All teachers have encountered students who think they’re poor spellers and bemoan they cannot learn to spell. Why do some students see themselves this way? Teachers who are familiar with Marie Clay’s classic paper, “Learning to be Disabled,” know that some students learn to be victims that thrust them into a low level of achievement. In other words, some students learn or are taught that they cannot learn.
It was Henry Ford who said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” Confident students have a sense of agency, meaning that they feel that if they act strategically they will reach their goals. Can insecure students who lack a sense of agency for spelling—they feel they can’t spell—be transformed into confident students who have a positive sense of spelling agency—they feel they can spell? If an education does nothing more than provide children with the idea that they can accomplish their goals, it has been good. How, then, can teachers rescue students who struggle with spelling and help them know that they can learn to spell? Read on.
Peter Johnston’s book, Choice Words (Stenhouse, 2004), offers evidence-based strategies for the rescue. Not only for students with little or no spelling agency, Johnston’s book puts forth concrete suggestions for students who lack a sense of agency. For teachers with students fitting this description, this book is “must” reading. Take special note of Chapter 4, “Agency and Becoming Strategic.” Although this chapter addresses reading and writing literacy, the concepts solve the problem teachers face with spelling.
The solution, according to Johnston’s current research and classroom-tested evidence, is instruction that guides students to discover useful learning strategies—not tell them the strategies. Engaging students in how to learn is the key.
The solution for struggling spellers lies in providing students opportunities to discover and learn to use strategies. Once discovered, spelling strategies lead students to insights about our written language and how it works. Spelling becomes a system over which students have control. Yet, most spelling programs do this poorly, if at all. The dominant instruction for learning to spell with a customary spelling program is, sadly, memorization. When instruction relies on rote memory of words or rules, the learning is often temporary, even for the most capable students. For the struggling speller, it means failure. They learn they can’t, and they’re right. They’re right, that is, without intervention.
For teachers using the Sourcebooks, instruction relies on strategies that students discover and learn to use. Students learn to “think” about words and their spellings in a new way as they become discriminating observers of words across the curriculum. Excitement builds, for example, as students’ inquiry lessons guide them to notice spelling patterns, make connections, and discover they know more than they thought they knew about words! They’re engaged! Together they’re learning about words and learning how to learn.
During Sourcebook inquiry lessons, students use what they’re discovering about words and their spellings to answer questions. Discussion and academic dialogue prevail. Questions such as these are the catalyst:
- Are there letters in this word that surprise you? Why?
- Do you think there might be another spelling pattern for this sound? How would we prove it?
- Which part of the spelling of this word are you sure about and which part are you unsure about? Why?
- How would you teach someone how to use this word in writing? What strategy would you share? Why?
- Can you guess how this new word might be spelled? How are you deciding?
- What problems might someone encounter when they’re trying to write this word? Could the problems be avoided? How?
- You managed to spell this tricky word—how did you do that? What will help you remember how to do it again?
- Are you sure this word is spelled correctly? How might you check?
- Are there words that sound the same but have different meanings? How might this be a problem for a writer? Why?
- Why is the e dropped in this word before the suffix is added? Are there other words that follow this pattern? How many can you find?
Pondering these kinds of questions requires students to use strategies. They learn to apply the knowledge they’re discovering about words and their spellings to demonstrate comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation strategies. Using strategies elevates students’ understanding of the English spelling system to provide them with a resource for learning to spell, a solid substitute for the rote memorization that failed them.
The philosophy behind Sitton Spelling and Word Skills™ instruction is to provide opportunities for all students to discover and use spelling strategies. Spelling becomes a goal that every student learns can be accomplished. Students learn they can!
For a print-it-out strategy-building activity for students, see the Primary and Upper-Grade Activities in this Appleseed issue. For a demonstration of how students are guided to make strategic word-skill discoveries, see Sourcebook Teaching Tips in this Appleseed issue—Make Use of Your Word-Skill Analysis Activities. Why?