Spelling - What is the best way?!
Ok I had other ideas for a post but after reading Wesley Fryer’s post “The Ouboard Brain, Memory, Transfer and Learning” I have to ask the question - Who has hit the nail on the head when it comes to teaching spelling? What works best for you?
In his post Wesley says “The fact that my own children are regularly taking spelling tests at school continues to both trouble and irritate me as well. There is virtually NO academic research I read or was exposed to in my masters and doctoral graduate coursework in education which suggests giving students spelling tests of decontextualized words on a weekly basis improves their abilities to spell, read or write. The real skill related to spelling is WRITING, and the best way to improve writing skills (according to the body of literacy research reviewed by Dr. Stephen Krashen of USC in his excellent book, ““The Power of Reading, Second Edition: Insights from the Research” is to encourage students to READ prolifically.”
Options I have used in the past include:
- Giving Parents a list to go through with their child.
- Using Essential Spelling Lists and then placing these new words into children’s homework books.
- Progressing through spelling activity books where children complete fun games that teach them to learn how to spell and use grammar correctly.
- Taking misspelt words out of their writing and placing it into their homework books.
- Teaching spelling as part of my “Word of the Week” feature where I hit an English rule once a week eg: “When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking.”
In all of the situations above there is a test on Friday with the teacher/buddy to monitor progress. Sometimes we graph the results so the students can see a trend.
I don’t feel I have hit the nail on the head yet - does anyone else have any other ideas??
Picture Author:
"Classroom" - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart
on November 10th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I have a bit of a mixture of all of these. We have just started Lexia Reading at school which is VERY focussed on phonemic awareness- I am not convinced. Being able to pronounce words read correctly is not all that reading is about. I think it might be great for those for whom reading is a struggle but generally I think it can be limiting.
We learn the essential spelling lists, but I group them into word families (round, around, ground) - and then do word study type learning.
on November 10th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Well that is the million dollar question isn’t it - I have no answer, we have a school wide spelling programme that is part of hwork and I have to follow it. I have children in my class who don’t do their homework and their spelling has developed just as well as those who do their homework. It would be interesting to know if it does actually make any difference to the children’s spelling in the long run or whether their reading and writing progress is directly linked to their spelling improvements.
There would be some that would say spelling is not an important skill for the future too… lots of ways to check spelling, maybe we will be into voice activated software in the future and spelling and writing will be obsolete. If only I was sure how to spell obselete!!
on November 10th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Tricky question. I detest teaching spelling. I have to follow the procedures at school but I find teaching kids words on a list means they can spell them during tests but not in everyday situations. However I must test the list for school. To overcome the tedium of this spelling testing I have now produced audio recordings of all of the spell write lists and when kids need to be tested they put on their headphones at the computer and do their tests by themselves and bring me their lists. This way I don’t have to take time out of my programme to do the dreaded testing. I fulfill the school requirements and can go back to authentic just in time teaching of spelling according to individual student needs during reading and writing activities.
I have no answer. But I have found a way to make my life easier.
on November 10th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I have done the same thing as Jane. Great minds think alike! So much easier to have the lists on iPod or iTunes. No hassle to test individually then. I reckon I could sell the audio- make a mint!
on November 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Well I have been planning all year to do the audio thing with the lists but haven’t got round to it - outsourced all the testing to parents instead so I do nothing except organise them to be there every monday morning. They test each child individually (on the school lists that I have to use) and record it in their book - they even fill in a list for me of each child’s score so I can see how they are doing if I want. I think the secret is to outsource as much as possible to the parent helpers! They love being involved and it frees me up to teach much more important things.
on November 11th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
@Jane and @Allanah I think it is cool that you have set up audio recordings for your kids – an inventive approach. Thanks for feeding that info forward to me. It has opened my eyes to some new ideas…..I wonder if there is a digital spelling program like Mathletics (http://www.mathletics.com.au) in which I could hook up individual accounts for my kids??
@Marnie - having your parents help has worked well for me too. I have a Mum that comes in every Friday and she writes the new words into my students H.W/Diary books. Saves me 30min on administration.
@Allanah yup sell the audio lists - next thing you know you will be living up above Rocks Road with a view! ;+)
I still am wondering however about the most effective way to teach spelling?……
on November 12th, 2007 at 8:16 am
There is a programme called spellodrome and it is advertised on the Mathletics website. Some classes at my school have it but I don’t - maybe next year.
on November 12th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
@Marnie Your right! Hmmm would definately be interesting to check out. I have just enrolled for the 2 week trial. Will keep you posted ;+)
on December 23rd, 2007 at 9:52 am
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