Concurrent Academic Predictors of Spelling Performance of Third Grade Children

Abstract:
The focus of the present study was to identify a set of prerequisite tasks, modality relevant to spelling performance, that when based on accuracy and speed as performance measures, would discriminate between good spellers and poor spellers. A review of related literature suggested that (a) tasks used to date have represented more than one basic behavior per task; (b) tasks that have been used are related to, but are not direct replications of the modality input and output structure of spelling behavior; (c) tasks used have not represented the most basic skills assumed by curriculum hierarchies to be prerequisite to spelling competence; and (d) tasks have been assessed by accuracy alone, without referring to speed (fluency) as a viable performance measure.
A spelling test was administered to a group of third graders in Alachua County, Florida. From these results, the top and bottom 25.9 percent (good and poor spellers) were chosen (N=35 per group).
Each of these subjects was then assessed on each of eight tasks on three consecutive days. Accuracy and speed scores were obtained for each subject on each task. Discriminant analysis and multiple regression procedures were used to analyze the data.
The results of the study indicated that two of the eight tasks used, See CVC trigram/Say nonsense word and Hear two letter blends and digraphs/Write letters, were the best tasks with which to discriminate groups of good and poor third grade spellers.
Speed and accuracy scores on the two tasks were found to be nearly equivalent discriminators between the two groups of spellers. The findings of this study indicated that the use of speed and accuracy as performance measures may serve two useful functions. First, speed and accuracy scores discriminate between good and poor spellers. Second, speed and accuracy scores reduce possible misclassifications that may interfere with a child's curricular program. The overall and additional findings have suggested possible alternative research efforts that may help solve the problem of presenting classroom instruction that could promote better spelling achievement.
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