This action research project describes a program to increase the application of spelling skills in students' writing. The target population consisted of first grade students in a middle-class community in the northern suburb of a large metropolitan area. The problems of inadequate application of spelling skills to student writing were documented with a spelling checklist, a developmental spelling list, and samples of student writing. Analysis of probable cause data revealed that students did not transfer spelling skills to their daily writing across the curriculum due to a lack of a formal spelling curriculum. Post intervention data indicated that the students internalized spelling strategies in daily writing.
More research is necessary to determine whether improved spelling is a result of the intervention.
Contains 27 references, and 3 tables and 5 figures of data. Appendixes provide illustrations of developmental stages of learning to spell, a developmental spelling samples.