Silent letters can cause us to spell words incorrectly.
knife | write | bomb | ghost |
So why are these 'ghost letters' there?
So, while they can make spelling tricky, they do have their place in the world.
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The sound of these words won’t help you but there are ways we can learn the spellings of words with silent letters and here are a few suggestions: |
1) Use the 'Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check' method.
2) As you write a word, use a 'spelling language' to say it aloud, pronouncing the silent letter. Click below for an example:
knife |
3) Make up mnemonics with several words from one list in the same sentence e.g. I know I can't knit knickers with a knife on my knobbly knees.
4) Link the words with another in which you can hear the target letter e.g.
sign - signal |
bomb - bombard |
nestle - nest |
Christmas - Christ |
castle - in the past |
crumbs - crumbled bread |
The Spellzone interactive course is intended to be used online and may not be printed.
One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.
Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College