Let's talk spelling

I spent some time today read this book.

If you click on the link you can preview the first chapter on amazon.com.

At first I thought it was going to be really informative, but overall I was somewhat disappointed. It was an okay read, but probably not worth the €15 I spent on it. 

Likes: 

• Includes a great list of suggestions for parents who want to help their kids with emergent reading skills. (i.e. read and enjoy lots of alphabet books, read and enjoy nursery rhymes, poetry, and lots of books with rhyming patterns, and be sensible about invented spelling and do not expect your first grader to spell like an adult)
• Clearly identifies 5 stages of spelling and provides "kid written" examples of each and emphasizes that kids go through these stages at different rates/paces. 
• Provides tips and strategies for helping kiddos at each stage of spelling development. 
• Recommends using a Franklin Speller-- Here are a couple of their products
• Spelling Corrector Plus (less expensive version) 
• Elementary Dictionary (pricier version)
•  Includes thoughts on what types of spelling lessons/programs are "bad." (i.e. having kids write words over and over, alphabetize words,  and lessons that include words that are too easy/too hard for particular kiddos)

Dislikes:

• Although clear info is included on different spelling stages, the author associates these stages with grade levels in a way that I think is not entirely developmentally appropriate (even though he claims it is). I feel this needs more clarification, so I will include his stages and grade level associations to back up my opinion. 
• Stage 1-Experimenting with writing and the alphabet=Kindergarten
• Stage 2-Demonstrating phonemic awareness=Kindergarten & beginning of first grade
• Stage 3-Spelling words by ear=middle of first grade
• Stage 4-Spelling words by eye=end of first grade & second grade
• Stage 5-conventional spelling =second grade and up

• He gives the example of a few words like school (says it's a third grade word) and night (says it is a third grade word) which I would have expected my first graders to know how to spell by the end of the year and I had a group of readers who were considered behind first grade level. If they were able to correctly spell those words based on their exposure to them in our reading lessons and knowledge of sound spelling, I have a difficult time agreeing that they are third grade words! Those are just two examples, but after examining the spelling placement tool he included that parents can use to determine what level their child is at, I felt like many of the words in the second and third grade lists belonged in first grade (at least according to what I taught and what my kiddos were capable of doing by the end of the year in first grade).  I would also argue that even in first grade we expected our students to learn conventional spellings for lots of words including sight words whose sounds don't match up with their letters (ie. the, what, said) so that stage should not correlate with second grade an above. (I will say though that the author acknowledges the fluidity between stages, so it's possible he would agree that sometimes first graders spell conventionally). I would just want to point out that as a teacher, my expectations are high even in first grade and I would rather have high expectations than uphold that it's not developmentally appropriate for students to correctly spell silent e words until third grade. Yikes!
• Some of his third grade words were: spring, helps, farmer, bones, saved, roof, fine, bell, say, part, like, brown, hope, much, & egg. 
• Given the strong phonics program we used (Fast Track Phonics), my students would be able to sound out all of those words phonetically based on the sound spelling patterns they were taught. I personally think that if those words are considered appropriate for third graders, the instruction is not doing its job because third graders can handle a lot more than that from what I have seen this year in my friend's class (she uses Spell Their Way which differentiates spelling based on student performance on a pretest). 

•  Despite the inclusion of a chapter that discussed a certain student with a "spelling disability" and a section mentioning the "spelling gene" when talking about the whether or not students can visualize words, there was no mention of dyslexia. I believe his discussion of an inability to visualize words and poor visual memory directly link to dyslexia, yet there was no discussion of this particular disability at all. When the author mentions that some kids just aren't born with the "spelling gene" he neglects to truly relate this to the fact that kids who have significant trouble spelling often have specific learning disabilities that should be addressed at school and through their instruction. He equates not being able to spell with not being able to sing and I think spelling difficulties should be taken more seriously because they do affect student achievement.
• With the exception of including a list including: ask someone, look it up, use technology, & get professional help, there were no good recommendations about how to help students who struggle in spelling through instruction. (This is a resource aimed at parents, so perhaps that is why). I still would have liked to get a better understanding of what I can do with my instruction to help poor spellers. The author did emphasize the importance of teaching spelling in Kindergarten and first grade because breaking the code of the alphabet and learning about sounds in words help kids become readers, yet he gave no opinion on types of spelling instruction (aside from what is bad). I feel it is very important for Kinder and first grade teachers to use a good phonics program in order to teach letter sound correspondence, phonemic awareness, sound spelling patterns, rhyming & word families etc) and I would be interested to see where this author weighs in on that since his expectations for developmentally appropriate spelling and mine were so different.

 Overall, I would say that it was worth giving this book a read because I actually like coming across information I don't agree with 100% because it allows me to think critically and really formulate my own opinion. I don't think it's worth buying though...maybe try to find it in the library if you want to read it!

How do you help kiddos that have trouble spelling?

How do you teach spelling?

Do you have a favorite phonics program?