Books by Sipe, Phenix, and Wheatley

by Sheila Cantlebary

They Still Can't Spell? Understanding and Supporting Challenged Spellers in Middle and High School by Rebecca Bowers Sipe (Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH, 2005)

In her foreword to Rebecca Sipe's book, Kylene Beers says, "They Still Can't Spell? moves to the forefront something that, when taught correctly, can then move to the background of students' knowledge." Concerned about the spelling struggles of middle, high school, and college students, Sipe and a team of four teacher researchers conducted case studies for a full academic year. This book shares their findings and the implications for instruction. Sipe and her colleagues discovered that spelling difficulties contributed to a lack of self-efficacy for many students and impacted their sense of self as a reader and writer. After identifying four categories of challenged spellers, the researchers confronted the challenges in their classrooms by weaving spelling instruction into their reading and writing workshops. Sipe incorporates detailed descriptions of how they used personal spelling dictionaries and lists, reflection logs, mini-lessons, wordplay, and strategy instruction to help students take charge of their own spelling. Especially valuable are the actual student voices heard throughout the book.

In addition, a chapter on developing a schoolwide spelling policy offers guidance for creating consistent expectations and a climate for spelling growth across the curriculum. The twelve appendixes at the end of the book include a spelling history writing prompt, an error analysis chart, various student logs, helpful reference lists of words and rules, an annotated bibliography, and much more.

The Spelling Teacher's Handbook by Jo Phenix (Pembroke, Markham, Ontario, 2001)

Jo Phenix has distilled what she knows about teaching spelling into a concise and readable 71-page handbook. Starting from the premise that children need to know that spelling is a thinking and not a memorizing activity, Phenix advocates a teaching methodology that encourages logical thinking by focusing on word pattern recognition and word building. She offers a repertoire of activities for word-collecting, word-building, pattern-matching, and spelling investigations. She also presents specific tips for helping students finally master those particularly troublesome words such as tomorrow. Other topics she addresses include creating a climate for learning spelling, responding to spelling errors, teaching spelling through writing, and planning spelling lessons using a four-step model. This compact guide provides a basic overview of sound classroom practices for spelling instruction as well as a quick review of frequently used spelling rules. Although many of the strategies and activities shared are suitable throughout the elementary grades, most are also appropriate for use with older students.

Stra-te-gic Spell-ing: Moving Beyond Word Memorization in the Middle Grades by Jonathan P. Wheatley (International Reading Association, Newark, DE, 2005)

When Jonathan Wheatley could not find a spelling resource that he felt would hold his middle school students' interest, he began experimenting. Based on his own research and that of others, he created a flexible instructional framework that truly engaged students and resulted in measurable improvement in spelling-strategy knowledge and the ability to spell isolated words. These students who learned through active participation, group work, and tasks involving games, challenges, and puzzles were also more likely to rate their spelling lessons favorably. Wheatley shares his approach, which eventually spread across the school district.

After providing a solid research base for his methodology's theoretical principles, Wheatley moves on to specific guidelines for helping English language learners and students with learning difficulties. Wheatley's plan for effective spelling instruction for all students includes a variety of thinking activities to be taught concurrently with pattern activities. Each has a specific name; for instance, "chain reaction" is a core pattern activity. To facilitate instruction, the activities include a list of materials, advance preparation notes, step-by-step lesson guidelines, suggestions for reinforcement, a scoring system, teaching tips, special needs considerations, reproducibles, and extensions. Emphasizing that spelling practice can be extended to content-area classes, Wheatley also shares suggestions for supplementary activities and assessment methods including checklists for analyzing errors and for determining spelling stages. Written with the intellectual and social skills of middle schoolers in mind, Wheatley's rich resource can help teachers empower students to spell strategically using a problem-solving approach.

Sheila Cantlebary is a reading content specialist at the Ohio Resource Center. As a former teacher in Columbus Public Schools, she taught English, language arts, and reading (7-12), served as a K-12 English language arts coordinator, and was a teacher in the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow program. Her teaching experience also includes facilitating State Institute for Reading Instruction and English Language Arts Academy sessions.

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