I am grateful to Megan, an Australian follower of The Spelling Blog, for pointing me to this summary of what seems like a very interesting talk by Dr Misty Adoniou about teaching spelling. Her ideas are similar to mine in many ways but have some really interesting variations. To summarise the summary(!):
- Phonics and visual skills are not the most important indicators of being a good speller
- English is morpho-phonemic (based on meaning as well as sound) and etymology (word origin) plays a large part, so these two aspects should be explicitly taught across the curriculum (if taught in English, of course)
- We need to teach 6 types of knowledge about words to spell them well: meaning, sound, acceptable and typical letter patterns, origins, parts of words and remembering what words look like.
- We should teach spelling strategies through words that learners meet in context in real books rather than having lists of words to learn that illustrate a strategy.
All sounds very sensible to me. Read the whole article here: http://www.atesolact.org.au/- now here: http://www.atesolact.org.au/events/past-atesol-act-events/#Spelling2013
Thank you, Misty, Megan and Tina Williamson, the summary author. More about Misty Adoniou
Johanna
I'm glad you found the notes useful. You'll be pleased to know that your book was on display on the day ie a private copy owned by a committee member was on display for participants to browse.
ReplyDeleteThere is a triangular correlation between reading skil, spelling skil, and skill in expository writing. The best way to help spelling is to help reading first. Marilyn Adams, in her new book, "ABC Foundations For Young Children", presents newly published proof that most American kids finishing first-grade still can't write and name all of the alphabet letters fluently.
ReplyDeleteThis is easily correctable, but the establishment, for selfish reasons, is trying to suppress the Adams message
Well, it was an interesting post about English words and spellings and we should teach spelling strategies through words that learners meet in context in real books rather than having lists of words to learn that illustrate a strategy.
ReplyDeleteCertainly spelling is an On-Going Process throughout one's life. Although exceptions in spelling are very important, in my opinion a phonological, and phonemic understanding is also a very important part of one's spelling capability: Ms.Stirling's book "Teaching Spelling" is Excellent!
ReplyDeleteThe summary of the talk mentioned in this post has a new link: http://www.atesolact.org.au/events/past-atesol-act-events/#Spelling2013 (we completely redeveloped our website a while ago).
ReplyDeleteYou might also be interested in Misty's new book, 'Spelling It Out: How Words Work and How to Teach Them
http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/education/education-history-theory/spelling-it-out-how-words-work-and-how-teach-them?format=PB
Cheers, Lesley (ATESOL ACT)
Many thanks, Lesley! I've updated it. I'll definitely check out Misty's book.
DeleteBest wishes fro the other side of the world.
Johanna