This article presents two approaches to determining the goals and methods of instruction in spelling. One approach is to administer a standardized test, document the student's grade-level performance, present lists of words at that grade level to the student, and then test his or her performance each week. The other approach is prescriptive and tailored in both assessment and treatment methods. A sample of words at the appropriate developmental level is elicited, and the student's spellings for each sound are scored to identify the orthographic patterns that are not mastered. Next, the misspellings are analyzed to determine a likely cause for each. Omissions are classified as problems in phonemic awareness, illegal misspellings as difficulties in orthographic knowledge, and legal misspellings as deficiencies in storing mental graphemic representations. Finally, problems with juncture modifications or affixes are considered deficits in morphological knowledge. A case study illustrating treatment ramifications of each assessment approach is presented.
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