Spelling is Kind of a BIG DEAL with Brittany Philipsen

Jun 29

About the Episode

Brittany Philipsen is entering her 18th year in public education, having spent eleven years as an elementary classroom teacher, and beginning year seven as an instructional coach.

Passionate about research-based literacy instruction, Brittany has completed LETRS training twice, Orton Gillingham training twice, holds a Structured Literacy certificate, and has a Master of Arts in Education with a concentration in Reading Science.

It is Brittany's mission to support teachers in ensuring that all students have access to high quality explicit reading instruction.

In this episode you’ll hear us chat about:

The importance of explicit spelling instruction
The skills kids need to have in order to be proficient spellers
Why kids experience difficulty with spelling and how to support their learning
Brittany’s favourite spelling resources

Episode Transcript

Hanna:

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the My Literacy Space Podcast. Today we are talking all about spelling, and my guest today is Brittany Philipsen from Happy Little Hearts on Instagram. Hey, Brittany.

Brittany:

Hey, Hanna. So happy to be here.

Hanna:

I'm really glad to be talking about this today because I've had so many questions, especially from parents about does spelling matter? Can we skip the spelling and just let them work on computers and have the spell check do the job for us? And I keep coming back to no, we need to explicitly teach spelling, so this is a sneak peek for everybody. We're going to talk about this today, but then you're going to go in more depth about it in the Science of Reading Summer Summit that I am hosting in July, so I really wanted people to meet some of my presenters and start to have the conversation about some of our topics that we'll be going into more in-depth. So first of all, introduce yourself and let my listeners know where they can find you and what you're all about.

Brittany:

Yeah, sure. I have been in education for 17 years. I spent 11 years as a classroom teacher in first and second-grade classrooms, and I'll be starting my seventh year as an instructional coach and reading specialist this fall. My passion and expertise is in the science of reading and the body of research that informs literacy instruction. I'm so passionate about it in fact, that I recently obtained a master's degree in education with a concentration in reading science. I spent many months studying the research about spelling and the impact it has on orthographic learning, which I'm really excited to talk a little bit about with you today, and of course, more in depth at the summit.

Hanna:

So let's dive right in because I just ... You know what? I try to keep our episodes to like 30-ish minutes. I want to be able to get right to the point, so tell me why is explicit spelling instruction critical for our kids?

Brittany:

To start, I think it's really important to clarify for folks what explicit spelling instruction means. Basically, it is not how most adults today learned to spell, so when most of us were in school, we learned via rote memorization of lettered sequences. Sound familiar?

Hanna:

Totally.

Brittany:

So we were given a list of words with seemingly no relation to one another and told to memorize the spellings. Explicit and systematic spelling instruction puts a focus on the sounds in a word and the letters that represent those sounds. It's a phonics-related approach to spelling instruction as opposed to a visual task like memorizing rote letter name sequences, and the reason that clarifying this difference is important is because of what we know about the brains of proficient readers, that we utilize both the phonological processor, which is the part of our brain that processes sound, and the orthographic processor, which is the part that processes symbols.

Brittany:

We use both of those parts of our brain in order to decode and read words, and we do this by building orthographic representations of sounds. This is what we call orthographic learning. It's the neurological process that facilitates automatic word recognition, and it is necessary for reading. The act of spelling has actually been shown in research to be the most effective method of promoting this process because it activates both parts of the brain that we use in order to read and spell.

Hanna:

So why do you ... Knowing that information, that was excellently articulately said, so why do kids then experience difficulty with spelling? If that's what we need to be doing, then let's talk about a few ways that kids would experience some deficit areas or difficulties in spelling acquisition.

Brittany:

Yeah, so sometimes you run into a child even who is really proficient at reading the words that they've been explicitly taught with patterns they've been explicitly taught, but they're unable to spell those same words, and that is because reading actually requires a much less detailed orthographic representation than spelling does. So basically that means that kids can get by with reading and faking it until they make it with incomplete orthographic representations, but later on down the road as words become more complex and complicated, that tends to catch up to kids down the road and so spelling really ensures that orthographic representations are complete because you have to have all parts of the word matched to the brain in order to be able to spell it correctly, not necessarily to read it correctly.

Hanna:

So that is a huge myth then when we've said to students or to parents, or even kids have maybe believed this themselves, "The more you read, the better speller you will be." I've heard that so many times. Like just get them reading because that's going to transfer over into their spelling, but what we now know is that is why it's not transferring is because what is happening and what has to happen in the brain. So how do we then support their learning? Do you have some tips that we can start with? Even as parents because I think that's a big sort of area on my platform that I really want parents to understand this because educators I think are slowly starting to shift, but if we don't get this information accessible to families, they're piggybacking on what maybe we learned as an adult and now we're seeing this shift happen, but the parents are needing to be caught up on that information. So what are some tips that we can do to support their learning for spelling acquisition?

Brittany:

Yeah, so basically the minute that we start teaching kids how to blend sounds into words to decode, we should also at the same time be teaching them about segmenting words into sounds in order to spell them. So typically this happens right away in kindergarten. In explicit reading program or even work that parents are doing with their children at home needs to consist of not only phonemic awareness and decoding or reading practice, but spelling absolutely has to be a component. So this can look like having children spell words that they have just practiced reading. There's a new ... Kind of a new activity that's making the rounds called phoneme-grapheme mapping or sound to symbol mapping. That's a really explicit way of teaching kids to break words apart by sound and then attach the symbols to those sounds to really support the phonological and orthographic processors in working together to build words.

Hanna:

So this is something that I've been posting a few things on Instagram and I've had some comments like, "Oh yeah, those are Elkonin boxes. That was used a long time ago. Why are you adding letters in now?" It's because research is showing that if we can partner the sound, so like you're saying the phonemic awareness of that word and segment each sound, then show that symbol that's representing that sound, and then put it all together, those layers are supporting the acquisition. Am I right? And just tell us a little bit about that because I think that's maybe the piece that we're still separating it and we think it's not beneficial or it's maybe too much for kids to put all together and yet, what I'm seeing and you've been seeing and we've been reading about this is that that's the best combo.

Brittany:

Yeah, you're exactly right. We often time tend to compartmentalize and isolate out the different essential components of reading, so we might teach phonemic awareness and isolation. We might teach how to decode a word in isolation, but what spelling does is it brings all of those components together because you have to have phonemic awareness involved in the process of spelling. You have to access phonics knowledge in the process of spelling, so it really takes those separate components and it's like the glue that brings them together.

Hanna:

I love that, and that's a good analogy because I think you're right, we have to picture it that they are overlapping, they're coinciding, it's got to be stuck together. And I think the more that kids understand that, they get to be quite curious about the words. That's why they're saying, "How do you spell the word?" Like they want it to be correct, but when we just quickly give it to them, "Well, that's how you spell was, just on your way." Instead of stopping and saying, "Let's look at which letters are regularly spelled this way, and do we have any irregular patterns in this word?"

Hanna:

I know you and I have shared lots about even the Heart Word Magic, that is amazing to be able to look at those high frequency, but irregularly spelled words because there are a few, and kids need to be able to map those sounds and figure out which ones align with the sound knowledge they already have and which ones ... We can even use a Heart Word Magic even if they haven't just learned that sound yet, like that might just not be part of their repertoire yet, but we can help them to map that. So what would be an example? Can you give just a little quick example of a word and how we would walk through that process with a child?

Brittany:

Yeah, so for an irregular word like you were just describing, in the same way that we might map the sounds in an irregular word, we can do it with irregular patterns as well. So if a child was practicing the word chair and they were really working on that A-I, that makes the long A sound, they would, of course, instead of just memorizing that the way we spell chair is C-H-A-I-R, C-H-A-I-R, and practicing that in a rote and visual manner, they would first break down the sounds and the words. So ch-, ai, r, chair, and then they find in their orthographic process the symbols that they know are associated with those sounds. So I know that ch- is represented with C-H, the A sound in the middle of this particular word is spelled with A-I, and R is spelled with a single R.

Brittany:

For a word like was that doesn't follow the more predictable patterns, we can teach it in the same way by isolating the sounds "wa" and identifying which ones follow the more regular patterns that we know, like the "wa" is represented with a W, the s at the end of a word can be represented with a Z or an S, and it's that vowel sound, the a, that is unexpected. It's irregular in the word, but then if a child is explicitly taught that in the word was, that is the only irregular part, that's the only part they have to remember is an A instead of what sounds like a short U, then students can a lot more easily map that to their orthographic knowledge.

Hanna:

So I wanted to ... Even when coming back to some of the things that we can do to support kids too, is one of the things I've been saying to families and people that I've just come across is stop saying that English doesn't make sense, stop saying that English is so weird and bizarre, and it's this lang ... Right? What is it, 4% of words are truly irregular.

Brittany:

Yeah.

Hanna:

So once we know that, like already that alleviates a lot of pressure, but it also puts the responsibility on us to make sure that we're explicitly teaching what they need to know to be able to acquire all of that 96% of information that it can be, and then say, "And this is going to be ... Let's look at the word origin or let's look at something, some piece of it that we can look or the Heart Word Magic." So that came out of really great reading that website, that's the first place that I saw the Heart Word Magic, so we'll make sure that we include that link in the show notes.

Hanna:

What are some of your favorite spelling resources and maybe age-specific or something that we can ... And think about it from an educator or parent point of view as well?

Brittany:

I think that you just mentioned the kind of fallback to, "Oh, English is just weird, or it's just that way because." I think that we do that when we don't know when we don't have the knowledge ourselves, and so I think that building the knowledge of educators, of parents, of any adults who are supporting students on a reading journey, we have to learn the rules ourselves first and The Unlocking the Logic of English is one of my favorite books for really teaching adults the rules of the English ... And the patterns of the English language. And so that's one of my top recommendations for everyone that I talk to that just doesn't have that comfort level, that they know the rules themselves. So that's always the first place to start for me is gaining the knowledge for yourself before you can teach it to a child.

Hanna:

And that one ... I brought that as one of the books that I was going to talk about too, The Uncovering the Logic of English. So it's a common-sense approach to reading, spelling, and literacy, so it's by Denise, and I think it's Eide is her last name, E-I-D-E. So we'll have that link as well in the show notes. And it's fantastic because it really does walk you through like wordless, which are fantastic. It will give you the generalized spelling rule with the wordless and how to explain it to kids.

Hanna:

And it's a lot of information, but it's well laid out, so it's attainable and it's easy to work through and look at, and then you can align it with some of the scope and sequence that you are using with ... In classroom or tutoring situation, or even just as a parent when those kids come and say, "How do you spell this?" And help them through it? And then they're like, "Why do you spell it like that? Like why on the end of the word, blah, blah, blah, is there a silent E?" Right? And to look through, oh, the silent E actually has way more than just the most common job of making the vowels say its own letter name. What's another resource that you love?

Brittany:

Yeah, so talking about scope and sequence documents, and just any other resources really to support with explicit phonics and spelling practice, I love UFLI, the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Reading Rockets and Keys to Literacy are also both really great resources online that have access to lots of free materials, documents, and videos for those of us that are still in the process of learning.

Hanna:

That's great. Another one that I just got, and it's not a brand new book, but it's called The ABCs and All Their Tricks. Have you read that one?

Brittany:

I haven't, but it's on my list.

Hanna:

Yeah, this is on my list this summer to check out, and I also have been working my way through Lynn Stone's Spelling for Life book because I loved her Reading for Life book and we had did a podcast about that a couple weeks ago, and the Spelling for Life is just as good, like just straight to the point, really great information, so we'll put those links as well.

Hanna:

The big question that I want to ... I've alluded to it at the beginning, what point do we then set accommodations for students or introduce some assistive technology, such as text to speech or speech to text, things like that, to help in their spelling? Because I'll give an example from my students this week. Now I use Grammarly all the time because I'm writing constantly and it just helps. It is an extra check for me. I can edit it tons of times and then it still ... Grammarly will pick up something.

Hanna:

However, when my students and I are working on something, the Grammarly is there and it's ... I have to remember to turn it off sometimes when we're working in a document because they're getting so used to in a document of some sort, it puts the little red squiggly line and they're like, "Oh, that's spelled wrong." Instead of working on their own editing skills, their own revising skills. So one thing that we've been doing is if I forget to turn Grammarly off, if it puts the little line under the word, we will go and look at it together and we'll look at what it's suggesting.

Hanna:

But one thing that they've been doing is lots of times they've spelled it so inaccurately that Grammarly is giving a suggested word and they just quickly assume bing, that's the word, and they click or whatever, add that, and I'm like, "Wait, you still have to understand that just because you have a spell check doesn't mean you're going to get the right word. So I'll say, "Let's look at the word. Fine, great that it underlined it for you, but I want you now to look at it and let's see if the information aligns with this word and does it make sense?" So let's talk about some of those assistive technology pieces.

Brittany:

Yeah, I think speech to touch should definitely be used really carefully and monitored really closely because like you said a child has to have enough ability to read what the computer has transcribed in order to know if that is really what they were intending to write. And I've seen so many times ... Because with good intentions, we want to help kids and we know they have so much to say, but if they're unable to do it on their own just yet, we feel like giving them these tools is what's best. But I've seen so many kids who it actually really stifles what they want to convey to their audience in writing because of those barriers, because of not being able to read what the computer has transcribed, or the computer transcribes something that isn't what they actually said because the computer mishears us a lot too.

Brittany:

And then of course, like you mentioned, the suggestions are not always exactly what one has intended to say. So I think definitely it is the right tool for some, but I would always lean toward doing intervention that involves the child actually spelling themselves as a first priority, and then really monitoring as you test out the speech to text to see if that's the right accommodation for a child.

Hanna:

The other thing that I've noticed too about that is the sentence structure is also what Grammarly is picking up on, but if we're not explicitly teaching sentence structure, that child is confused as to why Grammarly or whatever tool they're using is indicating that something's amuck in their sentence. So yes, it's a really powerful tool for a lot of kids, so I'm never going to say don't use it or ignore it, but it has to come with we are also providing explicit sentence structure, explicit spelling pattern instruction because that's the whole package. And I think structured literacy or science of reading has been misunderstood to be just about phonics, and it's about all of the pieces that help us be a literate human being.

Hanna:

So we have to be looking at yes, phonological awareness and phonemic awareness and phonics and fluency and vocabulary comprehension, and all those sentence structure pieces. And I think that's where we rely on and we let it fall back on that technology will save them, and it's supposed to be a tool to assist, not take over, so I think that those pieces have to coincide. Well, I love this conversation and I cannot wait to see what you're going to share at the summit in July, but thank you for your time so much today. I really appreciate you.

Brittany:

Of course. Thank you, Hanna.

Books Mentioned in the Episode:

Uncovering the Logic of English - A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling and Literacy by Denise Eide