They Still Can't Spell?: Understanding and Supporting Challenged Spellers in Middle and High School

Challenged spellers in middle and high school are hit with a triple whammy-they can't spell, traditional strategies don't help them, and poor spelling often inhibits their writing. English teachers face a challenge, too-especially those whose job is not to teach spelling. This book changes that. It offers teachers ways to identify students' problems within the context of writing and the appropriate strategies to correct them in regular English classrooms.

The book is the result of the four-year collaboration of former secondary teacher Rebecca Bowers Sipe, two middle and two high school teachers, and their students. Based on literacy histories, placement inventories, visual memory tests, and analyses of student writing, their book:

• offers a detailed look at the literacy journeys of challenged spellers through student work, vignettes, and interviews
• describes four categories of challenged spellers and their relationship with overall literacy investment
• identifies the pitfalls of "too little, too shallow, too fast" practices, including familiar but ineffective lists and tests
• expands basic spelling knowledge within the constraints of the regular English curriculum
• steps inside the classrooms of these teacher-researchers as they put their strategies into practice
• includes tools, resources, and other materials for immediate use in teaching.

In addition, the book provides ideas and cautions for addressing spelling at the classroom, school, and district levels, plus step-by-step plans for supporting departmental- and school-based discussions about spelling instruction.

Tracy Rosewarne teaches at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, she frequently engages in professional and curriculum development projects as well as in teacher research. She contributed to They Still Can't Spell as well as numerous other articles in professional journals.

Rebecca Bowers Sipe teaches writing and methods courses at Eastern Michigan University where she is Codirector of the Eastern Michigan Writing Project. A former secondary teacher, she coordinated the K-12 English/Language Arts Program for the Anchorage School District in Alaska for many years. She is currently the Chair of the Secondary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English, a frequent presenter at state and national conferences, and contributor to professional journals. Her research interests focus on supporting the growth of young writers with special attention to those who struggle.