A simple checklist for your child to know what to look for in their writing to strengthen their spelling skills as they become their own editor.
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Your child’s writing is their domain. By teaching your child to be their own editor, they become a stronger speller. Help your child look for some key rules in their writing and spelling. Oftentimes, young writers omit small words or key sounds or letters because their hand is trying to keep up with their brain. Print out this checklist and put it in a visible place where they can easily reference it.
A Checklist for Beginner Spellers
- Did I re-read my work? Did I re-read every word I wrote? Does it make sense?
- Did I stretch out my words to hear and write down every sound?
- Did I use sight words / snap words? Did I check my resources to make sure they’re correct?
- Are there spaces between my words?
- Do all of my sentences start with a capital / uppercase letter? (Remember: No capital letters mid-sentence.)
- Do names of people and places start with a capital letter? (Remember: Use a capital ‘I’ when writing about myself.)
- Do lower case letters follow a capital letter?
- Do my sentences end with punctuation (a period, question mark, exclamation mark)?
- Does every word have a vowel?
- Does every syllable have a vowel?
- Did I circle any words that did not look quite right and check-in with an adult on those words?
An Approach for Emerging Spellers (Beginner checklist plus the following)
Once I’ve discovered the correct spelling of a word, write it down on a Post-it, in my notebook or my personal dictionary and do the following:
- Clap or tap out the syllables. Underline the syllables.
- Study the parts of the word; break it down. Ask myself: What are the parts that are giving me trouble?
- For those parts that are giving me trouble, ask myself: What do I know about phonics to help with the hard parts?
- e.g., Does each syllable have a vowel? Does the word start with a blend? Do I recognize a small word part?
- Cover the word. Try spelling the word without looking at it. Then, check it.
A Helpful Tip for Parents and Teachers
Consider encouraging your child to create a Word Wall (a wall of Post-its sorted by the alphabet) or their own dictionary of all the words they find hard. This can be as easy as stapling pieces of paper together, marking letters of the alphabet on each page (so it is easier to find words in their ‘dictionary’) and asking your child to add to it when they come across a hard word. Over time, your child will become more familiar with these hard words just by virtue of being able to easily reference them.