Learning to Spell: A Manual for Teachers Using the Aldine Speller

by Catherine T. Bryce; Arthur W. Kallom; Frank J. Sherman

After a year’s work on the words they were assigned a value determined by the percentage of children who were able to spell the word correctly in a carefully controlled test. This provided a definite problem for the teacher because it pointed out the easy and the difficult words. A word with a high percentage of accuracy was considered an easy word. A word with a low percentage of accuracy was considered a difficult word.

Other Lists

From time to time during the last few years other lists of words have been organized, all with the view of conserving the time given to spelling by requiring the pupil to learn to spell only those words for which he has an immediate or a probable future use. There has also been an attempt on the part of a few of the organizers to determine the difficulty of the lists as was done in Boston. Such lists have been organized in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, and in other places, notably in the state of Iowa.

The Construction of the Aldine Speller

The vocabulary of the Aldine Speller has been selected with great care. All the important lists were tabulated in such a way as to show the recurrence of the words and the grade distribution. Careful testing and study were given where there were significant variations in order to determine the correct selection and gradation. In addition to this the vocabularies of several of the best known textbooks were tabulated to ascertain the basis, if any, of their selection of words. These vocabularies varied so largely as to be of little value except to show the defects of unscientific selection.

Approximately 5,000 words were finally chosen. These include the words in common use and such words in the upper grades as are necessary to teach the varying vocabulary of life by the development of desirable forms. Without this attention to derivatives, difficult endings, the error producing problems of ie or ei, and the doubling of the final consonant, no course in learning to spell is complete or fully effective.

After the selection of the words a series of illustrative sentences was gathered from many sources. Many of these sentences are quotations from our best authors, are within the grasp of the children, and will be found invaluable for memorizing, as dictation exercises, or used simply to illustrate the use of the words taught in the previous lessons.

Finally, at the end of the work for each grade, will be found an alphabetically arranged list of all the words taught in that grade, with the exception of the phonic words taught in the first and second grades which are not alphabetically arranged. The latter will be found, with others of the same “family,” or series, at the end of Part I.

Types of Learning

In the past the method of giving the spelling lesson was to assign a list of words for pupils to study. After a period of time the lesson was “recited.” The “recitation” consisted largely of testing the pupils, either orally or through written work, to see if they had learned what had been assigned to them.