title: By rule or by rote? To what extent does children’s spelling improve as a result of learning words with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy, compared with phonological spelling strategies?

authors: Dymock, Susan

abstract: The present study was a randomised controlled trial designed to compare the effects of two spelling interventions on spelling of taught words and transfer words. The sample consisted of 55 seven-year-olds, including proficient and less proficient spellers, in two Year 3 classrooms. The spelling interventions were for three lessons per week, 20-minutes per lesson, over 10 weeks. In the first intervention we taught eight spelling strategies that showed children how to stretch out the sounds in words and how to use different phonological spelling strategies, including how to spell short and long vowel sounds and phonics strategies, such as use of the silent e marker, how to break long words into syllables, and the doubling rule. In the second intervention students learned the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy along with putting words to be learned into alphabetical order and writing each word in a sentence. They were not taught any strategies or rules. The control group completed comprehension, vocabulary, and punctuation activities. In order to see if the control group might implicitly learn the words, all groups in all lessons were exposed to the same words by reading a story to them that contained the words. Results for taught words showed that both intervention conditions increased participants’ spelling at an equivalent rate, greater than that of the control condition. For transfer words not taught but that followed similar patterns to the taught words, the strategy intervention showed greater transfer to spelling new words with similar patterns compared with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX condition and the control condition. For this reason we conclude that although both intervention approaches had strong local effects in terms of learning to spell specific words, teaching rule-based spelling strategies had more global effects in terms of transfer to new words than the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX for both proficient and less proficient spellers.

text: By rule or by rote? To what extent does children’s spelling improve as a result of learning words with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy, compared with phonological spelling strategies? The present study was a randomised controlled trial designed to compare the effects of two spelling interventions on spelling of taught words and transfer words. The sample consisted of 55 seven-year-olds, including proficient and less proficient spellers, in two Year 3 classrooms. The spelling interventions were for three lessons per week, 20-minutes per lesson, over 10 weeks. In the first intervention we taught eight spelling strategies that showed children how to stretch out the sounds in words and how to use different phonological spelling strategies, including how to spell short and long vowel sounds and phonics strategies, such as use of the silent e marker, how to break long words into syllables, and the doubling rule. In the second intervention students learned the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy along with putting words to be learned into alphabetical order and writing each word in a sentence. They were not taught any strategies or rules. The control group completed comprehension, vocabulary, and punctuation activities. In order to see if the control group might implicitly learn the words, all groups in all lessons were exposed to the same words by reading a story to them that contained the words. Results for taught words showed that both intervention conditions increased participants’ spelling at an equivalent rate, greater than that of the control condition. For transfer words not taught but that followed similar patterns to the taught words, the strategy intervention showed greater transfer to spelling new words with similar patterns compared with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX condition and the control condition. For this reason we conclude that although both intervention approaches had strong local effects in terms of learning to spell specific words, teaching rule-based spelling strategies had more global effects in terms of transfer to new words than the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX for both proficient and less proficient spellers.

year: 2017

title: Using theory to escape the descriptive impasse

authors: Bruce, Toni

subjects: theory

abstract: In this article, I focus on the importance of theory for undertaking and making sense of research. In particular, I consider one of the most common challenges for postgraduate students, which is how to shift from describing findings (what I found) to theorising about them (why my findings turned out this way). Using a case study approach, I describe my engagement with a particular set of data and demonstrate how different theories led me to focus on different elements and draw different conclusions. I conclude that explicitly shifting my theoretical approach ended up guiding me towards a much stronger interpretation of my descriptive findings.

text: Using theory to escape the descriptive impasse In this article, I focus on the importance of theory for undertaking and making sense of research. In particular, I consider one of the most common challenges for postgraduate students, which is how to shift from describing findings (what I found) to theorising about them (why my findings turned out this way). Using a case study approach, I describe my engagement with a particular set of data and demonstrate how different theories led me to focus on different elements and draw different conclusions. I conclude that explicitly shifting my theoretical approach ended up guiding me towards a much stronger interpretation of my descriptive findings.

year: 2010

title: The day ahead

authors: Webber, Warren

abstract: With a professional background in agriculture and veterinary science, and a decade of participation in water quality issues for the Rotorua Lakes catchments, Warren brings an intense personal, but non-vested interest, to issues of nutrient management on the land and in our waterways. Conference management (international and domestic) helps to pay the bills, but voluntary community interests take up much of his time. As an appointee to the Stakeholder Advisory Group (StAG) which considers land management and land use change policy issues on behalf of the Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group, he is closely involved with the challenges of nutrient allocation and incentives for change.

text: The day ahead With a professional background in agriculture and veterinary science, and a decade of participation in water quality issues for the Rotorua Lakes catchments, Warren brings an intense personal, but non-vested interest, to issues of nutrient management on the land and in our waterways. Conference management (international and domestic) helps to pay the bills, but voluntary community interests take up much of his time. As an appointee to the Stakeholder Advisory Group (StAG) which considers land management and land use change policy issues on behalf of the Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group, he is closely involved with the challenges of nutrient allocation and incentives for change.

year: 2013