Capturing variations in how spelling is taught in primary school classrooms in England

Mastering spelling is important for children to progress in writing. The National Curriculum in England details spelling lists linked to each year group in primary education. Assessment practices also emphasise the importance of teaching spelling. However, to date, little is known about how teachers feel about teaching spelling nor the instructional methods that they use in primary schools in England. This study addresses this gap by investigating approaches to teaching spelling. An online survey was distributed to primary-based teaching staff with roles in supporting teaching and learning. The survey asked for information about the respondents’ teaching experience and school setting, and about their attitudes and approach to teaching spelling. The survey was completed in full by 158 respondents. Approaches to teaching spelling were varied and over two-thirds of the sample highlighted that their school did not have a spelling policy. The importance of explicit teaching of spelling was supported by the majority of teachers. This judgement was more frequent and rated more highly by teachers supporting younger children. Teachers largely reported devising their own spelling resources, highlighted that the curriculum spelling lists lack guidance for teaching spelling strategies and questioned their suitability for pupils of varying abilities. A range of spelling programmes and strategies were recorded. The findings provide insight into universal instructional approaches. Practical implications for teacher training and professional development are discussed.     

Programs for Writing and Spelling

Sally McKeown, of the National Council for Educational Technology, describes how information technology can help pupils with specific learning difficulties to overcome difficulties with handwriting, spelling and structured writing.     

Recovering reading using computer mastery programmes

Mastery learning has been shown to be an effective method of raising the level of performance of pupils on a wide range of tasks. This method has been applied to the teaching of reading and spelling with primary school children with learning difficulties, in the form of a series of computer programmes using the high quality digital sound which is available in the current generation of low-cost portable computers.
Unlike many programmes designed to teach or encourage reading skills, the programmes developed for this project provide instantaneous feedback, and identify and reward correct responses, with high criterion levels set for progression from one task to the next. They also provide complete records of pupil performance, allowing teachers to select teaching sequences appropriate for each individual pupil. Case studies of pupils are presented, showing the performance gains obtained with short but regular use of the programmes, over a 12 week period.     

How can children with mild literacy difficulties be supported at the transition to secondary school? A small‐scale quasi‐experimental study

There is evidence that pupils with weak literacy skills struggle on transition to secondary school. Many experience a drop in attainment in the summer break between the two. A British government‐funded programme of rigorously designed research on boosting literacy at transition had (by 2015) found only four of 15 interventions evaluated had positive effects. This small‐scale quasi‐experimental study investigated the effectiveness of support for pupils with mild literacy difficulties on transition to secondary school. Thirty‐two pupils in three schools were involved; half received the programme. Pairs were matched on reading, spelling, age and gender. Intervention was designed around the individual needs of each pupil, focusing variously on language skills, writing, reading and spelling. The group receiving the programme made modest gains in spelling, reading efficiency and single word reading. The comparison group lost ground, relatively, in all three areas. The results suggest a promising line for more rigorous investigation.     

Tackling Literacy Difficulties: can teacher training meet the challenge?

Lyn Layton, a teacher of pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties (dyslexia), and Karen Deeny, a speech/language therapist, are currently researching the phonological awareness of pre-readers. They consider how initial teacher training might include more attention to the skills which underpin reading and spelling, with a view to giving appropriate support to pupils with literacy difficulties. They argue that, thus prepared, primary teachers will be better placed to prevent such difficulties and to enhance written language skills in all children.     

Factors Associated with High Standards of Spelling in Years R-4

This article is based on a discussion document written for all schools in Suffolk, England by the English advisory team. It resulted from a small-scale survey of nine schools where results for National Curriculum test AT4 (Spelling) in 1994 and 1995 were particularly high. This in turn stemmed from concerns raised by monitoring local education authority results in this aspect of English and aimed to uncover common factors in these schools' approaches to teaching spelling and supporting pupils' development in this skill. The key factors indicated by the survey included the systematic teaching of both spelling patterns and phonics; the fostering of early independence in writing and reading; regular learning of spellings at home and effective partnership with parents in this; regular testing; effective short teaching sessions on spelling, and differentiation based on high expectations of all pupils.     

Measuring Mastery Across Grades: An Application to Spelling Ability

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in mastery is essential when monitoring student progress and is crucial for instructional interventions to deal with learning difficulties. Mixture item response theory (IRT) models can provide a convenient way to make the distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in mastery. The use of latent groups, rather than focusing on manifest groupings like gender or grade, in these models is very informative to give a substantive interpretation to the qualitative differences. In the current study, mixture IRT modeling is applied to the mastery of two crucial rules in vowel duration spelling in Dutch by pupils in the four final grades of primary school. Results indicate that differences in mastery of the spelling rules are not strictly quantitative. Three latent groups of pupils can be distinguished that show qualitative differences in the mastery of one of the crucial spelling rules involved.     

Perceptual skills and Arabic literacy patterns for mathematically gifted children with specific learning difficulties

Phonological awareness is a key factor in the development of literacy, and frequently presents itself as an area of weakness in pupils with reading difficulties. In this article, Anies Al-Hroub of the American University of Beirut sets out to define a distinguishing pattern of characteristics that supports the identification of pupils with specific learning difficulties who are gifted in mathematics and reports the assessment of the pupils' visual and auditory perceptual skills, including phonological awareness. The assessments were designed to measure auditory and visual memory skills, auditory and visual analysis skills, speed of information processing and spoken language (receptive and expressive). Furthermore, aspects of language learning such as reading, writing, spelling and parts of listening ability were all assessed for mathematically gifted pupils with specific learning difficulties who scored above the cut-off score of 120 on the WISC-III-Jordan. The article closes with recommendations for further research.     

Literacy Acceleration and the Key Stage 3 English Strategy – comparing two approaches for secondary-age pupils with literacy difficulties

Literacy for pupils in the secondary phase of education is a key concern for practitioners and policy makers alike. Tony Lingard is the SENCo at a large comprehensive school in the south-west of England but he is also involved in staff development and school improvement initiatives across the UK. Literacy Acceleration is an intervention strategy for pupils with literacy difficulties that he and his team at school have been developing over many years. He undertook the research reported in this article at a comprehensive school where Literacy Acceleration was well established and being delivered by experienced staff. The research found that Year 7 and 8 pupils with literacy difficulties who followed Literacy Acceleration made significant progress with reading and spelling while similar pupils, who only had access to National English Strategy classes, did less well over the period of the study. The research also found that most of the pupils who experienced Literacy Acceleration in small groups, as well as mainstream English lessons, preferred being taught in smaller Literacy Acceleration groups where they also felt that they were making more progress. In concluding his article, Tony Lingard argues that pupils with literacy difficulties need specific, targeted interventions and that it may be a mistake to assume that the normal secondary English curriculum effectively meets their needs. This small-scale study therefore offers a challenge to a widely accepted policy. It suggests that abandoning strategies that focus on addressing the particular needs of pupils with literacy difficulties (of which Literacy Acceleration is one example) may not best serve the interests of a significant group of learners.     

Thinking Through the Curriculum

David Leat, a researcher and teacher trainer, argues that teaching thinking can act as an important counterbalance to the more instrumental approaches which are the result of some aspects of the National Curriculum. He identifies some of the key characteristics of teaching thinking lessons and goes on to present four examples of practice. However, there are a number of barriers to change and these are identified. Seeking ways to promote change is important as currently the curriculum that pupils experience does not seem to be preparing them to be good learners. The paper concludes by suggesting that Debriefing – (pupils reflecting on and explaining what they have learned) – would be an appropriate springboard for change.     

How do teachers in Ireland and England conceptualise dyslexia?

This paper presents the findings of a comparative study using data from questionnaire surveys carried out in England (n=57) and Ireland (n=72). The researchers examine how teachers and teaching assistants who are currently teaching pupils with dyslexia in primary schools describe dyslexia and what may have influenced their conceptualisation. The paper examines teachers' responses both in terms of how they view their pupils presenting difficulties in the classroom, and how far they link these to underlying differences in cognitive processing. The researchers suggest ways in which this might influence their teaching in terms of methodology. Findings have been mapped to the Morton and Frith causal modelling framework. The implications of these findings for the training and support of teachers are discussed in the light of recent national initiatives to improve the teaching of dyslexic pupils in both countries.     

The role of morphological awareness in explaining reading-writing difficulties / El papel de la conciencia morfológica en la explicación de las dificultades de aprendizaje de la lectoescritura

Abstract

This paper examines the role played by morphological awareness in explaining difficulties in reading and writing words with arbitrary spelling in a group of students who have reading-writing difficulties. Specifically, the relationship between morphological, morphosyntactic and phonological awareness and reading errors and success in arbitrary spelling is studied. This paper also describes to what extent the morphological and morphosyntactic awareness of students with reading difficulties explains errors in reading and in the correct spelling of words with arbitrary spelling. The results indicate that morphological, morphosyntactic and phonological awareness are related to learning reading and arbitrary spelling in Spanish. However, morphosyntactic awareness is more important in explaining serious reading errors and success in writing with arbitrary spelling among students with reading-writing difficulties.     

Access to numeracy: a case study

More and more pupils with learning difficulties are being taught in mainstream settings but how inclusive is the teaching they experience? In this illustrative case study, Ruth Germain, a teacher in a mainstream primary school, looks at how Paul, a pupil with Down's syndrome, is supported during 'dedicated numeracy time'. She examines the relationships between whole-class, group and individual teaching; the nature of the support Paul receives; and his educational and behavioural responses. The article closes with a call for further research into the implications for teaching and learning of the inclusion of pupils with learning difficulties in mainstream contexts.     

Progress of pupils attending resourced provision for specific learning difficulties

An analysis of the improvement in attainments of 109 students attending specialist-resourced provision for specific learning difficulties (SpLD) attached to mainstream secondary schools was conducted as they progressed through Key Stages 3 and 4. Steady progress was made in terms of reading accuracy, reading comprehension, spelling ability and rate of reading. The ratio gains for these skills varied from 0.68 to 0.91. Additionally, self-efficacy was monitored and also showed a slight improvement. This study therefore provides some suggestion of the progress that might reasonably be expected of pupils starting secondary school with significant literacy difficulties.     

Working in groups: social and cognitive effects in a special class

Judith Watson, Reader in Education at the University of Edinburgh, considers the potential of social-constructivist ideas of teaching and learning for pupils with learning difficulties and reports on the introduction of social learning experiences within a special unit for pupils with moderate learning difficulties.     

HELIOS Education Gold Award Winner

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a collaborative project between the staff of twelve mainstream schools and Suffolk Local Education Authority staff which has aimed to develop differentiated teaching strategies. The project has developed teaching and assessment techniques for pupils with literacy difficulties and approaches to delivering aspects of the whole curriculum to pupils with special educational needs. The project recognizes the central importance of mainstream teachers if integration for pupils with special educational needs is to be a truly meaningful educational experience.     

The precursors of double dissociation between reading and spelling in a transparent orthography

Research and clinical practitioners have mixed views whether reading and spelling difficulties should be combined or seen as separate. This study examined the following: (a) if double dissociation between reading and spelling can be identified in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and (b) the cognitive and noncognitive precursors of this phenomenon. Finnish-speaking children (n?=?1963) were assessed on reading fluency and spelling in grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. Dissociation groups in reading and spelling were formed based on stable difficulties in grades 1–4. The groups were compared in kindergarten phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, home literacy environment, and task-avoidant behavior. The results indicated that the double dissociation groups could be identified even in the context of a highly transparent orthography: 41 children were unexpected poor spellers (SD), 36 were unexpected poor readers (RD), and 59 were poor in both reading and spelling (RSD). The RSD group performed poorest on all cognitive skills and showed the most task-avoidant behavior, the RD group performed poorly particularly on rapid automatized naming and letter knowledge, and the SD group had difficulties on phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Fathers’ shared book reading was less frequent in the RD and RSD groups than in the other groups. The findings suggest that there are discernible double dissociation groups with distinct cognitive profiles. This further suggests that the identification of difficulties in Finnish and the planning of teaching and remediation practices should include both reading and spelling assessments.     

'Vive le français!' at Priory School

Priory School for pupils with moderate learning difficulties in Bury St Edmunds began modern foreign language (MFL) teaching nearly three years ago, well before the arrival of the National Curriculum. Peter Spencer, headteacher, describes how pupils have responded to learning French and comments on the initial advice recently given by the Working Group for MFL in the National Curriculum.     

Class‐size and Learning: the Tennessee experiment — what follows?

Abstract

The exceptionally large ‘Tennessee experiment’ — involving 7000 pupils — to elucidate the effects of class‐size on primary school pupils’ rate of learning has been widely interpreted as showing convincingly that classes of 15 pupils learn more rapidly, in an important sense, than classes of 24 pupils. The present re‐analysis in terms of value‐added in learning — the annual increase in SAT scores (rather than the absolute levels of those scores) — indicates that the benefits to average children resulting simply from a lowering of class‐size, while positive, are negligible in magnitude and not justifiable in relation to the additional economic resources required. The paper suggests that benefits are more likely to result from targeting additional resources to improved teaching styles, improved teaching materials and providing small classes for pupils with recognised learning difficulties; further research on class‐size needs to concentrate on the correct proportion of low‐attaining pupils that would benefit from attending small classes, the optimal size of such classes, and the fractions of the day which pupils with varying difficulties should attend small and normal‐sized classes.     

Supporting the inclusion of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the primary school: the role of teaching assistants

During the past ten years in the UK there has been a considerable increase in the number of teaching assistants (TAs) appointed to work alongside teachers in schools. A significant number of these colleagues are appointed to support pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including those with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). This paper reports on the ways in which the role of the teaching assistant in supporting pupils with SEBD has been developed in schools for pupils aged 7–11 years in one English Local Education Authority (LEA). It suggests that there are several models of support emerging and that the role of the teaching assistant is perceived as crucial to the effective inclusion of pupils with SEBD in mainstream classrooms.