Spelling Instruction Crucial for Boosting Reading and Writing Skills, Research Shows
New research highlights the importance of spelling instruction in improving both reading and writing skills among students. While some methods show promising results, current classroom practices may not be optimally utilizing these findings.
Lessons focused on memorizing whole words, like 'wordle today' or 'nyt wordle', had the most significant impact on specific word spelling, but not overall spelling ability. Meanwhile, interventions combining multiple approaches, such as teaching letter-sound connections and spelling rules, also showed small positive effects.
Phonemic interventions, which focus on letter-sound knowledge, had the most positive effect on students' word-reading abilities. Specific spelling instruction in kindergarten or first grade, like training programs focusing on phonological awareness and word analysis, can support phoneme recognition and phonetic awareness. However, teachers of upper elementary students with reading disabilities spend only about 2% of instructional time on spelling, indicating a potential gap in current practices.
Spelling instruction helps students 'crack the code of written language' and build a mental dictionary for automatic word-reading, freeing up brain space for writing tasks. More than 25 states have passed laws or implemented policies mandating evidence-based reading instruction in the past five years, but most do not explicitly mention spelling. Researchers emphasize that learning to read words and learning to spell words are two interconnected processes.
Given the proven benefits of spelling instruction on both reading and writing abilities, educators are encouraged to integrate spelling instruction into classroom routines. This can be achieved by incorporating spelling activities into phonemic awareness and phonics lessons, helping students unlock word patterns and improve overall literacy skills.
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