How do you feel about weekly spelling tests? My hunch is that most teachers who are digging into the Science of Reading are not on board for a weekly spelling test of a random list of words. The words are memorized (or sometimes not) and then forgotten by the next week. So, does spelling matter? Yes!  Can’t our students just rely on spell check? No!

The last 20-years of research shows us that teaching spelling must be explicit and systematic AND teaching spelling is directly correlated to improved reading scores. Studies in 2006, 2008, and 2009 found that teaching spelling has MORE of an impact on reading outcomes than reading instruction has on spelling outcomes. This actually makes sense, logically. Spelling requires production of knowledge, which is an active task, while reading is a slightly less taxing task and is more passive in comparison. Of course reading is by no means easy, but it is possible to read words that you can’t spell. Here are few tips to keep in mind as you teach spelling:

• Include as much dictation as possible, focusing on letter patterns you are teaching in a systematic, explicit fashion

• If a student is struggling to separate phonemes, draw a line for each sound in the word and ask the student to try sounding out the word, touching a line for each sound as they say each sound

• Always ask students to say the letter sounds AS they write. Not the letter names! Saying the sounds while writing creates important neural connections in the brain required to store the spelling of words in long-term memory. If students are not saying the sounds as they write, prompt them to write at least one letter for each sound that “comes out of their mouth.” This prompt also can be effective if a student does not represent each phoneme with at least one letter in their spelling. Let your student in on the fascinating action that is happening in their brains when they say sounds AS they write a word! A mini neuroscience lesson can be super motivating! 

• When students misspell a sound, direct their attention to the correct spelling and ask them to copy the letters exactly from the correct spelling as they say the sounds coming out of their mouth. 

Providing a heavy emphasis on spelling will improve your students’ spelling AND their reading (and remember, it doesn’t work as effectively the other way around!), making spelling instruction a critical area to invest in, with lots of bang for your buck!