Getting the right balance: Effective classroom spelling instruction

Abstract

Historically, spelling approaches have been broadly classified as ‘child‐centred’ or ‘instruction‐centred’ but, in recent times teachers have tended to combine elements of these theoretically different perspectives to design new approaches. The findings of research reporting teacher dissatisfaction with such combined approaches is contrasted with the experiences of staff (teachers of Years 2–5) from one Western Australian primary school. The setting was of interest because compared to populations of children in surrounding areas students at Grove Primary School demonstrated consistently higher spelling results in statewide tests. Rather than subscribing to a particular approach, the teachers reported employing a combined approach that included incidental spelling instruction in the context of literature in conjunction with teacher directed and student initiated word study. At the same time, all teachers reported a commitment to spelling practices aligned with an instruction‐centred approach including separate spelling lessons each morning of at least 20 minutes in duration and weekly or fortnightly pretest‐learn‐test cycles of word lists.