2. If you hand a little kid a piece of paper with ten spelling words on it and say, "Memorize these. You'll be tested on them tomorrow," you are doing the kid a serious disservice. To a little kid, the word "memorize" is either meaningless, or has some specific meaning that may not be of any use for the action we call "spelling". The word "memorize" means an entirely different thing with regard to a song, for example, than it does to a spelling word. Unless you tell the kid specifically and exactly what you mean by "memorize", you are playing a dirty trick on them.
Some kids will figure out how to do this magical "memorize" thing with the spelling words. Some won't. If you then give them a bad grade and a hard time because they "failed", you do them a further disservice, especially considering the fact that you failed to give them clear instructions in the first place.
I was one of the lucky ones: I figured it out. I'm a fiendishly good speller and proofreader (though I must issue a disclaimer here: almost nobody can proof their own output, and I'm sure that there are errors in my pages). Despite being able to do spelling, however, I was not able to explain it. I couldn't tell anyone else the meaning of the magic word "memorize", couldn't teach people how to do it.
I eventually learned a way to explain it and teach it. In fact, I can teach an enthusiastic 6-year-old in about 15 minutes. Adults tend to take a bit longer; they aren't as good at doing what you ask them to, and they have more baggage to work around. Also, they think that longer words are supposed to be harder, and that gives them trouble.
This is fairly straightforward in person, but quite difficult to explain in print, so please bear with me. If you are sloppy about following the directions (or if I'm sloppy about writing them), it won't work. In fact, there is no real guarantee it will work in any case: nothing's perfect! On the other hand, I have used this method to teach quite a few people how to spell, usually in a fairly straightforward manner. If you can catch me in person I'll be happy to play with you. Barring that, however, here's a method you can try. Again, no guarantees, except that if you approach this with care and thoughtfulness and an open attitude, you'll almost certainly learn something.
First, you need at least two people. (If we were in person, I'd serve as the other person. I'm not here, so...) For this particular method, both people have to have at least some vision. People who cannot see must use some other spelling method.
Person #1 asks person #2 some questions that require #2 to see pictures inside their head. Some of the pictures should be memory-pictures, and some should be new pictures that they are making up on the spot. Good examples are:
I just made those up; I encourage you to make yours up too, if you can. Just remember to note the differences between questions that tend to require the person to see something, and those that don't. (If you ask someone to remember their phone number, for example, they may do it by feeling where they put their finger when they press the buttons. This makes it easy for them to call the number, but hard to tell it to anyone else.)
As you ask each question and immediately after you ask it, watch what person #2 does with their eyes and their head and their posture. This is going to vary somewhat from person to person, and may even vary from moment to moment, so you've got to be on your toes.
What you're looking for is this: where do they look when they are remembering a picture? Where do they look when they are making up the picture? Can you tell the difference? Is it consistent? (With most people, most of the time, there does tend to be some consistent difference. It may be the direction they look in, which is probably the most common, or it may be something else, or even a combination of things.)
Once you have a fairly firm notion of the difference (for them -- doesn't make any difference how you do it), make sure they do the "remembering" thing for spelling. Otherwise they'll be making up the spellings. This is sometimes okay if you want a new word that has never existed before, but it won't work for things that are already in the dictionary!
The next piece of the puzzle involves having them see a word. It has to be a word they know, and they have to be doing the "remembering" thing when they see it. Also, they have to see the entire word, and it has to be stable. If the picture blurs or fuzzes out or won't stay put or they can't see the entire word, maybe they need to practice making pictures in their head. (Again, I've had lots of practice at this, and if you can catch me in person I'll be happy to play with you; sometimes there are easy ways around problems people have with parts of this. If you can't catch me, please remember that other people are just like yourself, and should be handled gently. If you force them, they either get very upset or they get busy protecting themselves, which is important if you're messing them up, but is not going to help them spell better.)
Once person #2 can see the entire word, have them read it off to you, from right to left (backwards, that is), one letter at a time. They should be literally reading off the picture. You write the letters down, also from right to left.
If they have any odd feelings while they're looking at the word in their head, have them pay particular attention. Those feelings are probably important.
Once they can see a word clearly and read it off one letter at a time, have them look at a word they know quite well, and then make one letter wrong. (One example is "enough" -- have them change the "o" into an "e", which makes "eneugh".) When they do that, they need to notice whatever changes occur in their feelings. The new feeling (if they get a change) is the "MISSPELLED!" feeling. They need to learn the difference between that feeling and other feelings, so they don't get confused. (Otherwise they might, for example, get a stomach-ache and think everything they see is misspelled!)
For me, the "oops, that's wrong" feeling is low down in my gut, on the right side. I know other people for whom the feeling is behind their eyes, or in the middle of their chest, or in other places. It varies from person to person. (We are, after all, individuals!)
Whenever they have to spell anything, they can look at the word
(either out in the world or in memory) and notice the feelings they
have when they do so. If it feels wrong, they can go check it in a
dictionary. If they have trouble remembering the word, they can go
look it up.
1) See the entire word, by looking in the correct place for remembering. If you have any trouble here, go to the dictionary. Trying to do this with less than the whole word is just looking for trouble. Trying to do this by sounding anything out is also just looking for trouble. Spelling is not about sound! If you care to test this, find someone who thinks that spelling is about sound, read the following sentence to them out loud, and have them write it down:
"A jot, a spot, a tot, or aught was what I thought I sought; but naught was what I got as I quaffed a draught." (I could go on and make it even worse, with beer and bier and peer and pier and various other things, but I won't. It's bad enough already.)
Have them write the sentence down as you read it, and then have them explain to you how they derived the spelling of each word. Good luck. If they can do that, have them tell you how to spell "Cholmondeley" from the way it sounds (prounounce it "Chum-lee", accent on the first syllable). No weaseling, either: a word is a word; names are words too. If you are going to claim to be able to spell, you have to be able to spell. ...But enough of that. Back to the method. Remember, step 1 is to see the entire word, by remembering it.
2) Be sure it feels right. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong.
3) Read it off, one letter at a time. (Some people need to mark each letter in some way as they read it, so they can keep their place. Some don't.)
4) Be gentle! Don't force anything. It's easier and more fun to go to the dictionary.
5) Like any other learning, this one takes practice. Generally a couple hours, spread out over a week or two (probably never more than about 15 minutes in any one day, unless you're really gung-ho), will do. The more you use this method (remember it clearly; feel it; if it feels right, read it off one letter at a time), the better it works.
I am deeply indebted to John Grinder and Richard Bandler, who taught me about this method and a bunch of other things. Also to various other people, including Robert Dilts and the late Todd Epstein.