We had to write the week's 10 spelling words in a sentence, the teacher said. First, I tried to get as many words as possible in the same sentence. Then, I had a brilliant idea: I listed the 10 words and added "are our spelling words this week." The teacher was not amused.
Spelling lists, quizzes and bees went out of fashion writes Elizabeth Heubeck in Education Week. "Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, the 'whole language' movement that dominated literacy instruction downplayed or outright dismissed the importance of teaching students to spell phonetically. Instead, it stressed that students learn to read through exposure to and immersion in books."
Even when the tide turned toward phonics, spelling was seen as secondary, perhaps a bit outdated. After all, there's spellcheck and now AI.
"Hundreds of schools and districts have dropped spelling tests and explicit spelling instruction from their curriculum, according to a 2021 report from Educational Psychology Review, and spelling no longer appears on all state standardized tests," writes Heubeck.
However, literacy researchers say spelling -- connecting sounds to letters -- is a key component of learning to read.
“Spelling kickstarts the process of reading and writing, and it does this by connecting to [brain] circuitry, where the sounds and pronunciation of words already exist in spoken language,” says Richard Gentry. Accurate spelling leads to reading fluency and comprehension.
Spelling instruction should taught as part of phonics lessons, says Shawna Kay Williams-Pinnock. Memorizing a list of words isn't helpful. Teachers should introduce a sound, such as the short "a," then have students read words that share the sound and have them try to spell the words. “Students need to understand the letter-sound relationships and certain spelling principles and rules that they can then apply in spelling,” she says.
Gentry recommends 20 minutes a day of spelling instruction. Don't expect children to pick up spelling from their reading, he writes. English is too complex for that. However, "nine out of 10 children should be able to learn to read and spell English proficiently" if taught in a structured literacy program.
Reading all the posts you put everyday (yeoman's work, btw) one would come to the conclusion that the American educations system doesn't work...
Oh wait...
I noticed this when I taught our kid to read. In second grade, he came home with a 27% on a spelling test, and obviously needed help. I looked around and found the "All About Spelling" program, which explicitly teaches the rules and guidelines of spelling. Within a couple months, he came home with a 100% on a test.
At the same time, his reading took off.
Before spelling got sidelined, boys would lag girls in reading until roughly 4th grade, then they'd catch up. My suspicions after our experience, is that they might not have fully grasped the phonics of reading, but spelling acts as a second bite at the apple. What they didn't learn when they learned to…