Changing the weekly spelling test

The chapter, Cracking the Alphabetic Code from Literacy for the 21st Century,  was packed full of useful and practical information.  One topic that struck home with me was the section on spelling and whether teachers should administer weekly spelling tests.   Last year, I had a weekly spelling test.  I sent home a list of words each week that student would study and then be expected to spell them on Friday.  Most of the children were able to memorize the words and spell them correctly for the test, but I had little evidence that they really owned the words or could spell them correctly out of context. 

I enjoyed the study strategy presented in this chapter.  This approach to spelling instruction is very student centric in that the students pick the words they will study each week.  The teacher develops a weekly list of words for the student to study.  The words on the master list come from a variety of sources including but not limited to the word wall.  Students spend 5 – 10 minutes per day studying their words.  The teacher directs the students to

• Look at the word and say it to yourself.
• Say each letter in the word to yourself.
• Close your eyes and spell the word to yourself.
• Write the word and check that you spelled it correctly
• Write the word again and check that you spelled it correctly.

I found it interesting that using the words in sentences or gluing yarn in the shape of words is not very effective.  Last year, I had my students use their words in sentences each week thinking it was an effective way for them to practice.  After reading this chapter, I am going to rethink how I teach spelling this year.  I am going to try having the students select their words .  I’ll teach this strategy for studying their words and then I’ll do an assessment on Fridays during small group instruction instead of as a whole group exercise.

Reading Rockets,(www.readingrockets.org, has a great section on spelling.  In the article, How Spelling Words by Louisa Moats, the author goes into an in-depth discussion of why we study spelling and some of the best methods for teaching spelling.   I found it interesting that The National Reading Panel does not include spelling as one of its five components necessary for a comprehensive reading program.  It had been generally assumed that good readers would become good spellers.  Research did not support this theory. 

"A group of researchers in Houston who followed children from first through fourth grade found that spelling achievement can plummet while reading comprehension holds steady at about the 50th percentile."

So even with the use of spell checker, clearly we need to continue to teach spelling .

"For young children, research clearly indicates that spelling supports learning to read, and for older children, it’s likely that learning about the meaningful relationships between words will contribute to vocabulary growth and reading comprehension."

The benefits of teaching spelling are many.  As teachers, we may just need to change how we teach it.  Happy Spelling!

References 

Tompkins, G.E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach (5th ed.). Boston, MA:     Pearson Education, Inc.

Moats, L, (2006) How Spelling Works, retrieved from

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3475