Quote: Talking about the think it out approach the book says, "This advice reminds students that spelling involves more than phonological information and encourages them to think about spelling patterns, root words and affixes, and what the world looks like."
Comment: I know that as a student if I did less memorizing of words and concentrated more on patterns, root and affixes, etc., then I would have been a better speller. Just today I was having to write out a check to "Bear River Mutual." I started to write it out when all of a sudden I was like, "How do you spell mutual?" I couldn't remember for the life of me! The worst past was I had to ask the lady how to spell it. How embarrassing! I felt like saying, "I actually am in college...surprisingly" I have a hard time spelling a word if I haven't already memorized it. As a teacher I hope to teach my students to find patterns and similar ideas so that when they can't think of how to spell a word they can figure it out and not look like a fool I did today. :)
Question: What ways could we motivate our students if they had no interest in spelling?
I think that emergent spellers are probably on the younger side so few of them would be reached by a "this is important" speech. We should definitely stress it, but they would probably respond better to learning the rules in a fun way. Going over silly songs (like the apples and bananas song) would show them how the different letters you use really influence what you are trying to say is perceived.
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