Spelling : Best Practices Kristan Bachner Ashley Smith Michele
Renner By:
Slide 2
The Complete Spelling Program Teaching spelling strategies
Matching instruction to students stage of spelling development
Providing daily reading and writing opportunities Teaching students
to learn to spell high-frequency
Slide 3
Important Strategies Segmenting the word and spelling each
sound often called sound it out Spelling unknown words by analogy
to familiar words Applying affixes to root words Proofreading to
locate spelling errors in a rough draft Locating the spelling of
unfamiliar words in a dictionary
Slide 4
In The Classroom * Word walls *Making words *Word sorts
*Interactive writing *Proofreading *Dictionary use *Spelling
options
Slide 5
The Code phonological code -coding and awareness of sounds in
spoken words. morphological code -word parts at the beginning of
words that modify shade of meaning and at end of words that mark
tense, number, or part of speech. orthographic code -coding and
awareness of letters in written words.
Slide 6
Phonemic Approach Understanding the relationship between
letters and their corresponding sounds is an important skill for
successful reading and spelling performance. The National Reading
Panel (NRP) reported to Congress that teaching phonemic awareness
exerts strong and significant effects on childrens reading and
spelling skills, with those effects lasting well beyond the end of
training (National Reading Panel, 2000). Spelling curricula that
use explicit instruction in the letter-sound relationship to teach
high frequency regular words have demonstrated effectiveness
teaching students to spell accurately. The phonological awareness
skills of segmenting, sequencing, discriminating, and identifying
phonemes all play a role during the encoding process. The decoding
process draws upon the phonological awareness skills of
identifying, sequencing, and blending phonemes
Slide 7
Morphemic Approach A morphograph is the smallest unit of
identifiable meaning in written English. Morphographs include
prefixes, suffixes, and bases or roots Morphographs are generally
spelled the same across different words. For example, the
morphograph port is spelled the same in the words porter, deport,
and important. When the spelling of a morphograph changes across
words it does so in predictable ways. An example of a morphograph
that changes across a word is the morphograph trace is spelled
differently in the words trace and tracing, but the change is
governed by the rule for dropping the final e. Teaching students to
spell morphographs and teaching the rules for combining
morphographs will allow students to spell a far larger set of words
accurately than by teaching individual words through rote
memorization of weekly spelling lists.
Slide 8
Mental Orthographic Memory Individuals need to develop clear
and complete mental representations of previously read words in
order to automatically and accurately read and spell. When
spelling, individuals rely upon the mental image of a word when
phonological awareness and knowledge of phonics, vocabulary, word
parts, and related words are not sufficient to correctly spell a
spelling pattern within a word (e.g., soap not sope; ticket not
tickit; sailor not sailer). These mental images of words, also
known as mental orthographic images are stored in an individuals
long-term memory after repeated exposure to them in print.
Slide 9
Whole-Word Approach Whole-word approaches work well for words
that are considered irregular. Many whole-word approaches, however,
rely on rote memorization for all words, instead of taking
advantage of phonemic rules that can simplify the task of spelling.
Memorization is not the most efficient strategy for spelling
instruction of all words but can be used effectively to teach
irregularly spelled words.
Slide 10
Vocabulary Knowledge Individuals use vocabulary knowledge to
accurately store and retrieve the correct spelling of words Word
meaning, coupled with awareness of the complete phonological and
orthographic structure of the word, is the glue that holds new
reading vocabulary in the individuals long-term memory.
Slide 11
Spelling Tests: Yes or No? Controversial thoughts Ineffective
use of spelling tests Effective use of spelling tests
Slide 12
Bibliography Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st
century (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill. Simonsen, F.,
& Gunter, L. (2001). Beat Practices in Spelling Instruction: A
Research Summary. Journal of Direct Instruction, 1(2), 97-105.
Berninger, V., & Fayol, M. (2008). Why spelling is important
and how to teach it effectively. Encyclopedia of Language and
Literacy Development (pp. 1-13). London, ON: Canadian Language and
Literacy Research Network. Retrieved [insert date] from
http://www.literacyencyclopedia.ca/pdfs/topic.php?topId=234http://www.literacyencyclopedia.ca/pdfs/topic.php?topId=234
Wasowicz, J. (n.d.). Improving Written Language Using a
Multiple-Linguistic Spelling Word Study Approach. Learning by
Design. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from
http://www.learningbydesign.comhttp://www.learningbydesign.com
Davis, B. G. (n.d.). Sitton Spelling and Word SkillS. School
SpecialtyLiteracy and Intervention. Retrieved November 16, 2011,
from http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/download
