I've recently created a new tab on The Spelling Blog for Downloads. There you will find three worksheets from my book, Teaching Spelling to English Language Learners, that you can download and print absolutely free.
1) The multisensory Look Say Cover Write and Check chart has been popular. It's been available for a while, but this version is easier to download. It's far more than the usual four-column table (that I always think learners could just draw in their books). This one really teaches them to learn spellings by guiding them to use several different approaches at the same time. And there's a cover card too that reminds them of the approach.
2) World Cup Vowels is an activity to get learners to really notice vowels in words (in this case, country names). It is especially useful for Arabic speakers who are often rather cavalier in their use (or non-use) of English vowels. All within a football (soccer) context.
3) The third one is completely new to The Spelling Blog, but also concerns vowels. It is a system for colouring vowels to make them visually salient in difficult words. Full instructions are in the book, but here I make coloured versions available (so your learners don't have to colour them in!). These include a classroom poster and bookmarks for learners.
And more ...
Still to come (early April):
- Two more printable worksheets
- Audio files of some texts and activities from the book that I think could be useful
- Some PowerPoint presentations about features of spelling that may be useful in class.
By the way, I am able to make these available using my favourite webtool, Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to automatically save all your documents online (safely) so they are backed up and you can open and edit them anywhere that you have internet access. It also synchronises your documents if you work on more than one computer. And I've recently discovered that I can host files there that I want to share publicly, such as the downloads above. All this and, guess what, it's free. Well, it's free for 2GB, but you can 'earn' up to 8GB by referring other people. So if you like the sound of it, use this link: http://db.tt/Om5BS9b , to investigate and download Dropbox. That means that you will get an extra 250MB of Dropbox space and so will I. The more space I have, the more activities I can make available here on The Spelling Blog. (You only get the extra space if you use the link above)
Johanna
Is there any hope that you can construct and make available an alternative "colored vowels" chart for your many admirers Across the Water?
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteDo you mean just the title should have AmE spelling? If so, yes sure. Good idea.
Johanna
I'm going try out the World Cup Vowels with my Arabic speaking university students tomorrow. I previously used it (last summer) with young learners when the world cup was on.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I've recently been introduced to Dropbox, in order to share lesson plans with one particular level at the university. It is a useful tool once you work out how it works.
That's great, Phil. Let us know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteJo
Thanks for sharing. Nice Post
ReplyDelete