Real Spelling

I guess I should correct the impression that Noah and I are here in France because he needed a spelling tutor. Real Spelling is far far more than spelling and I can guarantee that some people who read this blog (that YOU Karen, Lucy, and Ave) would give their kidney to sit at the table with Melvyn Ramsden. He really is a genius--he didn't learn to read or write until he was 10, has mirror laterally (meaning he can't tell his right from his left, he writes normally with his right hand, but backwards like DaVinci with his left), and was a King's College scholar at Cambridge. He reads, writes and speaks English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic--but probably more. He's a linguist who has studied the English language and basically codified a system of spelling for the English language. He's quick to say this is not a method or a program or something's he's developed--it's a pulling together of what linguists have understood for many many years to be true in a way that is accessible and user-friendly for people.

It is an enormous paradigm shift from what we've all be taught about words and spelling, even though we intuitively know that the way we've approached spelling in the past hasn't been very effective. How many times have we all said, "People are born good or bad spellers and that is that." Those who are good at it (like me) have no idea why we are; those that are bad have not had a lot of success becoming good spellers. Research shows that remediating spelling is very difficult and there really is no effective way to do it. Phonics is a system based on sounds, and when spelling is based on or connected to phonics, you end up with the idea that English is very confusing and full of exceptions. Melvyn, and other linguists, understand that you can't understand and work with words in isolation and that the way they are spelled is connected to the meaning. All words have a base element and are added to by prefixes and suffixes. Understanding the structure of how a word is built, understanding what words are related to it and understanding that the spelling is not representing the sound of a word, but rather its meaning, is the key. Because you end up looking at word families, you build vocabulary in astonishing ways. It's very intuitive--you can't teach any one aspect in isolation.

It's really absolutely fantastic. Melvyn is completely totally passionate about words and languages. He's also an academic and hates anything to do with education, so you can imagine me sitting at the table 3 times a day hearing about how education and teachers are getting it all wrong inside out and upside down! When I'm working with him, he won't touch "how" to teach anything. He only focuses on the orthography of the words. Nerd alert here, but I could work on this stuff all day and it would feel like 10 minutes. Looking at the etymologies of words, where they come from, how they're connected, how meanings have changed, is fascinating.


And that's what the kids do. We are implementing the Real Spelling approach (using a teaching system called Word Works) and it is challenging, to say the least. Most of us have never ever been exposed to looking at words like this, and the depth of knowledge you have to develop is considerable. It's pretty intimidating and easy to feel like you know nothing. We have lots of new teachers every year and turn over 25% of our students each year, so it's a challenge to get everyone on the same page. But it makes so much sense and normalizes English in a way that works. Really, all the "exceptions" are gone. You don't ask a child to "sound it out", but instead ask them to spell it, say it, do they know what it means, can they think of any other words that might be related? Believe it or not, there is a 1 page flowchart that will tell you how to correctly add any suffix to any English word. That's pretty amazing. There are also online word checkers and etymologies kids (and teachers) can use. It would be fantastic for homeschoolers and people who are drawn to more classical education.
So, Noah. He does struggle with writing (although his improvement this year has been so great) and spelling is very weak. He approaches it from a phonetic approach and it doesn't work. This opportunity was not just about him being a better speller, per se. It was about giving him the confidence to see that there is logic to our language and that he can be in control of his writing. It's a chance to develop some of those foundational skills and understandings that we can continue to build on. When he's working with Noah and complimenting him and talking about how schools do a disservice to kids and treating him like an adult, I can really see him connecting, even if Noah doesn't say much at the time.


Noah won't come home a new and improved speller. He will come home more confident, able to work with some new tools that will allow him to be more independent, and have a way to increase his vocabulary and understanding of the world by using those tools. So that's making it worth it to us.


Pete Bowers developed a program called Wordworks and he works with schools to implement what Melvyn does within the educational system. Melvyn's Real Spelling site is here and Word Work by Pete Bowers's Word Works site is here if you want to know more.