Why We Teach Reading and Spelling Separately

Movies and popcorn. Birthdays and cake. Campfires and marshmallows. We're so used to experiencing these things together that it's hard to think of one without the other.

Some people might even add reading and spelling to that list. We are often asked why we don't teach the two subjects together, and we admit it's a good question!

But there are actually two very good reasons why we offer our reading and spelling programs as separate subjects.

First, almost all children learn to read more quickly than they learn to spell. Why? Because in reading, children decode the written word. The letters ay always say /ā/, so once a child learns that concept, it's a straightforward task to read words like stay, display, and mayhem.

In spelling, on the other hand, children encode the word. Ideally, there would be just one way to write each sound, but the reality is that in English, there are usually many ways to write one sound. For example, the sound of /ā/ can be written as a, ai, ea, a-consonant-e, eigh, ei, ey, and ay. If a child wants to write the words great and neighbor, she will need to know how to represent the sound of long a in both ways. Although some generalizations and spelling rules can help narrow the options, the fact is that there are still hundreds of choices for spelling the forty-four sounds of the English language—and that makes learning to spell much more challenging than learning to read.

Second, the mastery of one subject may be sacrificed for the other. If you have a list of twenty words, the typical child will learn to read those words much more quickly than she will learn to spell them. If we insist on teaching the reading and spelling of the same words and concepts at the same time, we would be faced with two possible scenarios:

• The child learns to read the words in the lesson, but is prevented from continuing to the next reading lesson because she can't spell the words yet.
• If the parent decides not to hold the child back in reading until she has learned to spell the words, then spelling falls by the wayside because the child's spelling ability can't keep up with her reading ability.

Both scenarios leave parents faced with the tough decision of which subject they want to sacrifice: reading or spelling.

But if we teach the two subjects separately, as they should be taught, the child receives the benefit of being able to succeed at both of these critical subjects. The child can be allowed to progress as quickly as possible in reading, and take as much time as she needs in spelling.

We teach both subjects thoroughly—and our programs go far beyond simple phonics. With our spelling program, you will be teaching phonograms and reliable spelling rules, spelling patterns and homophones, word segmenting and syllables—in short, all the strategies your child will need to know in order to spell even the most complex words when she grows up. In our reading program, you will find phonics lessons paired with learning decoding skills, as well as activities to teach your child phonological awareness, fluency, expanded vocabulary, and comprehension strategies—all five Key Components of Reading. To try to combine such complete and thorough teaching of both subjects in the same lessons would simply not be possible.

Individual reading and spelling programs give your child the greatest opportunity to excel at both of these essential communication skills.

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