For future literacy teachers just beginning their professional education, nothing's more important than the first core text that builds their foundation for classroom success. That's why every preservice teacher should start with this introductory reading textbook, ideal for teaching fundamental literacy skills to students in pre-K-Grade 6. Based…

Previous research has suggested that children in the early grades of primary school do not have much awareness of morphemes. In this study, a priming paradigm was used to try to detect early signs of morphological representation of stems through a spelling task presented to Portuguese children (N = 805; age range 6-9 years). Primes shared the stem…

Our purpose was to see if THRASS (Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills) is a programme that should be taught to Foundation Phase (FP) and Intermediate/Senior Phases (ISP) pre-service teachers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The term "literacy" is defined as an evolving, developing and complex concept,…

In this article, the coeditors of "Voices from the Middle" present an interview with James Maguire, author of "The American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds." During the interview, Maguire talked about his experiences with the National Spelling Bee to provide some insight to middle-level teachers and students. Maguire…

Treiman and Cassar (1996) argued that young children are capable of assembling spellings from their constituent morphemes. The present study aims to replicate the methodology used by Treiman and colleagues to investigate whether young children in the UK are using morphological spelling strategies. Eighty-three children between five and nine years…

This article addresses the topic of spelling in American English. It discusses the popularity of spelling contests in American schools, and then explains why spelling is so hard. The author then argues how important it is to understand these factors to improve spelling accuracy. The article concludes by identifying the difficulties of language…

After explicit spelling instruction, low achieving second grade spellers increased the number of correctly spelled words during composing but differed in response trajectories. Class 1 (low initial and slow growth) had the lowest initial performance and improved at a relatively slow rate. Class 2 (high initial and fast growth) started higher than…

The stereotypical view of English spelling as an awesome mess is no longer widely held by linguists. That view assumes that spelling should represent pronunciation directly and simply. Instead, spelling is currently understood as representing a more abstract level of language as well as reflecting etymology. Examples from a middle school spelling…

The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as unexpected problems of neurobiological origin in accuracy and rate of oral reading of single real words, single pseudowords, or text or of written spelling. However, prior research has focused more on the reading than the spelling problems of students with dyslexia. A test battery was…

In a 10-day training, the efficacy of spelling pronunciations on German speaking 5th-graders' spelling skills for irregular words was examined. Poor spellers were less efficient in learning the spelling pronunciations than age-adequate spellers. On post-tests, 1 week after the last training day and between 5 and 12 weeks after post-test 1, poor…

Rebecca Bowers Sipe describes the experiences of challenged spellers and recommends a range of strategies for helping students take responsibility for their spelling. She suggests that teachers begin by observing samples of students' writing and weaving in skills lessons related to the needs observed. (Contains 1 figure.)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an instructional spelling approach, Word Study, on the spelling ability of adults with limited literacy proficiency. Ten adults (five control and five experimental) were given the Developmental Spelling Assessment. The control participants received traditional spelling instruction, and the…

This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games…

Computer-based instruction (CBI) was used to teach 3 sets of 20 spelling words to two 6th graders in a multiple baseline design. The CBI presented a voice recording of each spelling word and prompted the students to type the word. If they spelled the word incorrectly, a training procedure was initiated that included prompt fading and systematic…

Primary grade teachers randomly selected from across the United States completed a survey (N = 168) that examined their instructional practices in spelling and the types of adaptations they made for struggling spellers. Almost every single teacher surveyed reported teaching spelling, and the vast majority of respondents implemented a complex and…