Teaching (Finger)spelling
Thursday, September 20th by carlaI have had good luck with using fingerspelling as a learning tool with these students. I hand out a copy of the American Manual Alphabet, and we take some class time to learn it. I let students keep their sheets handy until they wean themselves from them. Each week we spend time fingerspelling each word, usually with partners. When a classroom aide was available, she worked with the most “spelling-challenged” in the hall for a few extra minutes each week. This was very time-consuming, but I knew it was working when, during the test, I saw kids moving their fingers under the desk, spelling not to each other but to themselves. I started this practice almost accidentally, as part of studying The Miracle Worker. Classes enjoyed the novelty, and of course we discussed the ethics of fingerspelling to one another during test situations. During the time we used this approach, students who were generally frustrated by spelling saw improvement. Success!
How can we convince students that good spelling is a skill worthy of their efforts?
Visual learners generally learn to spell easily. They see patterns in the letters or shapes in the words, and spelling just makes sense to them. Auditory learners may hear the sounds of the words; some phonics instruction may work well with them. For these two types of learners, many traditional spelling strategies will prove effective.
Learners who are strongly kinesthetic, on the other hand, often struggle with spelling, as do many students with learning disabilities.
