Spelling: A Developmental Perspective
from Word Journeys by Kathy Ganske, The Guilford Press, 2000
LTRN
elephant ran
Stage 1: Emergent Spelling
Emergent Spelling
This stage begins before students are reading independently. At first, students tend to
use pretend-writing with scribbles or random marks. After they master the alphabetic
principle and become of aware of phonemes that make up words, alphabet letters start to
appear. Writing includes initial and final consonants but often lacks spacing between
words.
Stage 2: Letter Name Spelling
During this stage, students are beginning to read in a slow
process with many pauses. For spelling, words are formed in a
sound-by-sound fashion. This stage includes five specific
features:

initial and final consonants

initial consonant blends and digraphs

short vowels

affricates (job, chop, drop, trot)

final consonant blends and digraphs
fun = FN
jam = JM
bake = BAK
grab = GAB
back = BAK
drum = JRUM
bump = BMP
shade = SHAD
boat = BOT
paper = PAPR
tomato = TMATO
Letter Name Spelling
Stage 3: Within Word Spelling
Students in the within word pattern stage have developed sight word vocabularies that
enable them to read without the support of patterned or familiar text. (Ganske, p. 13)
Instead of spelling sound-by-sound, students are able to chunk parts or words and process
them in a more automatic process. This results in increased fluency in reading as well as
writing. Readers at this stage are better able to attend to comprehension and meaning
instead of using all of their thinking power for decoding. Silent reading becomes more
prevalent. Students are able to write longer pieces and become more aware of their
audience. Students begin to master spelling patterns. Students are able to spell more
homophones correctly. This stage includes five distinct features:

vowel-consonant –e patterns

r-controlled vowel patterns

other common long vowel patterns

complex consonant patterns

abstract vowels
bake = BAIK
hurt = HURT
fear = FEER
bird = BRID
tight = TITE
scrap = SKRAP
This stage is often reached in the
queen = QWEEN
bridge = BRIGDE
intermediate grades when students have
bike = BICKE
couch = COWCH
point = POYNT
glare = GLAIR
Stage 4: Syllable Juncture Spelling
become proficient readers and are able to
process print easily. Students are working
with more complex texts in science and social
Within Word Spelling
studies and are reading more sophisticated vocabulary and to more complex spelling
patterns. More time is spent in historical fiction and biographies for recreational reading.
Much of students’ writing at this stage is done in response to what they are learning. They
write to persuade, explain, describe, summarize and question in letters, essays, and
response logs (Ganske, p. 17). Polysyllabic words become the instructional focus. Students
are learning to apply spelling patterns in within and across syllables. Syllable stress is also
important in this stage. The schwa sound and its unique spellings tends to cause confusion.
In this stage, students are
working on the following features:
 doubling and e-drop with
ed and ing endings
 other doubling at the point
of syllable juncture
 long vowel patterns in the
stressed syllable
 r-controlled vowels in the
stressed syllable
 vowel patterns in the
hopping = HOPING
butter = BUTER
taping = TAPEING
silent = SILLENT
cabbage = CABAGE
habit = HABBIT
complaint = COMPLANTE
disturb = DISTERB
trample = TRAMPUL
solar = SOLER
minnow = MINO
finally = FIANALLY
misspelled = MISPELLED
really = REALY
unstressed syllable
Stage 5: Derivational Constancy Spelling
Syllable Juncture Spelling
This is the last stage of development. The majority of students do not reach this stage
until 7th or 8th grade and many continue in this stage through adulthood. Spelling
challenges in this stage consist mostly of words of Greek and Latin origin. An emphasis in
this stage is on root words that are not complete morphemes. Spelling at this stage
includes the features of:





hasten = HASEN
silent and sounded consonants
politician = POLITITION
consonant changes
persistent = PERSISTANT
vowel changes
suppress = SURPRESS
Latin-derived suffixes
exclusion = EXCLUTION
assimilated prefixes
muscle = MUSLE
persuasion = PURSSUATION
collide = COLIDE
irresponsible = ERRESPONSIBLE
respectable = RESPECTIBLE
Derivational Constancy Spelling