x, ch, sh; -ves for leaf/knife; irregular plurals like children and mice
• Choosing between homophones in context — to/too/two, there/their/they're, your/you're, its/it's
• Common prefixes and suffixes as spelling units: un-, re-, pre-, dis-, -ful, -less, -ment, -tion
• Spelling high-frequency irregular words (because, friend, enough, said) that don't follow the sound-out pattern
• Proofreading a sentence the learner has written and catching their own misspellings

Where learners get stuck

Doubling the consonant when it shouldn't be doubled — writing 'jumpping' or 'rainning'

Children learn 'double before -ing' as a blanket rule instead of a conditional one. The rule only applies to one-syllable words ending in a single vowel plus a single consonant, so 'jump' (two consonants) and 'rain' (two vowels) are exempt. Naming what comes before the final letter is what fixes it.

Using 'their/there/they're' and 'to/too/two' interchangeably because they sound identical

Spelling by ear works for most words at this age, so homophones break the strategy the child has been rewarded for. They need a meaning-based check instead — 'there' has 'here' in it for place, 'they're' can be stretched to 'they are' — and practice deciding inside a sentence, not on a word list.

Spelling -tion and -sion endings phonetically as 'shun'

The sound /shun/ has no letters that match it, so the child writes what they hear. These endings have to be learned as fixed chunks attached to word families (action, motion, decision), which is different from every other spelling strategy they've used.

What a session looks like

The tutor says a word aloud in a sentence, the learner repeats it, breaks it into syllables or sounds, and spells it back letter by letter. When a word is missed, the tutor stops at the exact letter that went wrong rather than re-spelling the whole word, and asks the learner to name the pattern involved. Sessions mix dictated words, sorting activities ('which of these three words doubles the consonant?'), and short dictated sentences where homophones have to be chosen in context. Learners are asked to write words down after spelling them aloud, since the hand and the ear reinforce each other.

Helpful to know first

• Can hear and produce the individual sounds in a spoken word
• Knows short and long vowel sounds and common digraphs (sh, ch, th, ck)
• Can spell most one-syllable words with regular patterns
• Can write the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase without hesitation

Questions

How can spelling be taught by voice if my child needs to write the words?

The learner spells aloud, letter by letter, which is how the tutor checks accuracy. We recommend paper and pencil during the session so the child also writes each word after saying it — the tutor pauses for this. Speaking the letters forces the child to hold the whole word in mind, which written practice alone doesn't always do.

My child spells well on the Friday test but misspells the same words in their writing. Why?

Weekly lists are memorised for short-term recall and tested in isolation. In writing, the child is thinking about ideas and sentences at the same time, so the spelling has to be automatic. Sessions include dictated sentences and proofreading the child's own writing, which is where the transfer happens.

Should we be using the spelling list from school?

Yes — bring it. The tutor can work through the school list and, alongside it, teach the pattern behind the words so the same rule applies to the next list too. If there's no list, we work from grade-level patterns and the words the child actually misspells.

Is spelling still worth teaching when autocorrect exists?

Spell-checkers don't catch homophones (their/there), and a child who stops to think about every word writes shorter, simpler sentences. In grades 3-5 the goal is automaticity, so attention is free for what the child is trying to say.