Evaluating Spelling Programs and Materials

Graham, Steve

doi:10.1177/004005998501700410

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Specifically, spelling skills no longer simply entail the ability to spell correctly; rather, such skills now include phonological knowledge (i.e., phonemics and phonics), morphological knowledge (e.g., prefixes and suffixes), orthographic knowledge (e.g., phoneme-grapheme relationships), etymological knowledge (i.e., word origins), and visual knowledge (e.g., how letter patterns appear to the eye), many or all of which may develop in stages (Adoniou, 2014;Bear & Templeton, 1998;Gentry, 1982;and Henderson, 1985; for detailed discussion of the development of alphabetic knowledge and spelling ability, see Treiman & Kessler, 2014). Further, the ability to use a dictionary to check the spellings of words (Graham, 1985;Hillerich, 1982), use spellcheck programs (Montgomery et al, 2001), spell unfamiliar words, and learn the spellings of unfamiliar words found in written text also constitute important spelling skills. In tandem with those definitional changes, the number of ways to learn spelling has also grown (Johnston, 2000;Schlagal, 2002) and now includes a wide range of commercial spelling programs, spelling textbooks, and a variety of ad hoc techniques invented by teachers and others.…”

Section: Alternative Perspectives On Effective Spelling Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and high-stakes spelling tests. That approach was featured in best-selling textbooks such as the Horn-Ashbaugh Speller of 1920. In the early 21st century, however, skepticism as to the importance of spelling has grown, some schools have deemphasized or abandoned spelling instruction altogether, and there has been a proliferation of non-traditional approaches to teaching spelling. These trends invite a reevaluation of the role of spelling in modern English-speaking societies and whether the subject should be explicitly taught (and if so, what are research-supported methods for doing so). In this article, we examine the literature to address whether spelling skills are still important enough to be taught, summarize relevant evidence, and argue that a comparison of common approaches to spelling instruction in the early 20th century versus more recent approaches provides some valuable insights. We also discuss the value of explicit spelling instruction and highlight potentially effective ways to implement such instruction, including the use of spelling tests. Overall, our goals are to better characterize the role of spelling skills in today’s society and to identify several pedagogical approaches—some derived from traditional methods and others that are more recent—that hold promise for developing such skills in efficient and effective ways.

show abstract

Section: Alternative Perspectives On Effective Spelling Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Specifically, spelling skills no longer simply entail the ability to spell correctly; rather, such skills now include phonological knowledge (i.e., phonemics and phonics), morphological knowledge (e.g., prefixes and suffixes), orthographic knowledge (e.g., phonemegrapheme relationships), etymological knowledge (i.e., word origins), and visual knowledge (e.g., how letter patterns appear to the eye), many or all of which may develop in stages (Adoniou, 2014;Bear & Templeton, 1998;Gentry, 1982;and Henderson, 1981; for detailed discussion of the development of alphabetic knowledge and spelling ability, see Treiman & Kessler, 2014). Further, the ability to use a dictionary to check the spellings of words (Graham, 1985;Hillerich, 1977), use spellcheck programs (Montgomery et al, 2001), spell unfamiliar words, and learn the spellings of unfamiliar words found in written text also constitute important spelling skills. In tandem with those definitional changes, the number of ways to learn spelling has also grown (Johnston, 2000;Schagal, 2002) and now includes a wide range of commercial spelling programs, spelling textbooks, and a variety of ad-hoc techniques invented by teachers and others.…”

Section: Alternative Perspectives On Effective Spelling Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pan, Rickard, and Bjork (2021) Does spelling still matter—And if so, how should it be taught?

Pan¹,

Tc²,

Ra³

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and high-stakes spelling tests. That approach was featured in best-selling textbooks such as the Horn-Ashbaugh Speller of 1920. In the early 21st century, however, skepticism as to the importance of spelling has grown, some schools have deemphasized or abandoned spelling instruction altogether, and there has been a proliferation of non-traditional approaches to teaching spelling. These trends invite a reevaluation of the role of spelling in modern English-speaking societies and whether the subject should be explicitly taught (and if so, what are research-supported methods for doing so). In this article we examine the literature to address whether spelling skills are still important enough to be taught, summarize relevant evidence, and argue that a comparison of common approaches to spelling instruction in the early 20th century versus more recent approaches provides some valuable insights. We also discuss the value of explicit spelling instruction and highlight potentially effective ways to implement such instruction, including the use of spelling tests. Overall, our goals are to better characterize the role of spelling skills in today’s society and to identify several pedagogical approaches—some derived from traditional methods and others that are more recent—that hold promise for developing such skills in efficient and effective ways.

show abstract

“…This leaves the problem of how best to teach the necessary declarative knowledge (i.e., correct spelling) and promote its use in context. Spelling is not learned incidentally; research supports systematic instruction (Frank, Wacker, Keith, & Sagen, 1987;Graham, 1985), as atomistic or noncontextual as it may seem.…”

Section: Secretary Versus Authormentioning

confidence: 99%

Volleyball and Other Analogies

Isaacson

1992

J Learn Disabil

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Englert and her colleagues have contributed much to our knowledge about effective writing instruction. They have demonstrated that interventions that make explicit the writing process and text structures are successful with students with learning disabilities as well as those without. Englert attributes this success to the holistic, social, and interactive nature of the instruction. However, one must keep in mind that CSIW was a package approach that included other validated instructional components. CSIW teachers presented conceptual models, used examples and nonexamples to illustrate text structure concepts, modeled thinking overtly while demonstrating the process, provided guided practice by prompting the process through dialogue and think-sheets, faded prompts as students took over more of the responsibility for the process, and taught for generalization by addressing more than one text structure and promoting student talk about the process. As Englert reported, most teachers seldom do these things, even when they claim to teach the writing process. Englert allows for the possibility that all students with learning disabilities may not be ready for cognitive strategy instruction as it is described in her article, and professionals must acknowledge that different techniques may be more effective for students of different ages and abilities. Swanson (1990) emphasized that there must be a match between strategy and learner characteristics and that strategies must be considered in relation to a student's knowledge and capacity. Strategic teaching requires that the teacher have a repertoire of approaches along a continuum that encompasses coaching students to use their own mental resources at one end and basic skill instruction at the other.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

show abstract

Evaluating Spelling Programs and Materials

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

Pan, Rickard, and Bjork (2021) Does spelling still matter—And if so, how should it be taught?

Volleyball and Other Analogies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About