Spelling Resources for Parents

Our guest blogger is Jennifer Moline, now with Wycliffe. She has served as a teacher to TCKs in Russia and as an education consultant with SHARE and The Navigators.

 

 

 

 

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Eye halve a spelling checker
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques for my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it to say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
It’s rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
Eye am shore your pleased two no
It’s letter perfect awl the weigh
My checker tolled me sew.

– Margo Roark

Philosophies:

Oh the questions and confusions that surround spelling! There are many philosophies on how to approach spelling, and then there are many realities to align with those philosophies.

Sharon Haag of International Children’s Education – iCHED, writes on the topic of spelling:

“The only reason for teaching spelling is to equip children to communicate effectively in writing.

The reason for working with children on spelling is not so they can score well on weekly spelling tests, get good grades in spelling, or win spelling bees. Many children manage to do all those things, yet their spelling in written work is atrocious! Of what real-life value is that kind of spelling program?

I believe children should be writing daily. This gives them opportunities to apply what they are learning through the spelling program. At the same time, it gives the teacher, through analysis of what children spell correctly and incorrectly in their written work, clues to the direction the spelling program needs to take.

The desire to communicate well through writing should be the greatest motivator for learning to spell. Spelling should be a facet of the writing program. Emphasis, however, should be stronger on the content being communicated than on perfect spelling.”

Read the rest of her excellent articles (Part 1 and 2) at:

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=spelling_spotlight1

http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=spelling_spotlight2

The Realities:

Most, if not all educators would agree with the bottom line of Haag’s philosophy – the reason for teaching spelling is so children can communicate with the written word. Therefore, let’s make learning it and “practicing” it a meaningful experience.

How do we bring a child to experience that meaningfulness? Many factors exist that we must work with in order to help our children to spell. In some cases the path to meaningfulness is more dry and empty than what we might desire, but it might be the only path available at that particular time. There will be occasions, or parents, or contexts, or children that will require a path that is out of line with “best practice” in the area of spelling. These are realities that we can decide to live with.

As a consultant, when you encounter different realities and contexts of the people you are helping, keep best practice in mind, and marry it with the reality for that child.

The world of spelling curriculum:

There are many options for spelling curriculum. Below I lay out a framework of types of spelling curriculum. What I hope that this does for you is help you to categorize other curriculum you are familiar with and will continue to learn about. In this way you can “get a handle” on what the options are in order to better serve the families you work with.

Here I have categorized the spelling curriculum by curriculum style, rather than philosophical style. This sorting of the material might easier lend itself to the consultant not as familiar with the lingo of spelling philosophies.

I have not reviewed the curriculum here, and certainly this is not a complete list of all the good curriculum out there. Rather, it is a sampling. For each resource I have mentioned one distinction of the curriculum and include a link to the publisher of the curriculum.

A.   Workbook Style:

• ACSI – Word lists are based on most-frequently-used-words and spelling rules. http://www.cathyduffyreviews.com/spelling-vocabulary/spelling-acsi.htm

• Spelling by Sound and Structure – Covers phonics, word meaning, word studies. http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/list/Rod_and_Staff_Spelling/

• Spellwell – Words are grouped by spelling rules, or patterns, and lessons are cumulative. https://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=8&category=1887

B.   Spelling lists with suggested activities:

• Spelling Power – Lists are easily individualized by pre-testing. http://www.castlemoyle.com/shopping/spelling/spellingpower.htm

• Spelling Plus – Program is based on the 1000 most frequently used words. Use with the accompanying Dictation Resource Book. http://www.susancanthony.com/bk/sp.html

C.   You create your own list:

• The Natural Speller – Choose from graded word lists and other categories of word lists. http://www.designastudy.com/products/1891975005.html

• Spelling Through Phonics – (could also be categorized under “Spelling Lists…”) – Explains a spelling and writing philosophy. Ages 5-8. http://www.portageandmainpress.com/book_detail.cfm?biD=131

D.   Unique programs:

• Phonetic Zoo – “A phonetically based audio spelling program.” http://iew.com/taxonomy/term/22/?f[0]=im_field_category%3A22

• Spell to Write and Read – An intense phonics based program. http://swrtraining.com/id23.html

• Sequential Spelling – Based on patterns, not spelling rules.   http://www.avko.org/shop/sequentialspelling.html

What resources for spelling have you found helpful for your families?

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