3.5.6 Handwriting and Spelling: Do We Need to Teach the Foundations of Writing in Gifted Education?

Writing by hand continues to be the most common method students use to communicate their knowledge in school, and it is a tool that serves many purposes. In early elementary classrooms, a large percentage of the day involves written tasks, and the adeptness at handwriting and spelling are two prerequisites for successfully accomplishing these tasks.

Globally, concerns around writing achievement are widespread (Alberta Education, 2013; Department for Education and Skills, 2002; ECMap, 2014; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2006; The National Commission on Writing, 2003), and data indicates cause for concern: too few young learners are achieving at the standard of excellence. Written literacy outcomes, in particular, lag well behind reading outcomes, and the gap between reading and writing scores with gifted students is even more pronounced. The site for this research project identified upwards of a 50-point discrepancy between the percentage of gifted students who achieved the standard of excellence in reading (85 percent) versus writing (31 percent) (Roessingh, 2012).

Although there has been a resurgence of interest in handwriting and spelling (e.g., Amtmann et al., 2008; Case-Smith et al., 2014; Graham & Harris, 2005), the research that looks specifically at early writing instruction and gifted children is scarce. There are some articles that suggest instructional strategies for gifted children (Rogers, 2007; Rotigel, 2003; Williams, 2005), but the importance of developing a strong foundation in writing, including instruction in handwriting and spelling, is often overlooked. Research has begun to suggest that many gifted children have not mobilized early writing skills when they enter school (Stoeger & Ziegler, 2010, 2013), and that these students do not develop the foundations of writing faster, or at an earlier age, than most children (Yates et al., 1995).

This presentation will disseminate the chief findings of the presenter’s dissertation that looked at how grade one gifted children’s writing changed after one year of explicit and systematic instruction in both handwriting, using Handwriting Without Tears (Olsen, 2003), and spelling, using Words Their Way (Bear et al., 2012). This study stemmed from Roessingh and Bence’s (2017) work, who found that grade two gifted children benefited from explicit handwriting and spelling instruction. Using a multi-media presentation, this session will discuss the central findings from this research project. The results from this study have the potential to inform classroom practice, pedagogy, and policy, in the form of curricular objectives and planning in gifted education.

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