spelling stage

Stages of Spelling Development

Click on each stage to see characteristics, a student example, and activities to employ.

Derivational Relations Stage

Syllables and Affixes Stage

Within-Word Pattern Stage

Letter Name/Alphabetic Stage

Emergent stage

Scribbles or letter-like shapes; left-to-right directionActivities to engage in: Reading to the student while pointing to the words, sharing alphabet books, singing songs while reading the words, reading e-books that highlight the text, allowing students to "write" stories

Uses beginning and ending consonants, includes vowels in every word Activities: Sharing and creating alphabet books with upper and lowercase letters and images.

Understand relationships of words, derivations, and multiple meanings Activities: Exploring similarities and differences between words

Uses short and long vowels correctly but not long vowel digraphs (ea, ay, ie, oa, ey, ei), develops sight words, learn word patterns (CVC, CVVC, CVCs), overgeneralizes rules, uses d for past tense Activities: Word family flip books, word family word walls, word family concentration

Uses inflectional endings correctly, spell prefixes and suffixes correctly, and learn syllable patterns Activities: Sharing the pen and language experience approach