The aim of my Knowledge Exchange Project was to work with primary schools to develop resources to help teachers preparing their pupils for the primary Year 6 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar test. The project sought ways to make learning to spell more interesting and more fun, while using it to foster an interest and enthusiasm for the study of the English language. The project built upon my ongoing research into spelling, which was published as Does Spelling Matter? (Oxford University Press, 2013).
In addition to presentations to various schools, the project’s outcomes included podcasts, information sheets, worksheets and interactive quizzes, as well as supporting materials for teachers. Publications for a general audience included a number of posts for the Oxford Dictionaries Words blog, Babel: The Language Magazine and The Conversation, including articles on the role of spelling in society, the apostrophe and the place of wordplay in learning to spell.
Interest in the project from the media resulted in an article in The Guardian, ‘Spelling it out: is it time English speakers loosened up?’, and another in the Times Education Supplement. During the course of the project, I also developed links with the National Literacy Trust and Dyslexia International, for which I contributed online course materials.
Knowledge Exchange Fellowships Brochure
