LEARNING TO SPELL

Are we spelling as well in our schools today as our forefathers did in the little red schoolhouse? This is the question that has been asked many times but no one has been able to answer it in any convincing way. There have been advocates of both sides of the question. The fact remains that no one knows. We do not know how well children could spell fifty, or even twenty-five, years ago. As time goes by there is a glamour thrown over the past and we see only the high lights. We remember that in spelling a match there was a certain boy, or girl, who spelled down the entire school time after time, or possibly had a reputation for being the best speller in the entire county. When a spelling match was announced it was a foregone conclusion that the victory lay between two or three pupils. How many children of the eighth grade could spell the following list of words?

phthisickyichthyologyabstemiousdemoniacalmagisterialconvalescecalligraphysaccharin

phthisicky

ichthyology

abstemious

demoniacal

magisterial

convalesce

calligraphy

saccharin

We remember the pupils who were able to spell these difficult words, and we forget those who were unable to spellthem. We remember the good spellers and forget how many poor ones there were.

The question is not whether one or two could spell, or learn to spell such words, but could nearly every pupil in the school spell such words? If they could, what use did they make of their knowledge? The corollary to the proposition is, how many were unable to spell “which,” “there,” “writing,” “guess,” and a thousand other common words? The question then is fairly before us; viz.,What is the object of teaching spelling?

Ever since the school of early days spelling has accompanied “reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic” as a part of the curriculum. The day when reading was taught by the “spelling method,” so called, is not far back in the past. “How can one learn to read if one does not know his letters, that he may be able to spell out the words that he meets in his reading?” Not until recently has the question been asked, “Why do we study spelling at all?” Do we need it in our reading? Modern methods have shown us that we do not. We need to know how to spell only when we wish to write. How often does the average person write “phthisicky,” “magisterial,” “ichthyology,” “convalesce,” and other equally uncommon words? Not often, perhaps never. Then why spend the time of our overcrowded school day in having children try to learn these words, when numerous recent investigations show positively that children are constantly misspelling “which,” “there,” “their,” and many other common, everyday words?

Teaching versus Testing

For many years the spelling lesson has been, with many teachers, a means of obtaining a breathing space in the day’s work. It was comparatively easy to say to the children “Take the next twenty words.” The study of these words took some time, and it was easy work to dictate the lesson at the end of fifteen or twenty minutes, have the pupils exchange papers, and correct the words. What was the net result at the end of the year? No one knew. Had they tested the right words for the given grade? No one knew. They had tested the words that were given in the spelling book adopted by the city, town, or state. Most of the books contained from 10,000 to 12,000 words. That the children did not use many of these words in their written work made little or no difference. In some cases at least, the author of a spelling book took the dictionary and started with thea’sand proceeded through the alphabet, deciding that the children ought to know how to spell this word, and that word, and so on through the dictionary, No attempt was made to find out whether the pupil used the words or not, and no attempt was made to place the words according to their use in the proper grade.

Was it possible for a teacher using such a book to test the right words? Probably not. She tested all she could. She assigned ten words a day for about 150 days during the year, or if she dared, or the course of study called for it, twenty, or twenty-five words were given in the upper grades. The teacher was compelled to do so in orderto finish the speller. Did sheteachthe words? How could sheteach even the ten words in the short time allowed? In order that spelling words might betaughtsome teachers suggested that five new words a day would be sufficient to meet the needs of the pupil. The answer of many teachers, following ancient traditions, shows that they think that this would be unwise. Not to teach “which,” “there,” “their,” and such words until the upper grades certainly would be even more unwise.

Teachers have had the mistaken idea that children learn to spell many words because of constant use, and that there is no need of teaching them. Recent studies have shown that this is not true except with respect to occasional children who have already developed what has been called aspelling consciousness. In the vast majority of cases this spelling consciousness needs to be developed. To accomplish this words have to be selected, and carefully and systematically taught, to most children. The selection of words, therefore, is an important work of the author of a spelling book.

Thanks to recent investigations the day has come when two important questions are being asked:

In the past teachers have had little or nothing to do with the selection of the widely differing vocabularies which they have had to teach. The best of our teachers have attempted to select a reasonable list from the spelling book which hasbeen provided. That selection, however, has been limited by the spelling book in use, the vocabulary of which has already been selected, and may or may not be a reasonable one. The question may even be raised, “To what extent can teachers intelligently select the vocabulary which should be taught?” In 1914 teachers of the city of Boston chosen from all the elementary grades, were asked to make a selection of words fitted for their respective grades. The significant thing in their report was that the second grade teachers chose not only words which should be taught in the second grade, but also words which eventually should be taught in each later grade; and many teachers of the eighth grade selected words which should have been taught in a previous grade. “Always,” for example, was in the list of one or more teachers of every grade, I to VIII inclusive. Many other words were in the lists of teachers of several grades.

In 1916 Jones’s “Hundred Demons” (see page 22, Part III) were given to forty-five second grade teachers for them to select the words which should be retained in the second grade. Seventy-nine of these words are among Ayres’s “Thousand Commonest Words in the English Language.” Every word was voted to be retained by one, or more than one,secondgrade teacher as suitable to be taught to second grade pupils.

A group of twenty-eight prospective Boston teachers, who had had some experience in the grades as practice teachers, and much experience in observation, was asked to arrange the following list of words in the order of their difficulty:

acheenoughdirectioncompanybusinesshopedoceanmusclesentencewhether

ache

enough

direction

company

business

hoped

ocean

muscle

sentence

whether

The directions given were to place the easiest word, in so far as its spelling difficulty was concerned, first, and the most difficult word last, the others to be arranged according to the difficulty of each. After the several lists were collected it was found that each of the ten words had been classed as most difficult by some one, and each of the ten words had been classed as least difficult by some one.

Thus all the investigations tend to show that teachers are not able to select words according to their difficulty. The difficulty can only be found by experimenting with thousands of children and by laboriously correcting and tabulating the results. Fortunately we have a number of such investigations, so that the assignment of words to a certain grade need not be wholly dependent upon the judgment of an individual teacher, but upon the results obtained from testing thousands of children by a number of different skilled investigators.

A most important investigation of the vocabularies of children has been made by Dr. W. Franklin Jones of the University of South Dakota. Dr. Jones studied 75,000 themes written by children of all grades from the second to the eighth inclusive, gathered from three different states, and averaging a little less than 190 words each. The numberof themes per student ranged from 56 to 105. The total number of words amounted to nearly 15,000,000.

Among the important results of this investigation the following stand out significantly:

1. Out of the 15,000,000 words used there were only 4,532 different words used by more than 2% of the pupils. (5,000 carefully selected words are, therefore, probably sufficient for pupils to learn in the first eight years of school.)

2. The number of words listed per pupil ranged from 431, the smallest vocabulary in the second grade, to 2,812 for the largest vocabulary of an eighth grade pupil. This does not necessarily mean that 3,000 words are sufficient for the spelling vocabulary of children in our schools. The fact that the various investigators disagree to some extent in the vocabularies which they find, is enough to prove this point. There are many factors, such as home conditions, nationality, and locality, which may affect the number of words that will be used. However, when the number is increased to approximately twice the largest single vocabulary found, all of the common words of the best investigations will have been included.

3. The average number of words in the written vocabulary of each grade is as follows:

Jones shows that the writing vocabulary of children is comparatively small. This narrows our spelling problem within correspondingly small limits.

4. Of the 4,532 different words the number used by at least 2% of the pupils in the respective grades was as follows:

The scientific teaching of spelling requires that words shall be taught in the grade in which they are first used. When the child first enters school his speaking vocabulary is comparatively large. His reading vocabulary varies from nothing to one fairly large, depending, in part, on the home from which the child comes. His writing vocabulary is very limited, even under the best of conditions. This latter increases very rapidly during the first three years. The teaching of nearly 2,000 words in the second grade becomes, of course, a gigantic, even an impossible, task. TheAldine Spellerobviates this in two ways:

(a) By postponing the teaching of the words least likely to be used in the second grade until a later grade.

(b) Many of the words which should be taught in the early grades have basic parts which have been called phonograms. By use of these phonogram groups, or “families,” the number of words taught in the first and second grades can be very greatly increased, and the best possible foundation given for the development of aspelling sense. TheAldine Spellermakes full use of this principle, and a very complete list of phonic “families” will be found at the close of the work of the second year. (See page 65, Part I.) Attention is also called to suggestions for teaching such words on page28of this manual.

In 1911 Mr. R. C. Eldridge published the results of a study of 250 different newspaper articles occurring in four issues of a Buffalo Sunday paper. Of the 43,098 words tabulated there were only 6,002 different words.This again shows that the writing vocabulary even of adults is comparatively small.

Cook and O’Shea studied the correspondence of thirteen adults, tabulating 200,000 words, and found only 5,200 different words.

There is one underlying characteristic of each of these three studies; viz., the writing, and therefore the spelling, vocabulary of individuals is much smaller than we formerly considered it, and consists of approximately 5,000 words. (TheAldinevocabulary contains approximately 5,000 carefully selected words which should form the basis of the writing vocabulary of an eighth grade pupil.)

The Construction of a Spelling Scale

In 1915 Dr. Leonard P. Ayres of the Russell Sage Foundation tabulated some of the lists of words then available and made a selection of the 1,000 commonest words. This list of 1,000 words was then divided into 50 lists of 20 words each and given in the middle of the year to the children of two consecutive grades in a number of cities. As a check, words were taken from each of the fifty lists and recombined into new sets of twenty words each, then sent out as tests in each of four consecutive grades in different cities. The whole number of children thus tested was 70,000 in 84 cities in grades II to VIII inclusive. On the basis of this testing the Ayres Spelling Scale was organized.

The significant features of the scale are: (1) It contains only the commonest words. (2) It gives approximately what one ought to expect from any given grade when spelling words that are listed as equal in spelling difficulty. (3) The determination of the difficulty of any word was not dependent on the judgment of any one person, or group of persons, but on the ability of a large group of children to spell those words by writing them.

In giving the tests for the purpose of this scale it was not previously known whether the words had been studied or not. It has been found that testing these words after they have been carefully taught yields from 5% to 20% higher accuracy. Because they are the most common words in our language (Ayres found that these words comprise approximately 90% of our writing vocabulary) they are the words which ought to be taught carefullyand thoroughly. All of these words occur in the Aldine Vocabulary.

The Boston Minimum List consists of words selected from lists that had been sent in by the teachers of the different grades as the words which, in their opinion, should be taught in their respective classes. Two hundred and thirty-seven teachers sent in lists of approximately thirty-five words each. These words were then arranged in alphabetical order together with the number of teachers reporting each word. All words were then arranged in two lists, a minimum list composed of words which it was considered desirable for every child to know, and a supplementary list, including all the other words which had been reported. The words were at the same time assigned to the grades in which they were to be taught on the following basis:

1. Only those words that were reported by at least five teachers were placed in the minimum list.

2. Any given word was placed in the grade in which it was reported by the largest number of teachers.

3. If the spelling of any word depended on a particular rule or suggestion the word was placed in the grade in which such a rule or suggestion was given in the course of study then in force.

After a year’s work on the words they were assigned a value determined by the percentage of children who were able to spell the word correctly in a carefully controlled test. This provided a definite problem for the teacher because it pointed out the easy and the difficult words.A word with a high percentage of accuracy was considered an easy word. A word with a low percentage of accuracy was considered a difficult word.

From time to time during the last few years other lists of words have been organized, all with the view of conserving the time given to spelling by requiring the pupil to learn to spell only those words for which he has an immediate or a probable future use. There has also been an attempt on the part of a few of the organizers to determine the difficulty of the lists as was done in Boston. Such lists have been organized in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, and in other places, notably in the state of Iowa.

The vocabulary of theAldine Spellerhas been selected with great care. All the important lists were tabulated in such a way as to show the recurrence of the words and the grade distribution. Careful testing and study were given where there were significant variations in order to determine the correct selection and gradation. In addition to this the vocabularies of several of the best known textbooks were tabulated to ascertain the basis, if any, of their selection of words. These vocabularies varied so largely as to be of little value except to show the defects of unscientific selection.

Approximately 5,000 words were finally chosen. These include the words in common use and such words in theupper grades as are necessary to teach the varying vocabulary of life by the development of desirable forms. Without this attention to derivatives, difficult endings, the error producing problems ofieorei, and the doubling of the final consonant, no course in learning to spell is complete or fully effective.

After the selection of the words a series of illustrative sentences was gathered from many sources. Many of these sentences are quotations from our best authors, are within the grasp of the children, and will be found invaluable for memorizing, as dictation exercises, or used simply to illustrate the use of the words taught in the previous lessons.

Finally, at the end of the work for each grade, will be found an alphabetically arranged list of all the words taught in that grade, with the exception of the phonic words taught in the first and second grades which are not alphabetically arranged. The latter will be found, with others of the same “family,” or series, at the end of Part I.

In the past the method of giving the spelling lesson was to assign a list of words for pupils to study. After a period of time the lesson was “recited.” The “recitation” consisted largely of testing the pupils, either orally or through written work, to see if they had learned what had been assigned to them.

This method of learning spelling appealed to only one type of pupil,i.e., the pupil who learned byseeing. However, we know now that, although most children depend largelyupon vision for what they learn, there are those who learn best by hearing the wordspoken, while there are others who learn best by going through the motions of making the letters, either with the throat or the hand, and a large majority learn best by using all four processes.

To obtain the best results teachers are urged to give the pupils a chance to use all four processes, not for the purpose of testing their ability to spell, butas a method of learning. In this way appeal is made successively to the eye, the ear, the vocal organs, and the hand. All these taken together form associations which will be of great help in enabling the pupil to retain the correct spelling of the word. It gives the pupil a mental picture of the word through the sense that is best suited to him, besides giving all pupils the help of all the senses in fixing the word.

If the sense of hearing holds an important place in learning to spell then oral spelling becomes an important factor in the teaching and learning to spell.Oral spelling should always precede written spelling.

Ability to spell a word means the carrying out of certain habits which have already been formed. If these habits are right then the word is spelled correctly. If children have not formed the right set of habits, if their pronunciation is wrong, if their mental picture is distorted, if imperfect vision causes them to see the word indistinctly, if their hearing is not normal, or if the coördination of the muscles is poor, any or all of these things will lead to the misspelling of a word. It is highly important, therefore, that the firstimpression which the pupil gets of the word shall be a correct one. That first impressions are lasting must be continually kept in mind.The method of teachingwill help or hinder the getting of this correct impression.

Assuming that every word in the spelling lesson is already long since in the child’s speaking vocabulary there should be no word in it that he cannot and does not pronounce correctly. However, there are some very common words too often mispronounced. The teacher should watch for these words and secure a correct pronunciation.

There is little chance for a boy to spell “kept” correctly, if he pronounces the word as though it were spelled “k-e-p.” In words of more than one syllable the form should be emphasized by syllabication, thus making certain that each syllable is pronounced. Of 155 pupils who misspelled “boundary,” 100, or 64.5% spelled the word they heard, namely “boundry.” This spelling was certainly caused by poor pronunciation. Syllabication makes the spelling more obvious, promotes clear enunciation, and assists in making a clear mental picture of the word. If the word is composed of two words, as “somewhere,” he sees more readily that the long word is only made up of the two short words with which he is already familiar. Throughout the book all words of more than one syllable are so syllabicated when first taught. It is unwise to require children to divide such words in a written spelling lesson.

Much time and much thought may wisely be given to the enunciation of children. Clear and accurate enunciationshouldalwaysbe demanded. Children strongly tend to spell as they speak. Slovenly enunciation will give inaccurate spelling.

There is abundant material throughout the book illustrating the changes in root words when derivatives are formed. This does not mean, however, that there is nothing for the teacher to do. The teacher must keep constantly in mind that it is not necessarily true that because the child can spell “health,” he can spell “healthy.” Below is given a list of twenty-three words and one or more derivatives which were given to approximately 1,000 children in the sixth grade. It was known beforehand that the root word had been taught either during the year or in the fifth grade. The number following each word indicates the percentage of accuracy with which each word was spelled. It will be noted that in each case the root word was spelled with from 5% to 40% higher accuracy than the derivatives.

In every case but one (attacking) the derivative proved itself a harder word to spell even though it, too, had been taught. Since it is important that children should know how to spell such common words as “judges,” “mosquitoes,” etc., as well as the root word,many derived forms must be considered as presenting new spelling problems and taught as such. Since it is impossible to teach all derivatives and the needs of the pupils are varied, careful training in the formation of derivatives must be given.

Homophones or Homonyms

Homophones, or as they are more commonly called, homonyms, are words spelled differently but pronounced alike. Throughout the text of this book they have been purposely kept apart. Investigation strongly points to the conclusion that they should be kept apart until the correct spelling has become a fixed habit, and the ability to use them correctly in sentences reasonably sure. In order that no confusion as to the proper use of a homophone may arise in the child’s mind, it should be presented in a phrase, or still better in a complete sentence. In dictating words it should never be taken for granted that the child knows which one of a pair of homophones is meant. A sentence should be given to show which one is required. Spellingtherecorrectly in a column of words does not necessarily mean that the word would be spelled correctly in a sentence. If the childalwayshears it in its proper setting there will be a tendency always toseeit in this setting with the correct spelling naturally following.

The proper names that should be taught vary with the community and the school. The teacher should herself select those that need to be taught to her class. In the first grade the child should be taught to spell his own name. In the second grade he should be taught the most common names of other children in the room, the name of the teacher, of the city or town, and of the state. He should be taught that these names always begin with a capital letter. Otherlocal names of special importance should be taught at the discretion of the teacher. In later grades the names that are needed in Geography and History should be taught in connection with those subjects.

The “dictionary habit” is a most desirable one. Those children are fortunate who have instant access to a dictionary when they begin the work in the fourth grade. However,children must be taught how to use the dictionary. Suggestions for teaching the use of it may be found in the suggestions for each grade. (See pages 37, 42, 46, 55, etc.) Do not deaden the interest by requiring the pupils to look up every word in the lesson, but rather have them look up all words whose spelling or pronunciation is uncertain. Such work may be used very profitably as a language lesson rather than as a part of the spelling lesson. Many interesting and helpful lessons may be given in forming plurals, adding prefixes and suffixes, selecting derivatives, and finding synonyms other than those given in the book.No lesson should be assigned in the dictionary before the children have been taught how to use it.The lessons in this book suggest how to teach its use and give some practical experience in consulting it for the pronunciation of words. The resourceful teacher will find opportunity for much additional practice.

TheAldine Spelleraims to develop a few general rules for spelling. These are carefully developed throughoutthe grades but appear as formal rules only in the later grades. The foundation of some of the rules is laid in Part I, and the development continues throughout the succeeding grades. (See lesson 57, grade III, lesson 74, grade IV, etc.)

Throughout the book, review lists are common. The time usually allotted to the spelling lesson is short and, therefore, only those words which have been shown by investigation to need reviewing occur in these review lists. Words presenting the most difficulty are often repeated in the same and succeeding grades. The words which are recurring constantly in the written vocabulary of children are the words which they need to be sure that they have mastered. Including only such words for review will enable both teacher and pupil to conserve the time of the school day. The lessons are short and it is expected that each word is to be carefully taught the first time. If this is done and the pupil’s list of the misspelled words is kept, the need of long reviews will be minimized.

Other lists in the form of reviews consist of groups of words especially alluded to by other authors. For example, at the close of the work of the third grade will be found the hundred commonest words in the English language. Ayres points out that these words with their repetitions constitute about one-half of all the words we write. There is no question about the need of thoroughly mastering them early. On pages 42 and 43 of the fifth year work and pages 84 and 85 of the sixth year will be found lists of words taken from the 1,000 commonest words of the English language.At the end of other grades will be found lists of known trouble makers which should be carefully reviewed.

At the end of the work for each grade, the list of the words taught in the grade is given. If the word is taught in any previous grade an asterisk is placed before the word. For example,whichappears in the vocabulary of grade VI in this manner: * which. This shows thatwhichhas been taught in a previous grade but does not tell in what grades, nor how many times it occurs in each grade. It is given in the vocabulary of grade V in the same manner. In grade III it occurs without the asterisk, showing that this word occurs for the first time in grade III.

These vocabularies should be of great value to both teacher and pupil as they will enable both to determine at once the words which have been taught in the respective grades. If the word has been taught in a previous grade the teacher will know it and govern herself accordingly. If the word has been presented in that grade the pupil has a chance to find out the spelling without consulting the teacher, thus saving the teacher’s time.

Many of the words in this book are grouped into phonetic lists. The object of this is strongly to impress the basic part of these words upon the child. The repeated sight, sound, and spelling of this common combination of letters makes it possible to learn the words in a list easily and in a short time.

An Effective Method

1. Writeoneof the words on the blackboard. While writing the wordpronounceit very distinctly by syllables, being clear in enunciation.

2. Have the word pronounced in concert by the class and individually by poor spellers, particularly those whose enunciation is naturally poor.

3. Develop the meaning orally by using the word in a sentence, or defining it.

4. Rewrite the word dividing it into syllables either by a slight break or a line. Call on pupils to spell orally by syllables, as: i-n—d-e—p-e-n-d—e-n-t—independent.

5. Have pupils indicate familiar parts or phonograms in the words. Have them point out peculiarities, non-phonetic elements, silent letters, double consonants, etc. Call attention to any that they do not observe.

6. Have pupils write the word at least two or three times, pronouncing it softly by syllables, or spelling it silently as they write.

7. After the words of the lesson have been studied in this way, allow pupils to study the words silently, laying stress on words which have seemed most difficult to them.

8. Bear in mind the following:

(a) A single lesson should consist of a small number of words. TheAldine Spellerplans for two or three new sight words (or five to seven words in a phonic series) for a lesson in the lower grades, gradually increasing until five or six new words may be used in a lesson in the upper grades.

(b) Errors should be anticipated and prevented as faras possible.Create a strong impression of the word at the beginning.

(d) Writing the word on the board or on paper immediately after the oral discussion of it gives the “muscle feel” of the word that is of great importance.

(e) The ancient custom of requiring the writing of words a number of times as a punishment is a crime.

(f) A weekly test should be given. This should consist of words taught during the week, of words previously misspelled by the pupils, of words from the “Demon Books,” or personal lists of the pupils.

In the past teachers “corrected” spelling papers solely for the purpose of determining which words were spelled incorrectly. The better thought is to examine spelling papers for the purpose of finding which words are wrong in order to determine whythey are misspelled. This helps the teacher because it enables her to place the emphasis on the part of the word which is difficult and tends to prevent further misspelling.Prevent the misspelling of a word at the beginning. Form right habits of spelling rather than attempt to correct bad habits of spelling, should be the slogan of every teacher.

In correcting spelling it should be borne in mind that some words have more than one correct spelling. The child’s spelling should not be called incorrect if it is anapproved form. Call his attention to the preferred form, telling him why it is preferred.

One method of bringing about this formation of good habits is to have each pupil keep a list of hisown“demons.” Each pupil’s list will be different, for many words are “demons” for one pupil but not for another. This list may include root words and derivatives, or only derivative words. Each pupil should be required to keep his own list on which he, personally, may be tested from time to time to see if he has mastered the words that have proved difficult for him to learn. This list should not include the words that have been misspelled accidentally.

Writing misspelled lists as a punishment shouldbe absolutely forbidden.

Evidence that simple and necessary words are neglected.

Attempting to learn these,

while misspelling these:

allways gess whitch shur wemen offen writting esy

spectaclehalolegacygossamersluiceluridbuoyantlinearaggrievesuperlativeromanticobstinate

spectacle

halo

legacy

gossamer

sluice

lurid

buoyant

linear

aggrieve

superlative

romantic

obstinate

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