How to Teach Spelling with Scrabble
Teaching Kids to Spell with Scrabble
Teachers, tutors and parents are always looking for new ways to teach kids how to spell, from spelling computers to word cards. If you’re looking for a vocabulary resource for how to teach spelling that’s fun and rewarding, Scrabble is a perfect tool.
Scrabble is a word game all about how you spell words, so it’s natural that a word game would be a tool for parents. There are several methods you can use with different effects, so here’s how to teach spelling with Scrabble.
Scrabble Letter Tiles
Instead of using flash cards, using Scrabble letter tiles to teach spelling skills. Take the letters out of your Scrabble set and have your child build the words in their vocabulary study plan with them. This lets the child break down and build words from the component parts, and lets the kid see how words are built.
To make things more entertaining for your student, the two of you can keep track of which words in their study plan are worth the most Scrabble points.
Spelling Scrabble Style
Next, take out 7 random letters from the pile of Scrabble letters and challenge your student to build as many words as they can using those letters. The words can be from 1 to 7 letters long, but must be correct. The two of you might even guess beforehand how many words will be built using this exercise.
When they are finished with the one letter combination, take out 7 more random letter tiles and go through the process again. Not only will this give your child entertaining practice at word creation and reinforce their vocabulary, but it will make them a better Scrabble player the next time they play the game. This exercise has been used by teachers in a different form for many decades.
Teach Stemming Through Scrabble
Scrabble is great for teaching kids about word roots (stems), prefixes, suffixes and pluralization. A word root (sometimes called “stem”) is a word that has the ability to be added to through the use of a prefix or suffix. By teaching lessons with word tiles, you can show kids how certain words are built in the English language.
For example, the word “boot” is a good word root to look at. You can add a prefix like re- to boot to created the word “reboot”. You can added suffixes like -ed, -ing or -less to create words like “booted”, “booting” or “bootless”. Like with most nouns, you can add an -s and create the word boots.
Each of these are different words, so if you can teach a kid one noun, you can often teach the child multiple words. This shows how one word is derived from another in language, as well as introduces the subject of tense (past, present, etc) and pluralization. Not only does this help your child understand the English language better, but you’ll also help make him or her a better Scrabble player.
Positive Reinforcement Helps Teaching
Remember that positive reinforcement is going to help in a teaching and learning environment more than negative reinforcement. Praise the child or student for correct spelling, while positive suggestions are better when the words are spelled incorrectly.
You want the person you are teaching to want to learn more, so positive feedback encourages more learning, to get more positive feedback. Negative feedback and scolding is only going to make the person dread learning sessions.
Playing Scrabble Teaches Word Skills
Finally, if you want another means of how to teach spelling with Scrabble, when your child gets old enough, play Scrabble often. The child will enjoy the challenge of playing games with points on the line, but that child will naturally be building word skills, spelling ability and vocabulary just from the act of playing.
Play well enough to challenge your child and present new words to the child from your own vocabulary. Go over any words they don’t know and be willing to look up words in the dictionary to show them the definition, regardless of whether such a move falls within the official rules of Scrabble. Once your kids has a better vocabulary than you do, you can worry about being a stickler for the Official Scrabble Dictionary rules.
For now, you want to teach your kids to spell with Scrabble.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 6:13 pmand is filed under Scrabble, Words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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