There is one underlying characteristic of each of these three studies; viz., the writing, and therefore the spelling, vocabulary of individuals is much smaller than we formerly considered it, and consists of approximately 5,000 words. (The Aldine vocabulary contains approximately 5,000 carefully selected words which should form the basis of the writing vocabulary of an eighth grade pupil.)
The Construction of a Spelling Scale
In 1915 Dr. Leonard P. Ayres of the Russell Sage Foundation tabulated some of the lists of words then available and made a selection of the 1,000 commonest words. This list of 1,000 words was then divided into 50 lists of 20 words each and given in the middle of the year to the children of two consecutive grades in a number of cities. As a check, words were taken from each of the fifty lists and recombined into new sets of twenty words each, then sent out as tests in each of four consecutive grades in different cities. The whole number of children thus tested was 70,000 in 84 cities in grades II to VIII inclusive. On the basis of this testing the Ayres Spelling Scale was organized.
The significant features of the scale are: (1) It contains only the commonest words. (2) It gives approximately what one ought to expect from any given grade when spelling words that are listed as equal in spelling difficulty. (3) The determination of the difficulty of any word was not dependent on the judgment of any one person, or group of persons, but on the ability of a large group of children to spell those words by writing them.
In giving the tests for the purpose of this scale it was not previously known whether the words had been studied or not. It has been found that testing these words after they have been carefully taught yields from 5% to 20% higher accuracy. Because they are the most common words in our language (Ayres found that these words comprise approximately 90% of our writing vocabulary) they are the words which ought to be taught carefully and thoroughly. All of these words occur in the Aldine Vocabulary.
The Boston List
The Boston Minimum List consists of words selected from lists that had been sent in by the teachers of the different grades as the words which, in their opinion, should be taught in their respective classes. Two hundred and thirty-seven teachers sent in lists of approximately thirty-five words each. These words were then arranged in alphabetical order together with the number of teachers reporting each word. All words were then arranged in two lists, a minimum list composed of words which it was considered desirable for every child to know, and a supplementary list, including all the other words which had been reported. The words were at the same time assigned to the grades in which they were to be taught on the following basis:
1. Only those words that were reported by at least five teachers were placed in the minimum list.
2. Any given word was placed in the grade in which it was reported by the largest number of teachers.
3. If the spelling of any word depended on a particular rule or suggestion the word was placed in the grade in which such a rule or suggestion was given in the course of study then in force.