This project describes a 12-week program developed to improve student spelling of high frequency words for transfer in written work across the curriculum. The targeted population consists of kindergarten, first, and third graders in two public elementary schools in a community located in central Illinois. Following an extensive literature review,…

A study investigated whether students using a literature based reading program achieved greater spelling ability through formal spelling instruction or informal spelling instruction. Subjects were 20 first-grade students. Instruction was divided into two 4-week sections. During the first four weeks, students were exposed to vocabulary words…

A study investigated whether students learning via a "whole-part-whole" approach to spelling would achieve at a higher level than the control sample learning conventionally. In suburban New Jersey, one class of 17 first-grade students was taught spelling in a conventional manner, with words introduced in isolation and then assessed in a…

A study investigated whether spelling could be taught more effectively through a holistic writing approach than through the traditional basal textbook approach. Subjects, 19 second grade students at an elementary school in Sheldon, Illinois, first received six weeks of formal spelling instruction using the 1985 edition of the second grade spelling…

Two approaches to spelling instruction were compared to determine which approach produced the more competent spellers. Twenty-five fifth grade students participated in a five-month program. The control group continued spelling instruction using a traditional workbook, while the experimental group was taught spelling with an individualized…

A study examined whether cross-grade peer tutoring increased student performance on weekly spelling tests. Subjects, 7 sixth graders and 19 second graders attending Coal City Elementary School in Raleigh County, West Virginia, spent 10 minutes each day for 9 weeks working on spelling. The experimental group used cross-grade peer tutoring and the…

A study examined whether a multisensory approach to spelling instruction would have an impact on spelling achievement. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in the spelling performance os students using a multisensory approach and those using a conventional approach. Subjects were 20 heterogeneously grouped third-grade…

A study investigated whether invented spelling is superior to the traditional method of teaching spelling and whether invented spelling strengthened the reading and writing connection. Subjects were students in two second-grade classes at two different elementary schools in a school district in south-central Pennsylvania. Both teachers used the…

This study examined non-traditional methods in teaching spelling and vocabulary using music and rhythm in instruction. Subjects were 4 at-risk students in a class of 29 students in a seventh-grade classroom at a middle school in Marin County, California. A musical component was added to instruction as part of the seventh-grade students' processing…

A study was conducted to determine whether the VAK teaching method, using color coding as a motivational tool, improves spelling achievement more effectively than a more conventional method. The VAK method is a multisensory approach to teaching reading and spelling through the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile modalities. Forty-three…

A study examined whether listening to any music or to a particular type of music would have an effect on the spelling scores of first-grade students. Subjects were 19 first graders from the Edison, New Jersey, public school district. The study hypothesis was that no significant difference would exist between scores on spelling tests of students…

The central focus of this research was to test the effectiveness of HyperCard in spelling achievement and to determine if HyperCard had any significant impact on student learning. Four boys and four girls were randomly selected from a second grade classroom at Clark Elementary School in Charlottesville (Virginia) to be part of the experimental…

A study described and evaluated a program for increasing student retention and transfer of weekly spelling words into daily writing. The targeted population consisted of second-grade students in two different middle-class communities. One community was growing, while the other was more established; both are located in suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.…

An action research study detailed a program for improving spelling achievement across the curriculum. The targeted population is composed of second and third grade students from a growing, middle class community located in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of misspelled words in the students' writing was documented through students'…

Two approaches to spelling instruction were compared by measuring which program was more successful. Thirty-two fourth-grade students participated; instructional intervention spanned 6 months. The control group used the materials and procedures of the Macmillian Basal Series. The experimental group used the Spelltex Individualized Spelling Kit.…