Spelling teaches reading

If the term spelling test automatically conjures nightmarish images that still make your heart pound and your palms sweat, it's a reminder to create a better experience for your students. We can skip the tortuous rote tests because analytical spelling is best.

What is analytical spelling?

Unlike rote memorization, analytical spelling empowers students by teaching them to segment a spoken word into its sounds, hold those sounds in mind, and label them as letters corresponding to the sound sequence. This method puts the power of thoughtful spelling in the hands of students.

Crucially, analytical spelling requires students to actively engage with words. When they hear a spoken word and are tasked with recoding it as symbols or alphabetic letters, they must listen carefully to the word, visualize it correctly, break it into its individual sounds, and label each sound with its corresponding phonogram. This active engagement promotes a deeper understanding of spelling and language, making learning more meaningful for students.

But where should we begin?

We should scaffold analytical spelling instruction by helping students spell simple syllables such as ab, eb, ib, ob, and ub. Simple syllables serve several purposes: they foster alphabetic sensitivity and phonemic awareness and build confidence since students can easily spell units that rhyme. Moreover, it's easier for kids to hear and learn to pronounce vowel and consonant sounds by saying, spelling, and segmenting them within syllabic units.

When we teach simple syllables as units or strings of sounds, students learn chunks of sounds. They learn to see each simple syllable as a spelling for a specific syllable sound, just as they see each letter as a spelling for a specific phonemic sound.

Put simply, analytical spelling is the bridge that connects sounds to symbols that students can say or write. When students hear a spoken word, segment its sounds, and label those sounds with letters, they are essentially converting invisible speech sounds into visible symbols. This process is the foundation of alphabetic writing systems. Spelling turns sounds into sight, and reading turns sight into sound. Understanding and practicing analytical spelling is the key to becoming a proficient reader, as it helps students master the alphabetical principle and phonemic awareness, which are foundational for learning to read. Spelling teaches reading. Students who spell well read well.