Literacy isn't just reading. As the LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) name indicates, there's another component—one that many adults shrugged off long ago, even before spell check gave them an excuse.

As LETRS author Louisa Moats points out, spelling requires a level of detailed recall of letters that is not necessary for word recognition. Having done a dissertation on spelling errors and written many journal articles on the subject of spelling, Moats knows how hard learning to spell can be. It is even more difficult than learning to read, she says, and requires knowledge of speech sounds, letter patterns, word origin, word meaning, and morphology.

The foundation for reading and spelling is accurate processing of phonology or speech sounds. Students' errors often originate with misperception of the sounds and syllables in spoken words. Therefore, teachers need to know the speech-sound system of English, among other aspects of language. Many students need specific instruction about the sounds in words so that they can match written symbols to those sounds.

"To become a good teacher of spelling (and reading), an educator should learn to think about the phonemes and recognize how they differ from the letters and letter groups that represent those sounds. Achieving speech-sound awareness can be a challenge for a teacher who already knows how to spell," Moats explains. "You have to actively not think about spelling if you want to become phonologically aware, like your students. Children come to the task of reading with a speech-sound system; they don't know what the squiggles on the page represent. Teachers should put themselves in the shoes of the learner. This involves taking a learned skill and unraveling it into its component threads—moving backward in order to empathize with the student who is starting out as a novice."

For more perspective on spelling from Moats, click here to read her American Educator article titled "How Spelling Supports Reading—and Why It Is More Regular and Predictable Than You May Think."

Sopris West supplemental products that focus on spelling include:

• Phonics and Spelling Through Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
• Primary Spelling by Pattern
• Letter Tiles for Phonics and Spelling (NEW)
• Spellography
• SpellDoctor (NEW)

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After earning her bachelor's degree in music theory, Louisa Moats landed a job as a secretary at a neuropsychology lab. It wasn't quite what she was expecting from her Ivy League education, but her speedy typing skills soon earned her a promotion to neuropsychology technician.

In this role, Moats developed an interest in the brain and learning and started thinking a great deal about the children whom she was testing at the clinic. She decided that she would be interested in actually teaching them and went back to school to get her master's in learning disabilities.

Those who know Moats from her wealth of research on the teaching of reading might find it hard to believe that this distinguished literacy expert once felt "totally lost" as a teacher.

"You don't know what you don't know," she explains. "You can feel lost in the woods when you're out there teaching and clinging to some bad ideas and doing as well as you can. I remember the sense of helplessness and futility being a teacher who was smart but hadn't been taught the right things."

When making her case for the importance of a strong knowledge base in how to teach reading, Moats references the decade she spent teaching without an understanding of the psychology of reading. It wasn't until she started her doctoral program that she made the connection between her neurological testing in the lab and the realities of learning in the classroom. After completing her doctorate in Reading and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she went on to become a licensed psychologist in Vermont, specializing in the evaluation of reading and language difficulties.

"Understanding behavior in light of brain function and neurology had a profound impact on my whole career because I started out understanding the possibilities for individual differences in learning," Moats says. "I saw how the brain was affected by neurological problems, so I could understand differences in language use and comprehension—and better understand the psychology and physiology of reading."

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From Janice Kai:
"Several of my special education high school students were struggling with their spelling Mastery Tasks as we approached Book D. In order to motivate them to do better, I rewarded those who got a 100 percent on their pretest by making them spelling teachers for the rest of the week. When it was time to take the Mastery Test, spelling teachers couldn't wait to find out how their 'students' performed. Reteaching is no longer necessary after a Mastery Task because all of my students pass their spelling tests on the first try! Poor spellers are working harder to become teachers. More advanced spellers are taking more responsibility to teach their friends how to spell during peer editing, Interactive Text assignments, and spelling tests."

From Julie Harfield:
"I use the Unit Essential Words, Unit Spelling Lists, and Unit Vocabulary Words to create five sentences that I dictate to my students. I have the students write them on a mini [dry-erase] board. The students have a blast competing with each other to see who can finish the sentence correctly first. The students are improving greatly and really look forward to this activity."

Are you using a Sopris West product in a creative and effective way? Please share your teaching tips, success stories, and ideas with the Connections community by e-mailing e-newsletter@sopriswest.com.

National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) Annual Conference
October 18–21, 2008
Kiawah Island, South Carolina

International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Annual Conference
October 29–November 1, 2008
Seattle, Washington

National Middle School Association (NMSA) Annual Conference
October 30–November 1, 2008
Denver, Colorado