✨I Read 100+ Studies on Spelling So You Don’t Have To
A clear, brain-based plan for teaching spelling
✨There is shocking little information out there on the best way to teach spelling.
OK - that’s not true. There is shockingly little GOOD information on the best way to teach spelling.
Spelling remains a weak spot in our homeschool. It’s probably because I’m a terrible speller (as my long-term readers will attest) or that we started it too late with my oldest. I’ve tried several programs, but I had a sneaking suspicion they all were doing it wrong.
So I did what I always do - went on a deep, dive quest into the scientific literature. Turns out, when you’ve done academic research for 20 years, it’s a hard habit to break.
What I found though was … well underwhelming.
First, you’ll be stunned—stunned, I tell you—to learn that teaching spelling improves spelling. I found hundreds of articles proving that yes, it is, in fact, worth teaching spelling. I suppose we needed that reminder in an era that flirted with the idea kids could absorb spelling naturally through reading.
Spoiler: most can’t. They need explicit instruction.
But that still didn’t answer the question I really cared about:
What is the best way to teach spelling?
Don’t get me wrong; There were some clear winners in the literature
Phonics (learning letter sounds and sound combinations)
Spaced repetition (test, rest, retest)
But even those are limited.
Phonics only gets your so far → You can’t even spell spelling with phonics alone - why the double L? What about the fact that there are eight (8!!) letter combinations (ee, ei, ea, e, y, i, ui, and ae) that ALL make the long E sound. I mean COME ON!!!
Spaced repetition is excellent—but it’s often applied to random word lists, which are widely discredited as the worst way to teach spelling. (More on that later—I’ll redeem this method a bit)
But what I found in the literature was a MESS. No consistency. No unified framework. No resource that pulled together everything we know from into a single, cohesive, brain-aligned plan.
So, I’m doing that for you.
We’re going to walk through what actually works. What doesn’t. And then? We’ll build a Grand Spelling Plan together—a simple, science-backed spelling method that works for ALL kids! Including those with working memory challenges (dyslexia, ADHD).
Too good to be true? Nah, let’s do this friends!
Let’s start with what’s out there now, what works and what doesn’t.
✨Phonics – Great, but incomplete
Mentioned above, phonics instruction is well established as the best way to teach reading. Since spelling is the “reverse” of reading, phonics is the perfect place to start. Beginning students can sound out spelling words m-a-t.
But phonics can’t compete with the English language’s complexity. Even simple words like “cat” have multiple spellings with phonics. Why isn’t it “kat?” There’s a good reason, but it’s not explained through phonics alone.
Let’s move on.
✨Spelling Rules – These seem neat, but there are an awful lot of exceptions
OK, I had a lot of hope for this one. Over the past few years, several of the programs we used taught spelling rules. I was pretty furious that I wasn’t taught these rules when I was a kid. For example, it’s a “k” in front of an “e” or an “i” because otherwise the “c” makes the soft like “s”. This is why it’s “cat” and not “kat.” It’s also why kite and cite are pronounced differently. I was delighted that there were rules that made spelling so much easier! But then…
Spelling rules don’t work well with how the brain learns. The language brain loves to find patterns - toddlers who are 18 months old are able to decipher what are words from the babbling (from their perspective) adults do because humans are so good at pattern recognition. For more read: High School Is Too Late for Shakespeare.
In addition, there are a lot of rules to remember. AND there are a ton of rule breakers. There even some “rules” that my spelling curriculum gently explained to me they weren’t going to cover because they weren’t consistent enough. Sigh.
All of this said, I still think it’s worth learning a few spelling rules—details coming in the GRAND PLAN.
✨Memorization Method – The worst method, but maybe also necessary?
The memorization method—where students are presented with random spelling words every week for the whole school year—was how I was taught. Not a ringing endorsement. Despite evidence showing this is the least effective method for long-term spelling retention, it remains the most common in today’s classrooms. Children focus on a set of unrelated words for a week, and then move onto to another set the following week. Memorized words are rarely “refreshed” or spiraled back to. This means most are destined to be forgotten.
But here’s the thing: some words are just gonna have to be memorized. Words like bureaucracy, mischievous, and accommodate break all rules and patterns. Still, there is a right and wrong way to memorize words. We’ll talk about the right way in our Grand Plan.
✨Inductively – What if kids learned through pattern-based recognition & grouped word families?
This is the new one on the block. It was specifically created for children with working memory challenges (e.g., dyslexia and ADD/ADHD). For these populations, spelling lists and rules are very difficult. In truth, they are difficult for all children. The inductive method works by creating an intuitive model of word families by purposely presenting them together. Students derive spelling rules or patterns from grouped examples—for example, boat, coat, throat.
I’m kinda in love with this method. It “fixes” the problem of random word lists in the memorization method by making them NOT random. It “fixes” the problem of spelling rules by having children intuitively group and associate word families together - it actively trains that process as opposed to just letting kids “figure it out.” The idea of kids figuring it out on their own might sound harder, but it works more naturally with the brain’s process for language learning and it is a systematic approach.
Now, there is a BIG caveat with this one: it’s been very poorly studied to date. It is brand new after all. All studies are small, and the ones with students with learning disabilities are so small I’d never cite them.
Where does this leave us then?
I recommend a combination approach that holistically teaches spelling and rounds out the rough edges of all the above methods. Below, is the distilled, brain-aligned, research-backed framework I wish existed. It didn’t. So, I built it.
🔥The Grand Spelling Plan👇
This part is just for my favorite people - your support means the world to me ♥️