Are You a Super Sign Speler or Speller?

Intro: Discuss: Why is spelling Important? What areas do we use spelling with? Why should we learn to spell?

After the discussion, reiterate that spelling is everywhere (Books, Music, Billboard signs, Resumes, Games, text messaging, etc!). Ask where students see visual displays and make a visual list. Cut out pictures of examples for display.

Questions to ask:

1)Why is spelling important?

2) If things are misspelled, does that change our understanding of what was written? What about words with multiple meanings, but similar spellings (Homophones)or words that are spelled the same but have different meanings (heteronyms)? Give examples.
Homophone-bark (on a tree/dog sound)

Heteronym- wind (strong current of air/to use a circular motion), desert (to abandon/arid region), etc.

3) Can spelling be used creatively? Give examples. (Toys r' Us, R U rdy? etc.)

4) With technology, can we rely on spell checkers to correct our work 100% of the time? (Share an article w/ common misspellings that Spell Checker will miss.)

Assign: Students will pick the misspelled word from pictures of signs and spell them correctly (utilizing all types of materials and technology to check spelling).

Students will then be assigned a camera for a week, or however long, to find signs that are misspelled and take pictures of them. They will then add it to the Misspelling Bulletin Board for other students to correct. The student will share where the sign was found, and marking where they were found (on a US map, local map, etc.). This will be shared with the Math teacher for them to do extensive graphing.