Miss Hasler's English Class: 2

All right, settle down everyone. Stop doing that with your pencil, Imreadonly2! Yes, I suppose it is quite impressive, but I want you to concentrate on the board. Good boy. Now, today’s lesson is on everyone’s favourite topic: spelling.

Good spelling is very important. English has thousands and thousands of words, but it only has twenty-six letters to make all those words out of. This means that a lot of words that mean very different things can be spelt similarly. And, just to make things trickier, some words sound alike but are spelt differently! This is why doing your best to spell things correctly is important: it helps make sure that you are understood correctly.

But being a good speller isn’t always easy. English is inconsistent in a lot of ways: this means that there are exceptions to most of the rules within it. Spelling and pronunciation – that is, how you say words out loud – are certainly inconsistent, and some words you simply have to learn by trial and error. ‘Rough’, for example, is pronounced ‘ruff’. But ‘through’ is pronounced ‘throo’, ‘though’ is pronounced ‘tho’ and ‘cough’ is pronounced ‘coff’! Yet, even given such inconsistencies, a good rule of thumb with words you’re not sure about is to try to spell them how you say them. Try to break the word down into individual syllables – that is, individual sounds – in your head and then try to build the word from there.

Diplodocus. That’s quite a long word, isn’t it? A long word for a long dinosaur. Can anyone tell me how many syllables ‘Diplodocus’ has?

That’s right, Harry: it has four. Dip - lo - do - cus. Now, watch as I write the four parts of the word on the board. You can see that they are spelt just as they are pronounced. That long word doesn’t seem so hard to spell now, does it?

Does someone want to come up to the board and try it with another word? A few hands up... how about... Andrea! That’s it, come to the front of the class, dear. Here’s a piece of chalk for you to use. Now, think carefully...

Butt - er - fly! Very good, Andrea! That word has three syllables, doesn’t it? And it is spelt just as it is pronounced. Good girl. You can take a gold star from my desk on the way back to your seat.

Use this technique whenever you are faced with an unfamiliar word and you won’t go too far wrong. And for those words that are spelt or pronounced inconsistently, you can make an attempt that is phonetically correct and then learn the specific spelling afterwards. The important thing is to build a spelling framework up in your head: you can fit exceptions (such as the silent ‘t’ in ‘beret’) into this framework as you come across them.

Now, I want to see how well you can all spell, so we are going to have a test. The papers are already on your desks. Julie! Rolling your eyes won’t get you out of doing the test, young lady, so we’ll have less of that. And I think the class has seen quite enough of your Diplodocus impression, thank you.

The test has ten questions. Each question consists of a sentence that has a word missing. The missing word is one of the answers: A, B, C. Pick the answer you think is correct. Write 1B, 2C, 3A and so on. Work quietly and carefully, and do not look up from your test paper. Anyone caught looking at another pupil’s paper will be in serious trouble. And do just try your best: no-one will be punished for getting questions wrong.

Is that all clear? Good. You may turn your papers over and begin.

SPELLING TEST

Q1
Mary wasn’t sure ____ ice cream flavour to try.
A: wich        B: witch        C: which

Q2
I think my dog has ____.
A: fleas        B: flees        C: flease

Q3
The spanking Mary was given made her ____.
A: whale        B: wale        C: wail

Q4
It is always nice to ____ a gift from a friend.
A: recieve        B: receive        C: resieve

Q5
Walking through nettles with bare legs is not ____.
A: recommended    B: reccomended    C: reccommended

Q6
Sometimes it is ____ to administer a smacked bottom.
A: nessesary        B: neccesary        C: necessary

Q7
Janet would often burst into song ____.
A: spontaneusly    B: spontaneously    C: spontaniously

Q8
That little girl ____ needs a cuddle.
A: definitely        B: definately        C: defenitely

Q9
Stacy found shoe shops ____.
A: irresistable        B: irresistible        C: iresistible

Q10
Brad is a stickler for ____, so he always gives Emily the same number of swats to each cheek.
A: equillibrium    B: equalibrium    C: equilibrium