The Debate about Spelling Tests
Since the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and probably even earlier than that, there has been a debate about the age-old spelling test.
To give or not to give – that is the question.
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) don’t come right out and tell us whether or not to continue the Friday spelling test tradition. However the standards and the intent of how those standards should be used to prepare college and career ready students do give us a pretty clear view on how we should be instructing the skill of spelling in our classrooms.
Spelling skills can be found in the Foundational Skill Standards, which are included in the Kindergarten – Fifth grade Reading Standards. By analyzing the language of the standards, we can identify 4 descriptors related to spelling: read, decode, distinguish, and recognize. We also know that the CCSS promote critical thinking skills, the kind of deep conceptual understanding wherein students can explain what they know. Spelling tests promote memorization and skill development in isolation. This “memorization for the moment” instructional practice actually keeps strong spellers strong, and weak spellers weak. Multiple research studies have concluded that spelling tests are largely ineffective in developing spelling skills in students.
What we Know About Spelling:
Spelling, reading, and writing are synchronized skills. They are interwoven into every reading and writing activity. Spelling is about the ability to know and encode phonetic, graphic, and syntactic learning patterns. Children learn to spell words they experience in reading and writing tasks because they learn and practice those spelling patterns in meaningful contexts.
A 100% on a spelling test does not indicate mastery! Conceptual understanding means students should be able to recognize patterns and explain the logic amongst those patterns. Students should be able to describe why words are spelled in certain ways.
Spelling Development:
Invented spelling, often used in Kindergarten and First grade classrooms, leads to the development of strong spellers. Invented spelling means that students are encouraged to write the sounds they hear in a word in order to write/spell that word. Beginning attempts at invented spelling lead to more sophisticated versions of invented spelling and results in students who can spell conventionally. Research studies have indicated that inventive spelling leads to a greater variety of words used in writing activities. Additionally, students who use inventive spelling indicate higher scores on standardized tests. Results from the study also showed that invented spelling in students developed word recognition and phonics skills sooner than students who did not engage in this skill.
How to Teach Spelling
To develop better spellers, it is critical that students engage in frequent, meaningful, and authentic writing tasks - utilizing invented spelling, of course. When students don’t know how to spell a word in their writing, they should be encouraged to determine if it looks right. Explicit spelling in sounding out words and identifying visual patterns is a necessity. In the early grades, this practice is supported by using word families. Students should then be instructed in examining words structurally with the use of prefixes, suffixes, and root words. By the time students are in the intermediate grades, the instruction of visual patterns should include Greek and Latin roots.
To build spelling skills, students must have repeated exposure to those words. This occurs in both reading and writing tasks. The exposure must be repetitious and must be meaningful. Authentic tasks that can support multiple exposure and experiences with words include the study of spelling patterns, studying sight words, creating a word study notebook and portable word wall, and employing an editing checklist when writing. The time saved by not giving those weekly, Friday spelling tests gives us the instructional time we need to attempt these new instructional process!
Good luck!
Since the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and probably even earlier than that, there has been a debate about the age-old spelling test.
To give or not to give – that is the question.
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) don’t come right out and tell us whether or not to continue the Friday spelling test tradition. However the standards and the intent of how those standards should be used to prepare college and career ready students do give us a pretty clear view on how we should be instructing the skill of spelling in our classrooms.
Spelling skills can be found in the Foundational Skill Standards, which are included in the Kindergarten – Fifth grade Reading Standards. By analyzing the language of the standards, we can identify 4 descriptors related to spelling: read, decode, distinguish, and recognize. We also know that the CCSS promote critical thinking skills, the kind of deep conceptual understanding wherein students can explain what they know. Spelling tests promote memorization and skill development in isolation. This “memorization for the moment” instructional practice actually keeps strong spellers strong, and weak spellers weak. Multiple research studies have concluded that spelling tests are largely ineffective in developing spelling skills in students.
What we Know About Spelling:
Spelling, reading, and writing are synchronized skills. They are interwoven into every reading and writing activity. Spelling is about the ability to know and encode phonetic, graphic, and syntactic learning patterns. Children learn to spell words they experience in reading and writing tasks because they learn and practice those spelling patterns in meaningful contexts.
A 100% on a spelling test does not indicate mastery! Conceptual understanding means students should be able to recognize patterns and explain the logic amongst those patterns. Students should be able to describe why words are spelled in certain ways.
Spelling Development:
Invented spelling, often used in Kindergarten and First grade classrooms, leads to the development of strong spellers. Invented spelling means that students are encouraged to write the sounds they hear in a word in order to write/spell that word. Beginning attempts at invented spelling lead to more sophisticated versions of invented spelling and results in students who can spell conventionally. Research studies have indicated that inventive spelling leads to a greater variety of words used in writing activities. Additionally, students who use inventive spelling indicate higher scores on standardized tests. Results from the study also showed that invented spelling in students developed word recognition and phonics skills sooner than students who did not engage in this skill.
How to Teach Spelling
To develop better spellers, it is critical that students engage in frequent, meaningful, and authentic writing tasks - utilizing invented spelling, of course. When students don’t know how to spell a word in their writing, they should be encouraged to determine if it looks right. Explicit spelling in sounding out words and identifying visual patterns is a necessity. In the early grades, this practice is supported by using word families. Students should then be instructed in examining words structurally with the use of prefixes, suffixes, and root words. By the time students are in the intermediate grades, the instruction of visual patterns should include Greek and Latin roots.
To build spelling skills, students must have repeated exposure to those words. This occurs in both reading and writing tasks. The exposure must be repetitious and must be meaningful. Authentic tasks that can support multiple exposure and experiences with words include the study of spelling patterns, studying sight words, creating a word study notebook and portable word wall, and employing an editing checklist when writing. The time saved by not giving those weekly, Friday spelling tests gives us the instructional time we need to attempt these new instructional process!
Good luck!
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