Invented Spelling, by Maryann Manning

With the right amount of time and patience, your "inventive" spellers can make the transition to being conventional spellers

My attic is full of thousands of spelling papers that have been collected in research projects over the past 30 years. From these papers, I can see that we've learned much about how children develop as spellers.

We can damage the confidence of young children by insisting they use conventional spelling. To the child, it's impossible to understand how words can be spelled conventionally. Many kids believe "of" is spelled "uv." If we wait a while, the child will read "of" in a text and decide that "o" and "f" have more than one sound and begin to write "of" conventionally.

The five distinct levels
I prefer the term "invented spelling" because if you obtain samples of a child's writing over several years, you'll see that a child's spelling develops from drawing pictures to scribbles to letter strings to shorter letter strings, some letter-sound correspondence, and then increased correct letters, until the words are conventionally spelled.

I view spelling along a continuum marked by five distinct levels. There's no one right level for all children at a given age. Kids who live in highly-literate homes and who've had quality preschool experiences are usually at higher levels because of the number of literacy episodes they've had. The levels are:

Level 0
Children draw pictures, scribble or don't make letter-like forms.

Level I
Children write strings of letters that have no set length.

Level II
Children still write in strings but the strings usually range from three to nine letters. There's no letter-sound correspondence at this level.

Level III
Children begin to write in invented spelling that can be read. They use primarily consonants and letter-name vowels. This is the consonantal level.

Level IV
Children make all letter-sound correspondences using almost all consonants and most vowels even though there is some vowel confusion.

Level V
Children spell conventionally almost all words that are age-appropriate.

Using these descriptions, you can easily determine the levels of your students. Ask individual kids to write the following words: tomato, punishment, karate, motion, cement, vacation and ocean. These words were not haphazardly chosen but reveal the logical system of the child. If he or she uses the same letters (sn, son, shn, un) for the end of motion, vacation and ocean, he or she has invented a logical system. It's important to assess levels early in the year because then you know how to support the child in interactive writing situations. Inform parents of their child's level spelling development so they don't insist upon conventional spelling at an inappropriate time.

At Levels I and II, interactive writing is often the most appropriate strategy and at Levels III and IV, students can benefit from a whole range of teaching strategies and activities. Many strategies support the spelling development of your students as you help them move to the next level. Here are some of mine.

1. Encourage students to write throughout the day, whether it's a full page of letter strings, the labeling of pictures or compositions.

2. Conduct many writing demonstrations throughout the day. A "daily news" activity is an especially effective strategy for kindergarten and first grade children.

3. Keep monthly writing samples so you can observe the addition of correct vowels and consonants. The collection of monthly samples serve as valuable information during parent conferences.

4. Use reading response journals even before children are reading independently. As soon as the child can write a few words summarizing picture books that you've read aloud, begin journaling.

5. Assign words for practice only when students are one letter away from being conventional. For instance, if the child spells "monkey" as "monke," the word might be a candidate for a short list. I like the way many New Zealand teachers chose from the writing of the Level IV five- and six-year-old children three words that are one letter from conventional spelling. The children wrote their name and the three words spelled correctly three times on a small piece of paper. The teacher compiles a running list of the words each child has been assigned so she can observe if the words are spelled correctly in future writing.

6. Be aware of the reading and writing connections as you conduct shared and guided reading sessions. For example, when you mask certain letters or words for a teaching point, the child will use the knowledge in both reading and writing.

7. Use word walls or charts to remind kids of the correct spelling of high frequency words. Taking the Words Off the Wall by Libby Larrabee and Kathie Heap (Dominie Press, 2004) has many ideas that support spelling development.

8. Provide Level IV kids with a notebook to record the words they can spell. I especially like the Zaner-Bloser Word Books. They provide space for a personal word list in addition to an age-appropriate dictionary to help kids become independent.

Kids invent their own relationships and then move on to a higher level of spelling as they build new knowledge about conventions. The teaching strategies and reading and writing activities we use can support development and not cause damage to the literacy confidence that the spelling test era did for many young children.

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.