2. The right to do a lot of reading, which is probably the greatest single factor in spelling acquisition

One source of confusion in the discussion about spelling is the difference between spelling as a writing tool and spelling as a knowledge base. We want children to use invented spelling as a shortcut when they don't know how to spell a word, we want children to have strategies for work­ing on their spellings in final-draft writ­ing, and we want children to learn the spellings of the several thousand words that they'll use frequently as adult writ­ers. The last of these is the major focus of traditional spelling programs; spelling textbooks typically work from a list of common words that are divided by grade level. I've written elsewhere. (Wilde, 1990b) about the inefficiency of such approaches, given how many of the words students already knew before they studied them and the large amount of time spent on spelling (typically at least twenty minutes a day).

If we aren't using spelling books anymore, how do we ensure that kids are learning those thousands of words? There is an increasingly strong body of evi­dence, summarized powerfully by Krashen (1993), that confirms what teach­ers knew instinctively, that most of the words we know how to spell we've learned incidentally through reading. This doesn't mean that every child who reads a lot will be a perfect speller by sixth grade; teachers do still have a role beyond provider of books. But it does mean that it's absolutely essential for children to do a lot of reading, and that time spent reading is a big, big piece of our spelling curricula. This is also true for older children whose spelling is still quite weak; in most cases they aren't reading much either, and reading is probably the most efficient avenue for improving their spelling (along with, of course, all its other benefits).