Engaging in the Language Arts:
Exploring the Power of Language
Donna Ogle and James W. Beers
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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Allyn & Bacon
Engaging in the Language Arts:
Exploring the Power of Language
Donna Ogle and James W. Beers
Chapter 9:
Spelling Development
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Allyn & Bacon
Why Is Spelling Important
for Reading and Writing?
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For Reading
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Helps students make the connection between
sounds and letters in written words
For Writing
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Children’s understanding of the role of spelling
supports their writing efforts
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What Do We Know about
English Spelling?
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Spelling and Pronunciation Consistency
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What Do We Know about
English Spelling?
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Spelling and Structural Consistency
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What Do We Know about
English Spelling?

Spelling and Structural Change Patterns
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What Do We Know about
English Spelling?

Spelling and Meaning Consistency
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?
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Prephonetic Spelling Stage
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?
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Early Phonetic Spelling Stage
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?
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Phonetic Spelling Stage
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?
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Structural Spelling Stage
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?
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Meaning/Derivational Spelling Stage
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What Do We Know about
Learning to Spell?

Spelling Stage Summary
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What Else Do We Know about
Spelling Development?
Children Vary in Spelling
Development Rate
 Children Use Known Words to Spell
Other Words
 Importance of Frequent Writing

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How Can We Teach Spelling?
A Spelling Program Approach
 An Individualized Spelling Instruction
Approach
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Spelling Patterns
 Word Ladders
 Word Walls
 Word Sorts
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How Can We Teach Spelling?
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Allyn & Bacon
How Can We Teach Spelling?
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A Developmental Spelling Approach
Challenges of Teaching Spelling
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Word Lists
Number of Words
Sound, Structure, and Meaning
Spelling Strategies
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Building words (chop> chopping, chopped)
Helping rhymes (try—fly, light—sight)
Say it right (diffrent—different, suprise—surprise)
Find the problem (believe, friend)
Memory trick (occasion—I can’t come on that occasion)
Divide It Up (million—mil/lion, letter—let/ter)
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How Can We Assess Spelling?
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Spelling Placement Assessment
Score
Placement Level
What to Do
90-100%
60-80%
Independent
Instructional
40-50%
Support
0-35%
Frustration
Too easy. Go to higher level.
Place students in this gradelevel book.
Place students but assign
half the words.
Continue testing until you
reach instructional or
support level.
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How Can We Help English
Language Learners Learn to Spell?
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Instruction That Helps Students Who Are ELLs
Learn to Spell
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Use explicit spelling instruction of English spelling.
Spelling should be viewed as part of writing.
Use a multisensory approach combining visual, auditory, and
tactile activities.
Vary the instructional activities when teaching English spelling.
Teach developmentally appropriate words that are used by
children in the classroom.
Have students learn similarities and differences between their
native language and English.
Have students read and write pattern stories and poems.
Have students dictate, write, and share experiences stories.
Use words from their languages to compare them to SE words.
Show how SE words have come from other languages.
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Why Teach Handwriting?

Manuscript and Cursive
Writing
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Manuscript handwriting is taught
in the early primary grades and
looks most like the print found in
trade books and textbooks used
in classrooms.
Letters are joined in cursive
writing, which is learned in
second and third grade.
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Why Teach Handwriting?
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Legible Handwriting
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Are the letters written in the correct form?
Are letters proportional to themselves in terms of size?
(Uppercase letters are larger, and lowercase letters are smaller
and uniformly the same size according to their case.)
Are letters spaced evenly apart in words and are words spaced
one letter apart from each other?
Are letters straight or slanted consistently, depending upon the
handwriting form used? (manuscript versus cursive)
Are letters aligned consistently on the lines used in lined
paper?
Are letters formed with consistent pressure so that the
thickness and steadiness of the letters are uniform?
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Why Teach Handwriting?
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Developing Handwriting Fluency
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Provide good handwriting models. Your morning messages
written on the board or on chart paper can give students
handwriting models to follow. Dictated experience stories or
poetry can do the same.
Frequent journal writing promotes handwriting fluency.
Dialogue journals provide good handwriting models when
teachers respond to students in their journals.
Pen pals and other recipients of letters, invitations, or notes
provide audience and purpose for good handwriting.
By making editing an important step in the completion of a
piece of writing, students learn that good handwriting makes it
easier to read their writing.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Allyn & Bacon
Why Teach Handwriting?
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Left-Handed Writers
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Have left-handers find a paper position that feels natural for
them.
Try to encourage them to write away from themselves to avoid
the left elbow that cramps their hand and arm movement.
Because left-handers push rather than pull a writing
instrument across the paper, a softer lead pencil, a rollerball
pen, or a felt-tip marker often will be easier to move across
the paper.
By virtue of their pushing the pencils and pens, left-handers
tend to poke or dig into the paper. Hence, experimenting with
different writing instruments is often necessary.
Have patience with your left-handed writers. They live in a
right-handed world and may become frustrated at your efforts
to “improve” their handwriting.
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Why Teach Handwriting?

The Role of Word Processing
Particularly helpful for students who have
handwriting challenges
 Spelling and grammar checkers
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