Learning how to spell: What do 5th-grade students know?

Abstract

This project will be conducted along the research line "Educational Processes, Teaching, and Learning" at FCT/UNESP's Graduate Program in Education. Schools usually demand standard writing from students but miss teaching opportunities that could help them have a full grasp of spelling rules. As a result, students, at all teaching levels, have been observed to have difficulty in applying spelling rules. Students usually fall behind in spelling because school practices fail to clarify their doubts. By resorting to mechanical tasks to teach spelling, schools have prevented students from reflecting on the spelling system and consciously and overtly internalizing its rules. Along these lines, this study of a qualitative nature aims to investigate the teaching/learning of spelling at Elementary School I based on the analysis of spelling mistakes made by 5th-grade students, focusing on the existing relationship between the level of rule awareness and quality of intentional transgressions. Data collected by means of dictation of real/made-up words, intentional transgression activities, text production, and interviews will be analyzed in light of the spelling alteration typology conceived by Morais (2009) and Karmiloff-Smith's (2010) Representational Redescription Model, about the representation levels of spelling knowledge of 5th-grade Elementary School I students. (AU)