National Adult Literacy Database

In this video, literacy educator Kate Nonesuch demonstrates a technique for helping a learner spell a challenging word.

She begins by writing the word on the board, then covering it up. Then she tells the student to imagine a board and fill in the details about it. For instance, the learner decides whether it is a blackboard or a whiteboard, and whether the board has a coloured border around it.

Next, she tells the learner to imagine he is selecting a pen, including deciding on the colour of the ink, and writing the word on the imaginary board.

Then she asks a series of questions that help the learner form a mental picture of the word, including questions about the shapes of the letters, number of letters, order of vowels and consonants, and smaller words inside the word under consideration.

After going through these steps, the learner is asked to write the target word.

She notes that the technique works best with students who have a strongly visual learning style.