Presents guidelines for teaching spelling, focusing on the issue of whether spelling instruction should be formal or informal, the use of word lists, efficient instructional procedures, effective methods for studying words, the need for systematic improvement of retention, and integration of spelling and writing. (RAE)

Describes how one teacher helped students in her third grade class, who had below average spelling and reading skills, improve their reading achievement by using a structured, graded, multifaceted approach to spelling instruction. (ARH)

Explores the concept of spelling instruction in the elementary grades through the analysis of error-types. (Author/HOD)

Concludes that semantic maps do not work alone, but must be built in class during discussion of vocabulary. Shows that discussion alone works well for most students. (FL)

Studies context as a significant aid to the learning and retention of words. (RB)

Suggestions from five contributors deal with the following topics: (1) helping the child who stutters to read fluently, (2) the vowel-consonant-vowel controversy, (3) motivating the reluctant reader, (4) building self-concept through a story wall, and (5) dictionary study. (FL)

Finds that third and fifth graders were able to select characters containing the correct radicals (a component of Chinese characters that provides information about the character's meaning) even when the characters as a whole were unfamiliar to them. Finds that good readers displayed more awareness of radicals than poor readers. (RS)

Describes how one elementary educator teaches word study strategies that enlarge students' understanding of phonics and vocabulary. A primary level activity has students create a thematic word wall. An intermediate level activity has students conduct a new word hunt. A reproducible student page helps students sort words by sound. (SM)

Explores the development of 280 students across 7 grades in spelling and word knowledge as well as their pattern of use of lower- to higher-order strategies in their attempts to spell words, write derivations, and display syntactic knowledge. Older students gradually make less use of lower-order strategies in spelling, writing derivations, and in…

Discusses the marginalization of spelling instruction. Presents several classroom implications supported by research on the development of orthographic knowledge as reflected in children's spelling errors. Addresses the issues related to placement, assessment, word study, and writing. (RS)

Addresses two broad issues: the current understanding of spelling development and how this understanding fits within a broader model of literacy development; and the implications of the developmental model for spelling instruction and word study. Suggests that it is essential that instruction balance authentic reading and writing with purposeful…

For years, reading teachers in the schools have emphasized word identification skills and believed that reading is comprised of a set of subskills that a child must master before he or she can learn to read. To teach a child to read, however, instruction must focus on comprehension. Therefore, word attack skills should be taught in conjunction…

The word sort is a technique which capitalizes upon a child's natural feature analysis abilities. In a word sort the learner physically arranges words printed on small cards into groups. This technique can be used in many ways to help children draw conclusions about how words are related. There are two types of sorts: in "closed sorts"…

Prepared by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, this volume contains approximately 50 percent of the total number of reading exercises administered during the assessment. Exercises are ordered by release number, which indicates the major theme, exercise within the theme, and the exercise part for multiple-part exercises. In addition,…

This study investigated the use of word games to teach beginning reading to first grade students. The study was designed with a three fold emphasis in respect to beginning reading students: (1) to develop criteria for word games, (2) to create seven word games according to these criteria (3) to investigate how these games might expand sight…