The Effects of Spelling Assisted Strategies on Basal Vocabulary Words in Third Grade Reading Comprehension

This study investigated whether an integrated approach of spelling of basal vocabulary words would affect reading comprehension. Subjects, 42 third graders of average or above average intellectual ability in a traditional reading classroom, participated in training for five 20-minute periods a week for 6.5 months. Experimental subjects were given basal reading vocabulary words for spelling task while controls were trained using the traditional method of basal vocabulary and spelling. To determine comparability, the control and experimental groups were analyzed using the cognitive ability testing and the reading subtest of the Iowa Basic Skills, resulting in no significant differences between groups concerning IQ and prior reading achievement. The control group used McDougal and Littell (1989) for its uncoordinated spelling-reading instruction and the experimental group used a whole language approach, a spelling program whose words came from the vocabulary of the coordinated basal reading program. The null hypothesis for this study was there would be no difference of the mean posttest spelling scores between the control and experimental groups. The acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis at the .03 level of confidence was determined by an analysis of covariance using group designation (experimental or control), gender, IQ scores, GLE reading scores, and pretest scores as covariants