The fundamental principle of spelling is the relation of the sounds of which a word is composed to the letters which spell each of the sounds.
This is what most people do when asked to spell an unknown spoken word, they break the word into its sounds (or maybe its syllables if it's a multisyllable word) and choose a spelling for each sound. I, and colleagues, have seen this done repeatedly in phonics training sessions for teachers! So why teachers should use a method of teaching spelling which is completely unrelated to the way they would work out the spelling of an unknown word is a bit of a puzzle!
Having established that this is the basic principle for spelling words the initial task is to teach children how to break words into their component 'sounds' and then write a 'spelling' for each sound. I am absolutely aware that English spelling is more complex than this; that it's not straightforward because we have a variety of ways of spelling the same sounds, but once the basic principle is established you can work on the 'alternative' sound spellings aspect. At least, once it is established children will, at worst, spell phonetically and produce a word which is logical and recognisable rather than a collection of randomly remembered letters (often with some sounds completely missing)
When I was working (now retired) I would promote a modified version of LSCWC.
- Read the word (& note any possibly 'tricky' sound spelling - there's usually only one in a word)
- Cover it
- Work out what the sounds are in the word
- (this step isn't obligatory but is helpful for weaker children) Put a line for each sound
- Write a spelling for each sound in the same order as the sounds come in the spoken word, saying each sound as it is written (promotes kinaesthetic memory) If they're writing on their 'lines' each line should have a sound spelling on it.
- Check by reading the resultant word, sounding out and blending exactly what has been written (not what they 'think' they've written). Corrections can be made at this stage if needed.
- Uncover the target word and make a visual check.
(multi syllable words can be worked out by identifying the number of syllables, then the sounds within each syllable and spelling them syllable by syllable)
Alternatively the target word can just be spoken initially by the teacher and written on the board at the end of the process for a visual check.
Children who have had good phonics teaching initially will probably do this quite automatically (this is why I was puzzled by the promotion of LSCWC by the SFA school; if children have been taught spelling using the sound/symbol correspondence why would they be taught any other way?) Unfortunately some children are taught phonics for reading but not for spelling; they get the LSCWC method which is dependent on learning the letters & letter order in each word with no reference to the significance of the letters (i.e that they represent sounds). As a result many tend to write down the letters in any order because they can just about remember the letters but not exactly where each one should be...
Of course, a big problem with trying to correct spelling is that writing a word is influenced by kinaesthetic memory; if a child has persistently misspelled a word they may be able to get it right when they are thinking about it but in the course of writing a piece of work they tend to forget the correct spelling, as they are concentrating on what they are 'saying' in their writing, and the automatised 'wrong' spelling is produced without thinking.
I do think that poor spelling is a far bigger problem than poor reading, it's just that poor reading is much more apparent and has a more debilitating effect on the child. In the secondary school I worked in poor reading probably affected some 20% of the pupils whereas teachers would estimate that 50 -60% were poor spellers.
This is a nice little programme for teaching multi-syllable word spelling: www.ontrackreading.com/phonics-program/multisyllable-method-overview
www.ontrackreading.com/