by Steve Graham, Karen Harris & Mary Adkins
Original article: LINK
In this study, the authors looked at how extra instruction in handwriting and spelling affected first-grade students who were struggling to learn these skills compared to their classmates. They split 30 students into two groups: one received extra handwriting and spelling lessons, while the other focused on phonological awareness. Each group had 16 hours of one-on-one teaching. The handwriting and spelling group showed better improvements in handwriting speed, handwriting clarity, and spelling accuracy compared to the phonological awareness group. They also got better at writing sentences quickly and using more advanced words, but there wasn’t a significant difference in how long their writing was or how good the quality was. These results suggest that teaching handwriting and spelling explicitly and with extra focus can help kids who struggle with writing skills catch up to their peers.
Writing is more than just putting words on paper—it’s a complex task that requires juggling various cognitive resources. Even something as simple as crafting a sentence involves generating ideas, ensuring grammar correctness, and accurately transcribing the words with proper spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation. If a writer struggles with skills like slow handwriting or spelling difficulties, it can overload their cognitive system, leading to disruptions in the writing process. This complexity isn’t unique to sentence writing; it applies to all aspects of composing text.
For young children, writing can feel like a daunting task because they’re still learning the ropes. To cope with the challenges, they often take a simplified approach by writing based on what they already know about a topic, essentially “writing what they remember.” This strategy serves them well because their handwriting and typing skills are still developing, and they may struggle with spelling. By sticking to what they know, they can focus on getting their ideas down without overwhelming themselves with other demanding cognitive tasks like planning and evaluating. This approach helps prevent them from feeling cognitively overloaded and allows them to make progress in their writing skills at their own pace.
The skills involved in writing, like handwriting and spelling, can really shape how children approach writing. When these skills aren’t yet automatic, they don’t just take up mental energy—they can actually get in the way of other writing processes. For instance, if a child’s writing fluency is slow, they might lose track of their ideas before they can get them down on paper. This can make writing feel frustrating and overwhelming.
But it’s not just about the writing process itself. Poor handwriting or spelling can also affect how readers perceive a child’s work. If there are lots of spelling errors or the handwriting is hard to read, readers might judge the work more critically. And for some children, struggling with handwriting can have a bigger impact—it might make them avoid writing altogether or feel like they’re not good at it.
In this study, the researchers looked at how extra handwriting and spelling lessons affected first-grade students who struggled with these skills. They found that combining handwriting and spelling instruction had a positive impact on these pupils.
The idea behind this combined approach is pretty straightforward. By improving handwriting fluency and legibility, children can practice writing words more easily and check their spelling as they go. Similarly, better spelling skills can help kids remember the correct sequence of letters when practising handwriting, which can improve their handwriting fluency. So, by tackling both skills together, kids might see greater improvements overall.
The handwriting and spelling program consisted of eight units, each focusing on two alphabet letters for handwriting and two or more spelling patterns for spelling. Each unit included six lessons over a two-week period, with three lessons per week. Handwriting and spelling were taught together in the first five lessons of each unit, while the sixth lesson focused solely on spelling.
Handwriting instruction in the first five lessons followed specific steps. Initially, students were asked to write each lowercase letter of the alphabet. Based on their performance, students were taught how to form letters they struggled with. In the first two lessons of each unit, students were provided with cards illustrating how to form each letter with numbered arrows. They watched the instructor demonstrate and then traced and described how to form each letter. After practising tracing, copying, and writing the letters, students circled their best-formed letters. In the next two lessons, students continued practising the target letters by copying words containing them. In the fifth lesson, they practised copying “hinky-pinkys,” or rhyming phrases, containing the target letters, circling their best-formed words or phrases.
In each unit of the program, students were taught two or more spelling patterns related to short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds, or both. The sequence of skills taught progressed from focusing on short /a/ in unit 1 to long /a/ in words like “made,” “may,” and “maid” in unit 8.
The first five lessons of each unit followed a structured format consisting of four activities: phonics warm-up, word building, word study, and writing. The sixth lesson involved a word sorting activity.
During the phonics warm-up, students practiced identifying letters that corresponded to specific sounds for consonants, blends, digraphs, and short vowels. Each sound and letter combination was depicted on a card with a corresponding picture on one side (e.g., a picture of a hat representing the sound /h/) and the corresponding letter on the other side (e.g., the letter “h”). Students practised identifying which letters made the sound represented on the card, receiving feedback and additional practice when needed.
During the word building activity, students learned about the structure of words by focusing on the onset (the initial consonant or consonant blend) and rimes (the string of letters following the onset). In each lesson, students were introduced to a rime (e.g., “ate”) corresponding to one of the spelling patterns emphasised in the unit (e.g., long /a/). They then practiced forming words by combining the rime card with various onset cards containing consonants or blends.
In the word study activity, students practised spelling words they were likely to use in their writing. Initially, students were given five words to study, either misspelled words from a pretest, common words, or words misspelled in their writing activity. They studied these words by saying them, examining their letters, writing them from memory, and checking for correct spelling. Once a student spelled a word correctly six times in a row over two lessons, it was removed from the study set, and another misspelled word was added. Periodically, students were retested on the words removed from the set, and any missed words were restudied as needed.
In the writing activity, students were tasked with writing short compositions that incorporated words matching the spelling patterns they were learning. For example, if they were focusing on the short vowel sound for /a/, they might write a story about “A fat cat who is trying to catch Mat the rat.” After completing the story, the student, with guidance from the instructor, identified and marked words that fit the targeted spelling patterns. This activity aimed to improve handwriting fluency and allow students to practice spelling skills in context.
In the word-sorting activity, students sorted words into categories based on the spelling patterns being emphasised in the unit. For example, in a unit focusing on short /i/ and /u/ sounds, students might sort words into two categories: those with the short /i/ sound (e.g., “sit”) and those with the short /u/ sound (e.g., “fun”). This activity helped reinforce the spelling rules associated with each pattern.
During the word sorting activity, the instructor began by placing master word cards representing each spelling pattern side by side (e.g., “sit” and “fun”). The instructor pronounced each master word twice, emphasising the target spelling feature, such as the short vowel sound for /i/ in “sit” and for /u/ in “fun”. Then, the student compared the master words, focusing on key features like the pronunciation of the letter “i” or “u” and the consonant-vowel combinations.
Together with the instructor, the student decided where to place an additional set of 12 words under each master word, aiming to understand the rule behind why the letter “i” makes the short /i/ sound in “sit” and the letter “u” makes the short /u/ sound in “fun”. This process continued until all words were sorted. With guidance, the student formulated a rule for each spelling pattern, identifying why certain letters make specific sounds in words.
Finally, the student independently generated their own words on blank word cards and sorted them into the appropriate category based on the established rules. This hands-on activity helped reinforce spelling patterns and encouraged students to apply their understanding to new words.
In this study, those who received supplemental handwriting and spelling instruction showed significant improvements. The gains were substantial, with effect sizes indicating notable progress in handwriting fluency, legibility, and spelling accuracy. These improvements surpassed those typically seen with separate handwriting or spelling instruction, as indicated by previous research.
However, while the intervention led to better spelling accuracy overall, there wasn’t a significant difference in reducing spelling errors within context, such as in stories or descriptions. This could be due to the limited opportunity for students to demonstrate their newly acquired skills in longer compositions with a variety of words.
The study examined how supplemental handwriting and spelling instruction impacted various aspects of writing skills in struggling young writers. While these skills are crucial for effective writing, mastering them can be challenging and may lead to cognitive overload and interference, particularly for students who struggle to learn them quickly.
The results showed that students who received supplemental handwriting and spelling instruction made significant gains in sentence construction fluency and composition vocabulary. These improvements were substantial, indicating the effectiveness of the intervention.
However, there were no significant improvements in composition length or quality, contrary to expectations based on previous research. One possible explanation is that the inclusion of spelling instruction in this study may have weakened the transfer effects to these aspects of writing, as spelling instruction did not typically enhance writing performance in previous studies.
The study highlights the effectiveness of supplemental handwriting and spelling instruction for first-grade students who struggle with these skills. It significantly improved handwriting, spelling, sentence construction fluency, and composition vocabulary. However, it didn’t notably enhance composition length or quality.