Spelling It Out
Spelling It Out: How Words Work & How To Teach Them
by Misty Adoniou
A superb book for introducing teachers and parents to how to teach spelling
Spelling It Out is a fantastic book that introduces teachers and parents to the basic principles of how to teach spelling. It is very clear and engagingly-written, and manages to avoid overly technical language.
What it’s about
Spelling It Out is extremely practical – it doesn’t talk about cognitive science or dwell on the causes of spelling difficulties, and it scarcely mentions dyslexia – the focus is exactly as it states in the book’s subtitle ‘How Words Work and How to Teach Them’!
The main approaches to teaching spelling are summarised in the following quote:
“An effective speller draws upon the entire rich linguistic tapestry of a word in order to spell it correctly. The threads of this tapestry can be identified as:
Phonology – the sounds of the word
Morphology – the meaningful parts of the word
Etymology – the history of the word, and
Orthography – the conventions of spelling that have developed over time.”
Misty Adoniou takes the reader through each of these ‘threads’ in turn. Her summary of the history of English, accompanied by a timeline, is particularly helpful.
The appendices are also very useful, including a list of common English morphemes and their meanings, a list of ‘ways into words’ (examples of how to teach the spelling of particular words), and a possible scope and sequence for a spelling curriculum.
The best quotes
There are some quotes in this book that might stop you in your tracks if you think you are teaching spelling. Misty Adoniou is quite direct (and entirely correct) to point out that “testing spelling isn’t teaching spelling”, and “correcting spelling is not teaching spelling – it is copy-editing”.
The takeaway
This is the best overview of how to teach spelling that I’ve come across. It doesn’t assume any prior knowledge, so it’s great for non-specialists, but it goes into sufficient depth to be of real, practical use for teachers and parents.
Combine this with Beneath the Surface of Words by Sue Hegland (reviewed here) and Spell It Out by David Crystal (reviewed here), and you’ll have a good knowledge of the principles of English spelling, the main etymological influences on English spelling, and a selection of strategies for teaching.