English spelling is difficult for two main reasons, English letters don't make sense and teachers pretend that they do. If you really want to help someone read or spelling in English, you need to be honest with them and give them proper tools.

1. Quick and Dirty Approach to
Spelling
Judy Thompson

2. How Today is Going to Go
1. What is Literacy? 5 minutes
2. How do we compare
internationally? 5 minutes
1. What is the big problem? 15 minutes
2. What is the solution? 15 minutes
3. How to teach spelling 10 minutes

3. 1. The ability to read and write (including
spelling)
1. Knowledge that relates to a specific subject
We are going to talk about functional literacy in
terms of ability to read and understand the
directions on a bottle of Aspirin.
Inextricably linked to writing is spelling
What is Literacy?

4. • The adult literacy indicator measures the
proportion of the Canadian population aged 16 to
65 that is able to understand and use
information, such as news stories or instruction
manuals.
• 51% read at Level 3
• Level 3 is considered to be the minimum level
required by an individual to function in a modern
society and economy.
(Sources: Employment and Social Development
Canada & Canadian Council on Learning)
Adult Literacy

5. (Conference Board of Canada)
2. How We Rank

6. • Conference Board of Canada 2013
Canada gets a “C” and ranks 8th out of 13
countries on the percentage of adults scoring
low on adult literacy rate tests.
• Four out of ten Canadian adults have
literacy skills too low to be fully
competent in most jobs in our modern
economy.
We Aren’t Doing Well

7. 1. English doesn’t make sense as in letters don’t
represent sounds
1. Spelling is challenging for the same reason -
letters don’t represent sounds
1. If one figures out the game of reading and can
intellectually manage the lack of logic, they
forget that inglish duznt mayk sens
1. Blame the student when things don’t work out
3. English is Problematic Because:

8. wuz
iyl
sed
ayt
Play the Game - If English Made Sense
thu
siks
iyern
kwiyer

9. wuz
iyl
sed
ayt
thu
siks
iyern
kwiyer
was
I’ll, isle, aisle
said
ate, eight
the
six
iron
choir
Did you get?

10. The travesty is that educators are not straight about
the problem probably because we don’t know what
to do about it
• ‘Sound is out’ we urge for our non-phonetic language
• Is i before e except after c a rule if it has hundreds of
exceptions? (No).
• When 2 vowels go walking they can make any sound
at all
• Arranging words alphabetically doesn’t work
- the dikshunerey is useless unless you already know
what the word means, how to spell it and how it’s used
The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet. - Mark Twain
English doesn’t make sense and we step right over this
instead of giving our students half a chance
by dealing with the mess straight on.
inglish duznt mayk sens

11. Students aren’t really paying attention. The little guy in front on the right is in trouble.
One Saving Grace in the System

12. The Problem

13. English Needs A Bridge
(How many vowels in English?)

14. 4. The Solution

15. Regardless of spelling, these are Gray words
because of the main vowel sound:
day, way, play
rain, train, vain
cane, vane, lane
eight, weight, vein
they, hey
great...
Colors hold the vowel sounds that letters don’t.
Colors are the bridge from listening to spelling.
Gray Words

16. The Breakdown is Here

17. See How Words Sound

18. ‘O’ Makes Many Sounds
Blue, Gold, Brown, Mustard...

19. • Memorize a few hundred words to start
• Look at the clues around the word – pictures,
context and other words
• Context not grammar is the access to fluency
for ESL (btw)
• It is about giving real pathways and
categories for learners to store and access
the language they encounter on their own
4. Spelling and Reading

20. uv
iz
iyl
sed
ayt
thu
siks
iyern
kwiyer
of
is
I’ll, isle, aisle
said
ate, eight
the
six
iron
choir
Spelling with Color

21. 1. Memorize then teach learners the 16 colors
and their vowel sounds
2. Read the same books aloud over and over
again
3. Run your finger under the words as you
read
4. Play games with the sounds, “What color is
your name? What color is this word _____?”
5. When the learner starts to read prompt
them with the color of the words they
stumble on
The system translates seamlessly to multi-
syllable words.
How You Teach Your Students
to Spell

22. • The sound & collocation dictionary that
categorizes the 2,000 most common words in
English into their 16 color chapters
• It includes the spelling, pronunciation and
literal meaning of each word and is rife with the
expressions and the idiomatic use of every entry
• It is a dictionary for learners
Grass is Black

23. Beginner Flashcard Word List

24. Denise Eide the Logic of English

25. Rita Baker – Brain Power
The Global Approach

26. • We aren’t doing well teaching reading/spelling
• No one can sound out English, spelling never
tells us how a word sounds
• Learners need a real bridge to connect sounds
to symbols.
• Colors are the simple, all inclusive connection
from reading/writing to listening/speaking
• Simple books, repetition, awareness and good
resources
• Teach colors (vowel sounds) as access to spelling
Recap

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