For young people who struggle with spelling, much of the school day is often a daunting and frustrating undertaking, and it’s a problem that is worsening across the board: a 2008 Bureau of Statistics survey found that almost half of Australians were not functionally literate. That is, they did not possess sufficient literacy skills to carry out daily tasks.
This alarming figure has not moved much since 2008: as of 2019, approximately 7.3 million (44%) Australians aged 15 to 74 years had literacy skills considered low enough to impair their ability to carry out daily tasks and by extension their quality of life.
Put simply, too many young people are leaving school without a sufficient grasp on how to communicate effectively, and spelling makes up a big part or this.
I started putting together these lessons when I realised that I needed to be much more diagnostic in my assessment of students’ spelling, and more explicit in my instruction, too. When I pinpointed where students were having the most trouble and targeted my teaching specifically to those points – rather than giving out weekly spelling worksheets or drilling them on “vocab words” – students improved and often flourished.
When used correctly and informed by data, the downloadable lessons on this site should help you tailor a spelling program that is differentiated and relevant to the needs of a wide range of learners.
Click here for information on assessing spelling.
Click here to view all spelling lessons.
Stone & Stave 