Teaching and Assessment of Spelling

Teaching spelling can present a set of unusual challenges to a teacher. The graphic shows a typical group of spelling words for a 3rd and 4th grade class, depending on the textbook used. This list was in Chapter 3 of the textbook that I was using. I had a mixed class of 4th and 5th grade students so at times we might use the same list. In the private school I was teaching in at the time, the 4th and 5th grade class sometimes had common lessons especially if the textbook was used in both groups, but normally the first half of the book was for one year and the second half of the book was for the next year. The graphic shows four check-off boxes for each word. I would have the students check each other for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th checks, but I would check the student off for the first check. Students would be assigned the "teacher roll" and would check boxes with an "X" if the student missed. and a simple check if they got it right. This allowed me to see quickly where a student might be having difficulty. This means a lot of checks on each student. I only had 12 students in this small private school so it was possible. Teacher aids could perform this task easily. The teacher, student teacher, or teacher aid would say the word and have the student spell it verbally.

One of the problems in teaching spelling is the wide range of rules and exceptions. Learning the rules can help, so a list of rules should be constructed for reference. Another problem is that many tests ask students to pick out the correctly spelled word from a set of four choices with only one being correct. The problem with this method is that we are causing the students to see "incorrect" spellings. In a way this is teaching incorrect spelling, because it has gone into visual memory and the student is internally verbalizing incorrect spellings as they try to find the correct spelling.

I once designed a basic computer program to teach spelling without this problem. The word flashes on the monitor, then it is followed by the use of the word in a sentence which only stays on the monitor for a short period of time and then the student is asked to spell the word. If the student spells the word correctly then the next word will appear. If it is spelled incorrectly the correct spelling would appear and the student must type the word correctly immediately under the correctly spelled word. The program was not case sensitive and only checked spelling not case. In addition as the program presented the word it did this letter by letter to force the student to internally vocalize the spelling of the word. The program would not go past that point unless the word was spelled correctly. The program was able to print out a report after the spelling test was taken and teachers could even make up new lists of spelling words and sentences. What is important about such a program is that the student never sees incorrect spelling and never practices incorrect spelling and if they spell the word incorrectly they are immediately required to spell it correctly.

The student should not be exposed to incorrectness in most cases. It is true that at some point they must be able to edit their own work or the work of others, but significantly more practice on "correctness" should be our goal. The use of computers for teaching spelling provides the teacher with a tool that was not available in the past, but we need to design computer programs in such a way that we teach correctness.