Teaching Compound Words
General Tips: Teaching Spelling to Secondary Students
- For young people who struggle with spelling, much of the school day is often a daunting and frustrating undertaking. 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.
- Explicit, direct teaching is required to improve struggling spellers at this age. Do not simply give students a spelling list and expect them to learn it independently: if a student hasn’t learned a spelling pattern or rule independently or “via osmosis” by now, direct intervention is required. Take a look at the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) if you need inspiration or ideas.
- Use data to inform your teaching. Ongoing assessment will help you know where a particular student is struggling and will help you plan your curriculum accordingly. See the Start Here page for some ideas on how to do this.
- One size does not fit all. Giving an entire class the same spelling work is ineffective: use assessment data and your own observations to prioritise, group and teach students based on their needs as learners. See this fantastic article by Alison Clarke of Spelfabet for more ideas for helping teenagers with their literacy.
- Repetition, repetition, repetition. Spelling isn’t a guessing game. Avoid activities like matching games, “look/cover/write/check”, etc and opt for repetition, worked examples and daily use of new words instead. As well as writing the words, give students the opportunity to read them and use them in conversation.
- A solid reading program is important. While spelling and phonics intervention alone will help struggling spellers, exposing them to text daily (via silent/choice reading, partner reading, read alouds, guided reading, etc) will greatly enhance their chances of success and will help boost their literacy across the board.
| Rule or Pattern | Lessons and Resources | Victorian Curriculum |
|---|---|---|
| Compound Words | Stone and Stave: Elsewhere Online: – Teaching CompoundWords – All About Learning Press Published Resources: – Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum, Expanded Edition (Fountas and Pinnell, 2017): Phonics, Spelling and Word Study Year 1: Letter-Sound Relationships – Consonants – Single Word Spelling Test (Sacre and Masterson, 2000):SWST Structured Spelling Lists: Level 3 – Successful Spelling – Australian Homeschooling Series (Marrett, 2007): Book 1 | Level 2: Understand how to use digraphs, long vowels, blends, silent letters and syllabification to spell simple words including compound words (VCELA226) |
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