A Remediation Program for Increasing the Spelling Achievement of Elementary and Junior High School Students

Abstract

The present study evaluated four procedures designed to help poor spellers improve their achievement on weekly tests: (1) a pretest over the week's spelling words followed in two days by the regular weekly test; (2) a positive practice procedure in which students were required to correct any misspelled word on the weekly test by writing out its (a) correct spelling, (b) part of speech, (c) phonetic spelling, (d) complete definition, and (e) correct usage in five different sentences; (3) a pretest, positive practice of the pretest, and the weekly test; and (4) a pretest, positive practice of the pretest, weekly test, and positive practice of the weekly test. The pretest/positive practice/test/positive practice procedure was the most effective, producing a 14 percentage point increase in spelling achievement. The pretest/positive practice/test (11 percentage point increase) and positive practice (10 percentage point increase) procedures were of near equal effectiveness. The pretest procedure produced no increase.