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Developmental Spelling: Stages and Teaching Strategies

Tonja L. Root, Ed.D.

& Margie Tullos, Ed.S.

Department of Early Childhood & Reading Education

Valdosta State University

Valdosta, Georgia 31698

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Precommunicative Spelling:“Role Play Writing”

Characteristics of Writing• Use scribbles, letters, letter-like forms,

numbers.• Show no understanding of phoneme-

grapheme (letter-sound) relationships.• Show a preference for uppercase letters.• Write from left-to-right, right-to-left,

top-to-bottom, or randomly on the page.• Know that the print carries the message.

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Precommunicative Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Develop interest in print: Read aloud daily, create a print-rich environment, spend time with books.

• Encourage children to write. • Use LEA and teacher/student

modeling.• Teach letter names with letter forms.

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Precommunicative Spelling:Teaching Strategies, cont.

• Introduce concepts and terms: letter, beginning/ending sounds, word, sentence.

• Begin developing understanding of letter sounds, concept of rhyming.

• Discuss and model directionality.• Discuss spelling with children &

family members.• Find an appreciative audience.

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Semiphonetic Spelling:Experimental

Characteristics of Writing• Sometimes have not developed

directionality: write from left to right, top to bottom.

• Use letters to represent sounds.• Use abbreviated 1, 2, 3 letter spellings;

omit some important letters in words.• Use letter-name strategy for spelling.

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Semiphonetic Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Encourage attempts at writing.• Continue to develop phoneme-

grapheme correspondence.• Do LEA, asking for help with spelling.• Model writing.• Read daily.• Brainstorm words (& spelling) to

make word banks prior to writing (sometimes).

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Semiphonetic Spelling:Teaching Strategies, cont.

• Encourage children to write by representing sounds in the order they hear them.

• Display words used frequently in writing.

• Let children see what other children write.

• Discuss developmental spelling with children and family members.

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Phonetic Spelling:Characteristics of Writing

• Select letters on basis of sound alone.

• Spelling represents all essential sound features.

• Spelling is readable (more or less).

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Phonetic Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Read daily.• Model writing and encourage

children to write.• Develop awareness of correct

spelling, emphasizing visual features of words.

• Expose children to word families, spelling patterns, word structure.

• Teach students how to study a word.

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Transitional Spelling:Characteristics of Writing

• Include a vowel in each syllable. • Apply many spelling rules; may

overgeneralize.• Spelling resembles English

spelling.• Spelling is easily read.

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Transitional Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Provide correct model of spelling.• Have students identify misspelled

words by circling them.• Provide writing resources and teach

students to use them independently.• Provide a spelling program. • Study affixes, root words, and

homophones.

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Transitional Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Provide word-sorting activities.• Extend use of personal word banks.• Encourage use of mnemonics.• Emphasize importance of dictionary

spelling for public sharing.• Model writing and encourage children

to write. • Let students see what others write.• Read daily.

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Correct Spelling:Characteristics of Writing

• Have internalized the alphabetic principle.

• Have learned basic spelling words.

• Spell words according to adult standards.

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Correct Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Teach students to spell multi-syllable words that contain common word parts (-tion, -able, inter-).

• Provide spelling instruction: increase spelling awareness & correct misspelled words.

• Keep spelling notebooks or personal dictionaries.

• Develop proofreading skills.

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Correct Spelling:Teaching Strategies

• Develop responsibility for identifying & correcting own spelling.

• Encourage use of various strategies when spelling.

• Provide quality writing experiences.• Continue to model and share writing.• Read daily.

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References

• Some of the examples of student writing are from Temple, C., Nathan, R., Temple, F., & Burris, N. (1993). The beginnings of writing (3rd edition). New York: Allyn and Bacon.