Boost Spelling Confidence with the "SP?" Strategy!

The "SP?"

The "SP?" strategy is a no-prep strategy that will boost your students’ confidence and metacognition when writing.

In most cases, we plan the content of the charts we co-create with students, carefully choosing the vocabulary and facts and penciling them out ahead of time.

But what happens when we are writing freely or recording the ideas of our students and we have doubts about the spelling of a word? 

The How

When free writing in front of students, don’t be afraid to show uncertainty with spelling. Instead, tell your students that you are unsure and annotate your doubt by adding "SP?" above the word. 

By doing this, you are showing your students that it is okay to take risks when spelling, but it is also important to acknowledge and annotate the potential error so that you can easily go back to it and revise later. After adding an "SP?" above the word, continue writing to model the importance of staying on topic.

At a later point, return to the word to check and edit if necessary. After modeling, encourage students to check and edit the words that we have annotated with an "SP?" on their own. In this way, we are gradually releasing the responsibility to students.

The more often we model this strategy as teachers, the more confident students will feel using it in their own writing. The "SP?" is a strategy that will boost your students’ confidence and metacognition when writing. 

Watch a classroom demo of this strategy below:

Take a moment to reflect: How will you incorporate "SP?" in your own classroom?