Guest Author - Marie Rippel
Most spelling programs cause a lot of unnecessary struggle for students. Too often, children will get a passing score on their their weekly spelling tests, but if you look at their writing outside of the spelling class, their writing is riddled with spelling errors. Many students can memorize a spelling list for a test on Friday, but have no idea how to sound out a word or use phonetic strategies to help them spell on their own.
There are several reasons why the "list-on-Monday, test-on-Friday" doesn't work for many kids.
1. The student may be approaching spelling letter by letter. Instead of recognizing general spelling patterns and understanding basic spelling rules, the student thinks that he must memorize long strings of letters. He may be able to accomplish this in time for the test on Friday, but many of the words don't actually "stick," and the child forgets how to spell them soon after the test.
2. These "list-on-Monday, test on Friday" spelling programs don't teach children how to listen for each sound in a word and then represent each sound with the corresponding letter or letters (phonograms). Thousands of words can be spelled with this simple method, reducing the number of spelling words that require memorization or application of a spelling rule.
3. Most spelling programs don't include nearly enough review. Unfortunately for the child, after a word has been introduced and tested, the word is dropped from future review. Continual review is very important and should be built right into the lesson plans. Review can be in the form of word dictation and sentence dictation.
Good spelling doesn’t need to be a struggle. But it does need to be taught in systematic and logical way. We need to give our students the skills they need to spell words correctly beyond the quiz on Friday.
Marie Rippel is the author of the All About Spelling program.
