Why I Teach Spelling Differently
Hi! I’m Emily — a third grade teacher, resource creator, and the teacher behind The Miss Brown.
And if there’s one thing I could talk about all day, it’s words.
More specifically, I love helping students understand how words work.
For a long time, spelling instruction often looked something like this: Give students a list of words on Monday, practice them during the week, take a test on Friday, and start over with a brand-new list the following Monday.
Some kids did great.
Some memorized the words long enough to pass the test.
And some struggled week after week.
The more I learned about structured literacy, spelling, and morphology, the more I realized that I didn’t want my students simply memorizing words.
I wanted to give them strategies for figuring words out.
That’s Where Morphology Comes In
Morphology sounds like one of those complicated education words, but the idea behind it is actually pretty simple.
Morphology is the study of the meaningful parts of words.
Take the word unhelpful.
Instead of seeing it as one long string of letters students have to memorize, we can break it apart:
un + help + ful
Suddenly, students have information they can use.
They can recognize the base help. They can learn that the prefix un- means not. They can learn that the suffix -ful means full of.
Now they aren’t just spelling a word.
They’re understanding it.
And that shift has completely changed the way I approach word study in my classroom.
But I Don’t Start With Morphology Alone
This is an important part of my approach.
Morphology is incredibly powerful, but I don’t believe it should replace strong foundational spelling instruction.
Before I ask students to analyze prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin bases, I want them to understand the structure underneath those words.
We work with syllables. We study spelling conventions. We learn what happens when we add suffixes to words.
For example, students learn why we write:
hop → hopping
but
hope → hoping
Those aren’t random spellings students simply need to memorize. There are patterns behind them.
Once students begin seeing those patterns, we can build on that knowledge with increasingly complex morphology.
That’s why my spelling instruction follows a progression:
Syllables and spelling conventions → suffixes → prefixes → Greek and Latin bases → more advanced morphology
Each piece gives students another tool for understanding unfamiliar words.
Spelling Shouldn’t Feel Like Guessing
This might be the biggest reason I care so much about this work.
I don’t want a student staring at a word and thinking,
“I either know how to spell this or I don’t.”
I want them thinking:
What do I know about this word?
What is the base?
Is there a prefix or suffix?
Is there a spelling rule I can apply?
Do I recognize a meaningful word part?
That’s a completely different way of approaching spelling.
We’re moving students away from memorization and toward analysis.
And the really exciting part is that this work doesn’t stay in the spelling lesson. Understanding word structure can support students as they encounter increasingly complex vocabulary in reading, writing, science, social studies, and beyond.
Why I Created The Miss Brown
I’m a classroom teacher, which means everything I create starts with a very practical question:
Can I actually use this with real kids in a real classroom?
I love the research behind literacy instruction, but I also know what it’s like to have 23 students sitting in front of you and approximately twelve seconds to transition into the next lesson. 😂
Teachers need resources that make strong instruction doable.
That’s what I want The Miss Brown to be.
Here you’ll find resources and ideas for teaching spelling, morphology, word study, reading, and literacy — with a particular focus on helping upper-elementary students understand the why behind words.
You’ll see a lot about:
- syllable types and spelling conventions
- prefixes and suffixes
- Greek and Latin bases
- morphology
- vocabulary
- structured word study
- practical literacy routines you can actually implement
And because I’m also a parent, I want this space to help families, too.
Education has its own language. When your child comes home talking about morphemes, syllable types, vowel teams, prefixes, or bases, it can feel like you need a teaching degree just to understand the homework.
You shouldn’t.
So I’ll be sharing resources here for teachers and parents who want to better understand how children learn to read and spell.
Let’s Dig Into Words
If you’ve ever thought,
“There has to be a better way to teach spelling than having kids memorize 20 words every week…”
you’re in the right place.
There is so much more to English spelling than memorization.
Words have structure.
Words have history.
Words have meaning.
And when we teach students how to look for those things, we’re giving them strategies they can carry far beyond Friday’s spelling test.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Welcome to The Miss Brown.