Handwriting and spelling are vital for fluent literacy

Texas has an enormous influence on national education policy, particularly on education publishing, and its upcoming decisions in November on language arts and reading curriculum will carry much weight across America.

Texas should authorize spelling and handwriting as recommended textbook and curriculum choices, giving school districts the flexibility — and recommended funding — to choose them. The upcoming Proclamation 2018 on reading and language textbooks provides the Texas State Board of Education the perfect opportunity to lead America by focusing on the research-proven value of teaching handwriting and spelling systematically and directly as separate subjects.

Together, handwriting and spelling play a crucial role in preparing students for college and careers because both are so essential to reading and learning. Once thought to be outdated skills, easily replaced by keyboarding and spell-check programs, new 21st-century research shows handwriting and spelling to be foundational building blocks of literacy. Indeed, these essential mental skills for school success aren’t just subjects in school, they are brain functions supporting literacy.

Recent studies reveal these subjects have the greatest benefits when taught explicitly as distinct skills in the language arts curriculum. Although not every Texas school has sustained spelling and handwriting separately, many successful public school districts and private schools continue to do so, and the Texas State Board should continue to make that option available.

Here’s why. Research underscores the clear benefits of handwriting and spelling instruction and practice. Handwriting stimulates the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, an area crucial for decision-making, judgment, self-restraint and literacy. Work by Laura Dinehart at Florida International University’s College of Education has linked handwriting skills to academic success and better grades.

Research also indicates spelling plays a crucial role in decoding written language by matching printed or written letters with a dictionary of learned spellings in our brains that we often take for granted.

Cognitive psychologist Dan Willingham put it this way in his book, Raising Kids Who Read: “...using word spellings to read requires very little attention, if any. You see it in the same way you just see and recognize a dog.” He continues: “As your child gains reading experience, there is a larger and larger set of words that he can read using the spelling, and so his reading becomes faster, smoother, and more accurate. That’s called fluency.”

So why are handwriting and spelling still performing a disappearing act? Like so many things in education, it’s all about money and testing.

The 2007-2008 economic crisis cut school and textbook budgets. Then in 2011 Texas gave the green light to technology purchases out of public funds once restricted to books. Full disclosure: Texas still approves my Grade 1–Grade 6 spelling texts, but many districts that want them frequently can’t afford them.

Second, our schools are teaching to the test, and handwriting and spelling, like some other rudimentary skills, have been left out of many of today’s computer-based assessment formats.

Third, marketing campaigns by major textbook publishers have stampeded school districts into “integrated” and “comprehensive” language arts textbooks that claim to “integrate” spelling with reading.

In a way, these integrated programs are like a Trojan horse. Many educators don’t understand there is no grade-by-grade instructional program for spelling or handwriting inside the book. Frequently, the spelling lessons are too complicated or only vaguely connected to student development.

Actual handwriting instruction is rarely, if ever, included, even though research reveals 65 percent of spelling errors are connected to illegible handwriting.

This year, the Texas State Board of Education can review major research findings and investigate the neglect of grade-appropriate spelling and handwriting in many of the so-called “comprehensive” reading texts. Educators will devote the attention to handwriting and spelling they deserve, if only Texas will lead America in the right direction.