Some good prompts for guiding students with spelling:

-Does the meaning of the word help you with the spelling?  

-Is it a word you can break into parts (or syllables), such as 'temp/er/a/ture'?  

-Is there a spelling hint in the word?

'a p ie ce of p ie ',  

'you h ear  with your ear'

or 'a cc ident = c ar c rash + dent

-Does the word have other words inside it?

-Is the word a compound word, such as 'football'?

-Is it a base-word with added letters, such as 'dresser'?

-Can you sound the word out easily?

-Can you change the pronunciation of the word to help with the spelling?

For example, emphasizing the 'n' sound in the word 'government' would mean that you would be less likely to leave the 'n' out.