If you have question regarding the research behind the Spelling program choice that Arcadia has made,Sitton Spelling, I think this may lead you to further thinking.
http://www.epsbooks.com/downloads/research_papers/SSWS_research.pdf
I have found that when I get the time to teach all of the options that come within the curriculum, the students transfer their learning. The program uses opportunities to learn spelling patterns, phonics, words within our language, etc. I try to spend at least 1.25 hours a week specifically on spelling. I also integrate it into the reading and writing we do in the content areas, like Science and Social Studies.
Spelling success is very highly correlated to speech and vision. People who can ’see’ the words in their ‘mind’s eye’ tend to have the easiest time spelling words that both fit typical spelling patterns and even those that do not.
Remember, the best phonics rule is only accurate 40% of the time. We need to teach phonics, but also a variety of other strategies as well.
One last spelling caveat. Spelling words correctly is VERY important to me. Except for the many typing errors I make, I spell words correctly very easily. As a beginning teacher, I wanted to ensure that all of my students spelled correctly. Now, I understand the learning process and how our brains work more and apply that to my teaching.
Now, I encourage students to consider their ideas as more important than their spelling. That is until they are taking their ideas to communicate with others. Students need to feel free to get their ideas out to sort them out and come to understanding. If the children limit ther ideas to what they feel they can ’spell’ then they limit their possibilities for growth. It is later that we work on polishing ideas to make the work for other people. By the way, have you seen the journals of Lewis and Clark? If you notice, their spelling does not fit our norms of today. Even so, they acheived the lofty goal Jefferson sent them out to accomplish!
Spelling Games
http://www.spellingcity.com/ Give the site your words, the will test you or check you or make a game!
http://www.kidsspell.com/
http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html
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