A student in one of my Adult Basic Education (ABE) groups has a spelling 'bugbear'. In fact, everyone I know does, but in this class we were going through each student's personal 'favourite' and trying to come up with individual ways to remember the spelling causing problems. Victor (not his real name) had problems with the word 'because'. Despite several helpful suggestions from the rest of the class, he settled on his own invention: "I write down 'be', then I think of California for 'ca' and then 'use' comes at the end. That's it: be-ca-use, because." I had to agree, it was unique! Would it work? Would he still remember it next time round? Skip forward to later that week when I had a different group, a slighter higher level, who were writing answers to some questions on a piece of text they had just read. "How do you spell 'because'?" asked Bridget (not her real name). I was about to explore this with her when she started muttering something to herself. I listened and just managed to catch, "Big elephants can't..." and that was it. Bridget, however, looked happy and wrote the word 'because' correctly. When she had finished, I asked her what she had said to herself, that it sounded like a poem. At first she was a bit sheepish and told me it was just the way she always remembers how to spell 'because'. With a little more coaxing, she recited the following: "Big elephants can't always use stairs easily." Brilliant! A rare 'light-bulb' moment for me as a tutor! I couldn't wait to bring this back to Victor! The next class I had with Victor and crew, I was so excited as we went through a recap of the problematic spellings from last time. "I have one for you, Victor," I told him, confident in the knowledge that his chagrin was nearly over. I told the story of Bridget and recited her memory prompter poem. That's when I looked at Victor properly and realised his face was creased with confusion, bordering on panic..."Oh no..." he groaned, "I'll never remember all that!! Can't I stick to 'be' - California - 'use'?" Did you ever get that feeling of foolishness that comes over you when you've stepped unintentionally over some unseen mark? That's how I felt. Of course Victor could continue to spell 'because' in his own way, and he certainly didn't need my permission to do so! What did I learn? That everyone has their own unique memory strategies, their own unique learning styles and, above all, that what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. What spelling strategies do you have and are you willing to share them? Thanks for reading.
2 Jun
