Until just over a hundred years ago, the teaching of spelling and reading in the United States was very closely related. For the time of the earliest colonization in America until the late 1800s almost every child learned to read via a spelling book and most children memorized the spellings of lists of words preliminary to approaching connected text. Around 1890 there was a great literature movement and spelling books were discarded as being outdated relics of rote learning.

Skip ahead eighty or ninety years. Much research since 1971, beginning with the work of Charles Read at the University of Wisconsin and expanded by Edmund Henderson and his students at the University of Virginia, has centered on how children learn to spell developmentally. This research revealed that knowledge of the American spelling system serves far greater purposes than the majority of 20th century educators generally believed. Correlations have been found between spelling development and reading readiness, between spelling and accuracy and fluency of reading, and between spelling and comprehension. We now know that spelling and reading are intricately connected but that the influence of spelling on reading is greater than the influence of spelling on reading.

Let's consider four essential elements for beginning reading success. These are 1) left to right progression, 2) phonemic awareness, 3) letter-sound knowledge, and 4) concept of word. All other prescribed elements can be in place - a child's having been read to throughout pre-school years, having a wide range of experiences, having excellent language ability, being physically coordinated, etc. - but unless a child masters the four basic elements, s/he will not learn to read. All of these elements develop naturally in the process of systematic spelling instruction.

There are three aspects of good spelling instruction. The first of these is dealing with high-frequency words. There is a definite place for graded word lists and these should be posted for children to see, either through word walls or other means the individual teacher chooses to use, i.e., personal dictionaries which children have at their work stations. A second element involves thematic words, those used around holiday times or from specific subject areas. The third aspect is the spelling system. From the spelling research it has been determined that all learners go through the same sequence of spelling development whether they be first graders or adults who did not learn as children. This system should be taught in a developmentally appropriate manner.

What, then, are some qualifications for a good spelling and/or word study program.

1. Is it developmental? Does it follow the known sequence of natural spelling acquisition?

2. Is it carefully sequenced so that each new concept builds on skills previously taught and continually recycled?

3. Does it take phonemic awareness beyond just hearing the sound and into the use of specific letter/sound relationships? Does it provide for a student's learning the various letters and letter strings which represent the basic sounds?

4. Does it teach the spelling system or does it rely simply on lists of high-frequency words?

5. How does it treat sight words (words which don't fit regular spelling or pronunciation patterns)?

6. Does it provide activities through which ALL children can learn?

7. Is it multi-sensory? How many senses are involved in a particular activity?

8. How does it provide for extending the spelling lessons? Does it use the same words in sentence building activities? Can the children use the words in the reading of simple stories?

9. What kinds of assessments are provided? Do these simply measure a child's rote word learning or do they help us understand where a child IS developmentally and provide knowledge of specific areas for remediation?

In the process of writing words, children can be taught left to right progression. By using patterns of the language, phonemic awareness develops as children slowly pronounce words before writing them. If spelling lessons are carefully planned, letter/sound knowledge is built in a sequential fashion. Even the concept of word appears to develop faster in students who are first taught to write them as individual entities rather than relying on learned phrases as "wnsupnutm", "Once upon a time," as we often see in primary writing

For a long time we have looked at spelling as an outgrowth of reading. Perhaps it's time to think about "Learn to spell first; read and learn to read and write faster," not in terms of rote learning from earlier days but, rather, with an eye on enhancing our students' natural sequential developmental processes. Assessing the qualifications of programs currently in use will go a long way toward meeting that goal.