Recommended Post: Peg List #3: The Alphabet Peg List
I am not above admitting that I could not spell the word “tomorrow”, confidently, until an embarrassingly short time ago. Yep. And I have been a teacher for 13 years! An ELA teacher, no less.
Is there one ‘r’ or two? One ‘m’ or two? It was one of those words — you know the ones — that was a chronic thorn in my side.
Eventually, after a final frustration and dictionary check, I took the needed few minutes and solved the problem for good.
Due to my background, It is no surprise that I had the ability and gumption to solve my spelling issues, but it’s a bit naïve to think that all of our students will summon the motivation to research words that they don’t know how to spell.
Fortunately, there is another way.
Enter the Alphabet Peg List. (If you have not already created the peg list, please go back and read that post now.)
If you are familiar with the post from the TM Tool Kit, which you should be prior to reading further, then you know you need to select a word that represents each letter.
For example, let’s say your students have a food list. That means that every letter of the alphabet represents a type of food.
Let’s use the word ‘tomorrow’ as an example.
The first letter is ‘t’, which could be represented as tuna.
The second letter is ‘o’ which could be represented as Oreo.
The third letter is an ‘m’ which could be represented as ‘mayonnaise’.
This brings us to the fourth letter. It is worth mentioning here, that you do not need to go through the entire word — you just need to get through the tricky part.
The tricky part for me is tackled when I do the fourth letter, which is an ‘o’. This reminds me that there is one ‘m’, not two.
If you have any experience browsing through the posts on this site, or any experience with advanced memory techniques, then you can probably predict what is coming next: STORY TIME!
Our story starts with something that represents the word. the word ‘morning’ reminds me of a sunrise.
The story begins as the sun is rising above the ocean. A tuna leaps out of the air next to a fisherman in a small boat. You investigate a little closer, and you realize that the tuna is catching the Oreo cookies that the fisherman is throwing up in the air. Feeling a bit hungry himself, the fisherman pulls out a large jar of mayonnaise, sticks his hand inside, and pulls a glob of the delicious white condiment into mouth, licking his fingers clean. He then throws another Oreo to the anxiously awaiting tuna.
Now, when trying to remember how to spell ‘tomorrow’, the student can just go through the story.
Note that you can change up the list mid story if you prefer. Maybe you can use your bestiary and put an octopus in the story instead of the second Oreo. That could be action packed!
The point, as always, is to make the story weird and to consider the details. What does the tuna look like? What does the sunset look like? The fisherman? What does the scene smell like? How far is the Oreo being thrown? Are there any sounds? Though not necessary, the more sensory details the better.
Please give this a try and let us how it went! Try it now with a word you often have trouble spelling, or pick a difficult word from the dictionary to learn.
Learning a new language? Perfect! It came in handy when I was learning how to spell mężczyzna (Polish for ‘man’).
By keeping us all, those here at Teach Memory and those who are part of the community, you are helping more than you know. We can’t build this site to maximum efficacy if we don’t have your feedback. What did you do differently? What did some of your students come up with? What problems did you run into? All respectful comments are VERY welcome.
Cheers!
