04/01/2026
Is it just me, or does spelling (and especially teaching it) just kind of suck?
My students tell me this all the time, and they're not wrong...
Spelling requires an incredibly complex neural connection. We need to listen to the word, consider how many syllables it has, consider how many sounds it has, and differentiate between different types of sounds.
Then, we need to think about the different letter pairing options and how the word looks. Which letters would match each sound? Is there a vowel in each syllable (which is why syllable division and syllable type instruction can be helpful)? Then, we need to think about what other letter patterns might work (for example, c, k, ck, ch can all spell /k/).
Finally, we get to think about the meaning and consider whether there are any rules to remember (for example, -ck is only used at the end of a closed syllable), are there any prefixes or suffixes to consider (e.g., tax versus tacks), and are there more ways to spell the word based on its meaning (e.g., tock vs talk).
And what makes this worse? It's not a 1:1 correspondence between letters and sounds, and even words that sound the same may be spelled differently based on meaning. So spelling does suck, but that being said, understanding the "why" behind our language can still help significantly as students are learning.
Even if they don't know or remember all the rules, they start to look for patterns. They start to get curious about the language, they think about whether rules might exist, and develop cognitive flexibility...all good things.
So we still teach spelling, even if it does suck! 😝 If you want to learn more about the rules we teach, you can check out our Spotlight PD here https://smarterintervention.com/ondemand-pd/reading-rules
