Check my next post for the activities to do to make watching the movie fun and helpful in adding points for you on the SAT test (or any other test of your critical thinking skills). The movie is about a national spelling contest, but the inclusion of community support, after some family conflict is part of the lesson to help on standardized tests. The emotional intelligence strategies make this movie one of the best models for studying words, as they are in addition to the traditional ways to add comprehension skills.
If you dismiss the study strategies related to this part of the SAT studies because you are not good with spelling, I hope you will visualize what I tell you. This can make the difference in how well you do on all standardized tests. The ability to spell well does not help you on a multiple choice test by showing your personal spelling ability. Learning words, visually, along with all of the examples connected to them and the background of the words, is the fastest and strongest method of building your comprehension for the type of questions you encounter on standardized tests. After all, the answer is there. Everything you recognize and connect to what else you know leads you to the correct solution. Think of each word as code.
If you are learning to use invented spelling for expressing ideas, please let me share some more information with you. Invented spelling is quite useful when you are using your own code or shorthand to jot down information and ideas while writing. When you have the chance to look up the correct spelling of words, however, this is an activity that adds to your brain power in more ways than learning to spell.
Making up your own words--or neologisms--and spelling them according to a specific reasoning on your part, is brain expanding. Inventing spelling of words already in use--so you can jot down ideas of words you want for certain expression is a positive technique. Some other usage will confuse your own thought processes, as you see the word you are not managing in your own mind yet, and do not recognize it.
We can learn from how difficult it is for a dyslexic person to copy a word correctly when writing. The same person can often visualize words on the 'blackboard' of the mind and spell them forward and backward. Realizing the ability to do this for a person is a strong tool to use in other areas. This visualization can be a method of putting the thoughts in your mind into a sort of filing system that slips in together when you encounter new problems or new issues.
We will be using more tools like this to exercise the areas that help in displaying knowledge. For now, believe me, looking at the word while hearing or seeing the word in captioning or singing the word, writing the word in a special font--all with the correct spelling, is a way to build understanding. It is more than spelling.
Check back for more about the program. judycarol&rocket cat
