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Since the invention of computers with spelling checkers, many people feel that learning to spell is no longer important. Actually, as Hook & Jones (2002) show us, spelling skills are directly connected to literacy, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing ability. What does that mean?

It means that learning to spell helps your child become a better reader and writer. A lot of research on spelling, and its effects on reading ability, went into creating a website that provides free spelling programs for kids. SpellingCity.com used clinical research to determine that children learn to spell by becoming familiar with their spelling words in a variety of situations.

Forget about writing the same words over and over, and thinking up ways to use them in a sentence. Children can now enter their weekly spelling list into the website and play all sorts of different games with them.

Reading fluency, the ability to read and comprehend easily without stumbling over the words, requires the child to be very familiar with the words in the English language. The child needs to be able to identify letter groups and patterns between similar words. This allows them to read words they have never seen before. It also gives them the ability to recognize misspelled words, both in their own writing and in others'.

Phonics describes the way words are put together, and is a big part of both reading and spelling. While many children develop phonics skills just by learning to read, some kids really need to have things explained to them.

If the skill of the day is ph- words, they need to be told that ph- makes an f sound, and then shown a variety of words, like phone, and physics. Then the child needs to work on looking for those words in a book or magazine or website.

SpellingCity.com allows the child to learn spelling skills in a fun and engaging way. When spelling becomes a game, the child will be much more motivated and interested in learning.

DuBois, Erickson & Jacobs (2007) found that when spelling education is done as an isolated subject, students do not really learn to spell. The traditional weekly spelling list, and the activities that come with it, don't actually teach kids to spell.

Children grow tired of writing their words over and over, looking up definitions, alphabetizing lists, and using each word in a sentence. More importantly, the kids usually memorize the words for one week, and then quickly forget and misspell them once they move on to next week's spelling list.

Direct instruction that involves looking for patterns, sorting words into groups, and playing games with the words improve kids' spelling immensely. Spelling programs for kids should be fun and entertaining. SpellingCity.com is a great place for kids to play games with their own weekly spelling words.

REFERENCES

Hook, PE & Jones SD 2002, 'The Importance of Automaticity and Fluency For Efficient Reading Comprehension,' Perspectives, vol. 28, no. 1, pages 9-14.

DuBois, Erickson, K & Jacobs, M 2007, 'Improving Spelling of High Frequency Words for Transfer in Written Work,' Action Research Project Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Education, Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL.