Ask many children what their easiest subject is in school, and chances are good they will say spelling. Memorizing a spelling list is child’s play for most children. And if they learn to use shortcuts like Doug H Nut for the word doughnut, it’s even easier. One hundred percent on spelling tests is common, with the grade from the textbook not far behind.

But take a look at this same child’s daily work and a different story is told. In their general writing, many words are spelled like they sound, not following any spelling rules. Words they may have had on last week’s spelling list have been forgotten. Words that may be at the top of the page in a ‘use these words’ box are commonly misspelled.

What is going on with our spelling? It seems like there is a disconnect between Spelling as a subject and spelling as a way of a student’s life.

What’s the reason?

While I don’t know the exact reason for this, I do have some opinions (of course, I do!), as to why it could be happening. (Disclaimer: I am pointing no fingers with this article. I love our children, our teachers and schools. I love curricula (CLE and ABeka with equal feeling), and I believe that anything can be taught with as little or as many helps as you have.)

Reasons:

Children being allowed to get by with misspellings.

Teachers not taking the time to make sure misspelled words are corrected.

Parents interfering with discipline teachers want to use.

Blaming curricula when that is a very small part of the problem. (There is truth in it that some children learn better one way versus another, but I’m talking about average learners in this article. We certainly need to take a different approach with children that have difficulty learning.)

Accepting lower standards. (Lower case words that should be capitalized falls into this category, which is the bane of my existence. But I digress.)

No matter the reason, it is important to look at reasons for learning to spell, and what we can all do to help it.

Academically, spelling is very important. Spelling teaches phonics, helping a child see how sounds “look”.

Knowing how words are built helps a child recognize them more quickly.

Automatic spelling frees up brain space to focus on the meaning of the text.

Spelling correctly helps the reader to understand the message you are trying to get across.

Spelling rules make writing and reading easier.

Studying how words break down into roots, prefixes and suffixes deepens a child’s grasp of language. It is common for spelling to ‘click’ a few years after reading ‘clicks’, so just because your child can read well, don’t assume they know how to spell. It is important to keep teaching spelling rules even if reading is going well.

Spelling ability affects reading ability. Studies link spelling instruction to reading fluency. As patterns are mapped in the brain, reading and fluency improve.

Spelling ability affects reading comprehension. As speed and fluency improve, your child’s brain is free to understand the meaning of what they are reading. They transiton from Learning to Read to Reading to Learn.

Spelling ability affects self-confidence. This is huge! By being strict with our children, we are helping them have proper self worth for the rest of their lives. A lack of spelling ability can be viewed as lower intelligence. No matter the reason for poor spelling, this viewpoint can be a lifelong stuggle. Taking the time to teach our children to learn to spell correctly can impact them in a positive way. It will impact their self perception, relationships and even business opportunites.

I have read that mistakes or typos are not tolerated in any formal environment. One study said most employers reject a candidate before they even get to an interview if there are words misspelled in their application. They say if a person is not sensible enough to make sure an application is mistake-free, how can they be trusted with serious responsiblities.

But Spellcheck..

What about it? In today’s world,the argument is to just rely on spell-check to fix all your mistakes. After all, that is what it is for. It is helpful. I use spell-check all the time and it catches and fixes many of my typos. Spell-check can’t cover a lack of education, though. If you are not availing yourself of your own brain power, no amount of technology is going to cover that up. Plus, spell-check won’t know if you mean miss, kiss, hiss, or Liss. All of those are spelled correctly and will be left on the page. Spell check doesn’t know the difference in homophones (dear and deer). Your computer does not understand context and it is not a mind reader. Learning to spell correctly supports brain growth. Leaving it to spell-check is a lazy way and will not improve brain health or growth.

It’s easy to blame the curriculum for a lack of spelling in our children, and I’m not saying different curricula don’t have an impact, but over the years people have learned to spell and read with much less than we have at our disposal. Blaming curricula is circumventing our own responsibilty. That is accepting a lower standard and saying it is what it is.

What can parents do?

There are even things parents can do to help out.

One great way to help out is the Tap It, Map It, Zap It method. I have seen this method work right in our own school. It completley changed the look of this child’s spelling. The parents were willing and ready to do something about the problem starting on Monday to be ready for a Friday spelling test. I just talked to the mom and she told me this year is going well so far with better spelling. She also said all of the other subjects were going better this year, too. There could be two explanations for this. Learning to spell gave this child a needed boost in self esteem. That left room for paying attention to all subjects because he was no longer stressing over spelling. Also, it is common in a curriculum like CLE for things to click around 3rd to 4th grade. That could be what happened. No matter the reason for it, I know everyone is happy with the progress.

Here is a quick explanation. If you need more explanation, look it up online. You can find video examples.

TAP IT: Say the word, then tap once for each sound. Ship has three sounds: /sh/ /i/ /p/

MAP IT: Write the letters for each sound in seperate boxes: sh | i | p. Two letters can represent one sound.

ZAP IT: Slide a finger under the word, blend the sounds, and read the whole word.

Another great way to bring awareness is to point it out. This may not correct the problem, but children need to know when a word is spelled incorrectly. Chances are high that they have a sixth sense when they aren’t spelling words is spelled correctly and deep down expect the teacher to correct it. Simply showing them a word is wrong and what the right spelling is can be helpful. Having them write that word a few times is even better.

What Can Teachers Do?

There are a lot that teachers can do to help with this problem. It starts with paying close attention while checking.

Have spelling class. It may feel repetious because it closely mimics phonics and learning to read, but it is important. Spelling is coming from a different viewpoint. This is especially for younger grades – I always say if the younger grades teachers do their job correctly the upper grade teacher doesn’t have to have spelling class. (Yet another reason to teach the uppers. 🙂

Option 1:

Go cold turkey. Without warning, have the students correct every misspelling in all subjects. While this gets the point across, you can expect mutiny from the students, phone calls from the parents (and board), and sleepless nights for you resulting in possible over caffenination.

Option 2:

Choose one subject (or even a section in one or two subjects) for all students and grades. This lets you break in easy and when you explain it to them, it doesn’t sound so harsh. Let them know that in reading (or the subject you choose), all misspelled words will be marked and corrected. Tell them exactly what to expect. You can make up your own method, but here is an easy one to get you thinking.

All misspelled words are marked with an SP and the number of times they are to write it. Start small. 3x is a great place to start. Come recess time, any students with spelling corrections stays in and does those. (Misspelled words on correction papers also need to be corrected, because the point is to make them aware of what they are doing.) There is a good chance you will have a lot of corrections the first few days, but as you keep strict those corrections are going to go way down. The children will catch on that you mean business and start paying closer attention. After you have use 3x for a day or two, up that number to 5x to help them know you mean business. Holding to this plan for the year will greatly improve spelling in most situations.

At the very least, mark misspelled words in most work. Children have an inborn sense of fairness, and most likely know they aren’t spelling everything correctly. They expect you to mark them wrong. You may not have them correct them all, and that’s fine. Still mark them. (Please remember I am talking about average learners here. If you have a child with a serious spelling difficulty, use your own discretion. That does not apply to most of your students.)

What can the board do?

The board plays a part here, too. Sometimes the curriculum does need to be looked at and changed. Sometimes the teachers need to be told to buckle down. Sometimes parents ruffled feathers need to be calmed. All of this is under the schoolboard’s jurisdiction and none of it is easy.

There are a couple good options as far as curriculum goes, though. Spark Phonics and Phonemic Awareness are two courses that could easily help out your spelling when taught by a dedicated teacher.

Spark Phonics is a course for first and second graders. It is a comprehensive phonics and penmanship course that complements the WWPPS readers. These readers are a Canadian reading program. It was published in the mid 1900s, so it’s been around a few years. The pictures in the 1st and 2nd grade books have a Dick and Jane flair to them. They are very cute. The stories also contain a little bit of Canadian history which doesn’t hurt this American school.

This is a fairly new curriculum added to the Approved Textbook List. This course is printed by Guiding Light Publishers*. We started Spark here two years ago and I have had reports from the moms that they are really impressed with the words their children can read and the work they do in Spark phonics. I am anxious to follow these grades through school and see how they do.

Phonemic Awareness is for helping students identify, manipulate and hear individual speech sounds. These sounds are called phonemes. It is an auditory skill and does not require seeing or reading printed letters.

The difference between phonics and phonemic awareness is simple.

Phonemic awareness deals only with spoken sounds. You hear them and manipulate them (change the first letter in hip to /s/).

Phonics involves connecting those sounds to written letters and letter patterns. With phonics the child is reading printed letters.

Two Examples

One of my girls got a letter from a friend one time and that letter was so well written I decided to find out which curriculum they use to teach reading and spelling. I asked the mom and she said “Abeka.” We all know the Abeka phonics is stringent and seems to work well. I felt deflated because we use CLE here and I was hoping for similar results.

Awhile later, I was teaching the primary Sunday School class and we had a visitor. I was sitting across from her and watching her write answers in her book. I was impressed with the big words she was writing. She was using complete sentences on part of it and all in all it just looked great. After finding out who her parents were, I messaged her mom and asked the same question. Imagine my surprise when she answered “CLE”.

This isn’t a comprehnesive case study, but it does prove that it can be done with either curriculum. Children’s ability definitely plays a part, too. I have no idea if both of these children had natural aptitude. I believe that dedicated teachers and parents can get the work taught no matter what.

All in all, spelling isn’t a lost cause. This is a call to parents and teachers to pick up your courage and help the children in your care.

Opinions in this article are mine. Typos are spellchecks.

-Eva

*Guiding Light Publishers is a school-focused arm of the church. GLP has also published The Singing Series music books our children at Sunny Plains take.

** Did you catch all the misspelled words?