Dictation
In the French education system dictation has become fashionable again. I remember dreading dictations, but it really is a good way to learn difficult spellings. Some dictations are on the spot, some are prepared and at primary school my children had to learn auto dictations. A piece to be learned by heart and written out from memory, spelling and all.

I remember spelling tests, we were given ten words on Monday to be learnt by Friday. We even had a special thin exercise/copy book to write spellings into. When I went to secretarial college we had 10 short forms to learn every day (remember shorthand?). If a word was wrong it was added to the next days list, this made the wrong doer unpopular with the rest of the class. As I was hopeless, my classmates soon hit on the plan that I was to lie about all the words I had got wrong. Fortunately I only stuck there for one term. I’ve also used this system for teaching the dreaded irregular verbs.