News & Notes

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Notes

(From Essential Word Knowledge Skills)

In the history of spelling instruction, events and their consequences have confounded the development of strategic solutions.  The study of spelling words was downgraded in the 1980’s because of the emphasis on learning to read by reading.  When reintroduced in the 1990’s spelling was a curriculum area separate from reading with its own, researched, developmental patterns and guidelines.  Finally, NICHD’s research focused on how children learned to read and not how they learned to spell, further separating the two domains.

In our work we have found that developmental spelling acquisition is structurally different and more rapid than is generally supposed when students of any age know the vowel system of English and learning to spell words occurs after the words to be spelled have been targeted for reading instruction.  Being able to spell words supports the retention of reading sight-word vocabularies and retention of the meanings and pronunciations of words targeted with instruction.  Moreover, it supports ‘catching up’ with students who have learned to read and spell effortlessly or easily.  We hypothesize that spelling, using the alphabetic principle, as in reading, improves phonemic and phonological awareness and thereby strengthens the reciprocal relationship between awareness and more advanced reading and spelling skills.