This
three year project (1995 – 98) on children’s spelling
development was funded by the Mercers’ Company and conducted
by Olivia O’Sullivan and Anne Thomas of the Centre for
Language in Primary Education. A book (Understanding Spelling)
giving a full account of the project and its implications
for schools was published by CLPE in 2000.
Three
London primary schools took part in the project, the aim of
which was to examine how children learn to spell, and how
teachers can work most effectively to support their progress
in spelling. The project studied the teaching and learning
of spelling from Reception to Year 6. In addition a special
study looked at the progress of a small number of case study
children in Years 4,5 and 6 who read competently but had difficulties
with spelling.
Schools
were visited several times a term, and researchers collected
reading and writing samples, conducted interviews with teachers
and children, observed in classrooms and provided INSET. Staff
meetings or INSET days were held at least once a term to discuss
issues in spelling and the progress of the project.
Initially
the teachers participating in the project identified 31 case
study children from across the whole primary age range. Twelve
of these children were selected for closer study, but writing
samples were collected from all the children. This enabled
evidence about children’s spelling development to be
collected on a longitudinal basis.
At the
beginning of the project it became apparent that many teachers
felt unsure about how to teach spelling in a constructive
way. They tended to see teaching spelling mainly as a question
of correcting errors rather than of developing an attention
to words and their structures. Children’s learning to
spell is closely related to their learning to read and to
their understandings about how spoken language is written
down. It is likely that ‘phonemic awareness’ develops
through spelling rather than through reading. The work of
several scholars and researchers influenced the project team;
they included Uta Frith, Linnea Ehri, Charles Cripps and Usha
Goswami.
| The
findings of the project team were: |
| 1. |
In
learning spelling children need to be helped from the
outset to draw on multiple sources of knowledge (eg known
words, common letter strings, word structures and meanings).
Teaching strategies to develop all the relevant competences
at both KS1 and KS2 were collected and classified and
appear as Chapter 5 in Understanding Spelling.
This chapter details a) classroom contexts and resources,
b) major classroom teaching routines, and c) routines
for establishing children’s independence as learners
of spelling at every stage of the primary school. |
| 2. |
It
is helpful for teachers to analyse children’s miscues
as spellers. The research team developed a CLPE Spelling
Assessment Framework to map the development of the
case study children. This enabled teachers to note the
percentage of standard spellings in children’s work,
and analyse their miscues into predominantly phonetic
or predominantly visual miscues. |
| 3. |
Case
studies collected by the researchers clearly showed that
children take different routes into the spelling system,
some favouring phonetic spellings and some visually based
spellings. They do not follow a linear stage-based route.
All need to integrate different sources of knowledge –
phonetic, visual, structural and semantic – to develop
effectively as spellers. |
| 4. |
Good
readers who are poor spellers do not draw from their reading
sufficient awareness of the patterning of words. They
appear to use partial visual cues when reading unfamiliar
words. In spelling they rely more heavily on phonetic
strategies; they do not make links between reading and
spelling. |
| 5. |
One
of the main ways in which children learn to spell is by
analogy-making. Making analogies between words they already
know and new words develops children’s awareness
of spelling as a system. |
| 6. |
Children’s
interest in words, developed through their reading and
through their writing, was the best foundation for their
development as competent spellers. |
| 7. |
The
active teaching of spelling plays a decisive role in children’s
spelling development. The effective teaching observed
in the project took many forms, from shared writing and
editing, to word study, and included the analysis of children’s
spelling. Word study was the least widely recognised means
of teaching spelling at the outset of the project, though
it proved one of the most effective teaching approaches. |
The book
which resulted from this project, Understanding Spelling,
is a complete guide to the teaching and learning of spelling
in the primary school. The Times Educational Supplement review
by Charles Cripps said ‘The Centre for Language in Primary
Education is well known for the excellence of its publications.
They are readable and informative, and Understanding Spelling
is no exception….This book should be essential reading
for all NQTs, literacy coordinators and teachers who are concerned
about the spelling attainment of children in their classrooms.’
Understanding
Spelling publication
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further report on the CLPE spelling project
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