Questions teachers frequently ask about spelling and spelling instruction, including how students learn to spell and which instructional methods are most effective, are addressed.

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This study examines the ability of good and poor spellers at grades six and ten to generate orthographic and phonetic derivatives for three predominant vowel alternation patterns characteristic of internal derivational morphology. Results support the hypothesis that a productive knowledge of these patterns in orthography precedes a productive knowledge of these patterns in phonology. Further, orthographic (visual) information was found to be superior to phonetic (aural) information in accessing the appropriate derivational morphological rules. An order is identified for the acquisition of a productive knowledge of the three vowel alternation patterns in both orthography and phonology. Based on these results and analyses, instructional implications for both spelling and vocabulary are offered.

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Students' knowledge of morphology can play a critical role in vocabulary development, and by extension, reading comprehension and student writing. This reflection describes the nature of this knowledge and how it may be developed through the examination of generative vocabulary knowledge and the role of the spelling system in developing this knowledge. In addition, it explores morphological development and the significant insights and understandings that students should attain: the basic nature of word formation processes, the spelling-meaning connection, the generativity of morphology: roots and affixes, etymology and morphology, and the role of morphological knowledge in learning other languages.