ABSTRACT
“Al, my principal pal, went to the capital. Two c’s and two r’s occur in occurred. Ible, ible, ible irresistible. You will be embarrassed if you don’t have two r’s and two s’s in embarrassed.” Students enjoy learning tough spelling words through mnemonics like these, which will stand the test of time. The teacher can create a list of the 25 most misspelled words from student work or from a published list. After the teacher’s modeling of the process of creating mnemonics, students can try to create them on their own. They then can keep their own inventions and/or choose those of other students. Here’s one on the spot: “Lose the extra ‘o’ when spelling lose and set it loose.” Students can probably improve on this one.
