A case study of a third grade speller

The purpose of this study is to see how the word study approach to spelling instruction improves a third grade student's spelling. The study was conducted over a 10 week long period in 'li hour one on one tutoring sessions 2 times per week. The researcher administered the Developmental Spelling Analysis (Ganske, 1999, 2000) assessment to establish a baseline score before the instruction period. The same assessment was used after the instruction period to determine if change had occurred as a result of the instruction. This student's metacognition level was also analyzed throughout the study to determine if the student's awareness of her own thinking strategies improved. The researcher also reflected on her own teaching of the word study approach. These reflections were analyzed to see patterns in the researcher's thoughts about teaching with word study strategies. Results from the study show how the word study approach significantly improved the third grade student's spelling and her metacognitive process. The results also show the change in the researcher's thinking about teaching with the word study approach. Keywords: 3rd grade, word study, spelling, instruction, assessmen