Unlocking the Mysteries of English Spelling: A Structured Word Inquiry Approach

If you are like most speakers of English, you’ve been taught to spell a word by “sounding it out.” But you probably also know that this strategy only works a small handful of times. Between silent letters, letters that can make more than one sound, and words that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently…..the number of obstacles in the way of “sounding out” words makes this strategy inefficient at best and frustrating at worst.

If rote memorization of lists of spelling words, copying sentences, and applying spelling “rules” that have dozens of exceptions just isn't working for your learner, it may be time for a different approach. Most spelling programs leave students with serious misunderstandings about how spelling really works. This course will reveal that English spelling is actually highly ordered and logical, once you have unlocked some of its secrets. Students will learn to break words apart into bases, prefixes, and suffixes, and use those parts to make informed decisions about how to spell and understand what words mean. Students will learn to think like “word scientists,” making a hypothesis about spelling patterns, testing their theories, and discovering rules of spelling that actually work. This class will boost not only their spelling skills, but expand their vocabulary as well. It’s an exploration of etymology and morphology that will transform the way they think about words and the way English spelling functions. 

Every class will be a bit different. Sometimes we'll be working with a particular spelling pattern, a particular sound, or even just taking a close look at the spelling of a few particular words. Though we may sometimes be working with words that seem "easy" and that your learner may already know how to spell correctly, I can promise that each lesson will teach something new about English spelling that they did not know before. Many learners have learned to spell correctly by simply memorizing how the words are spelled, but this class will teach why words are spelled the way they are. 


**2025!!**

Week of Jan. 6: 5 questions to understand a word
Week of Jan. 13:  Etymological markers
Week of Jan. 20: A close look at homophones
Week of Jan. 27: The <y> and <i> relationship
Week of Feb 3: Using apostrophes
Week of Feb 10: The months of the year
Week of Feb 17: NO CLASS
Week of Feb 24: What is a grapheme? 
Week of March 3: (Monday section will not meet) Word building
Week of March 10: The alphabet
Week of March 17: the <igh> grapheme
Week of March 24: Strategies for spelling the "schwa"
Week of March 31: Another look at etymological markers
Week of April 7: Positional rules for spelling with graphemes
Week of April 14: NO CLASS
Week of April 21: The <wh> grapheme
Week of April 28: Days of the week
Week of May 5: A close look at compound words
Week of May 12: Reasons for Silent e Part 1
Week of May 19: Reasons for Silent e Part 2
Week of May 26: NO CLASS
Week of June 2: A close look at the letter <h>
Week of June 9: Choosing between <er> and <or>
Week of June 16: Graphemes to spell the long /u/ sound
Week of June 23: <le> <el> and <al> endings
Week of June 30: Eponyms and toponyms
Week of July 7: Connecting vowels 
Week of July 14: Assimilated prefixes

This class will run through the week of July 14, 2025. One section may continue through July and August depending on demand. 

Throughout the class, learners are welcomed and encouraged to submit words they find difficult to spell or otherwise mysterious, and I'm happy to build these words into our investigations. Students will come away from the class with a clear understanding that every word is spelled the way it is for a reason, and that it's possible to research, learn and understand the reasons for every spelling!


If you are interested in reading more about the  Structured Word Inquiry approach to teaching spelling, these are good places to start:
https://psyarxiv.com/aktzw/
https://learningaboutspelling.com/about-2/