It's the time of year when journalists focus on the hundreds of student spelling champions, ranging from 9 to 15 years old, who travel to Washington, D.C., to compete in the National Spelling Bee (G). To learn more about what it's like during the event and how these spellers prepare, read "An Insider's Perspective on the National Spelling Bee: An Interview with James Maguire" (G) from Voices from the Middle.

How can you help students become accurate and independent spellers? Check out "Spelling -- What's All the Fuss?" (E), chapter one from Spelling in Use (E) by Lester L. Laminack and Katie Wood Ray, to learn more about how spelling fits into the broader topic of learning to write. Designed for teachers and families, the book features stories from real classrooms and rich examples of student writing.

Read the English Journal article "What I Wish I'd Known about Teaching Spelling" (M-S) for eight recommended teaching practices. See "Spelling and the Middle School English Language Learner" (M-S) for additional techniques to help the language learners you teach.

The article "Teaching Challenged Spellers in High School English Classrooms" (S), from English Journal, also foregrounds writing as the key to spelling instruction. The article suggests that teachers begin by observing samples of students' writing and then weave in skills lessons related to the spelling needs they observe.

To explore alternatives to teaching spelling in isolation, consider the ways that helping students to imagine themselves as writers "is much more complex than nurturing a more stable grasp of sentence clarity or spelling" in the Teaching English in the Two-Year College article "Imagine You're a Writer" (C).

"Winning the War of Words: Improving Our Students' Spelling" (G) from English Leadership Quarterly explains an alternative spelling bee activity that promotes camaraderie and offers students strategies for overcoming their spelling foes.

For additional resources on teaching spelling, consult the resources and strategies included in NCTE's Spelling Teaching Resource Collection (G).

NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 5-20-08.

Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, TE=Teacher Education, G=General).

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