Linda:
Spalding Education International has been an oasis of research-based
reading long before The National Reading Panel identified the
components of successful instruction. Oasis is an apt description
because Spalding Education International (SEI) is located in Phoenix,
Arizona, on the edge of the Sonoran desert. From there, The
Spalding Method has spread throughout the United States with
outposts in Australia, New Zealand and South America.
Unlike
the big publishing houses that embrace each reading fad as it
came along, SEI stays true to the mission of its founder, master
teacher/author Romalda Spalding, preserving and spreading The
Spalding Method. Those familiar with Spalding know
that it is a total language arts program, teaching spelling (with
handwriting), reading and composition. However, Spalding is not
as well known as it should be, given its wonderful results. Why
the low profile? Dr. Mary North, Spalding’s Director of Research
and Development, has agreed to answer that and other questions
about the Method and SEI.
Mary:
When Romalda Spalding was in her 80s and still actively teaching
teachers, school administrators grew concerned about what would
happen to The Method after her death. With her collaboration,
they set about creating an organization to preserve and perpetuate
the method she had devoted her life to teaching. Spalding Education
International is a non-profit organization because Mrs. Spalding’s
primary focus was always on keeping costs low so that The Spalding
Method would be available to anyone who needed it. As per
her instructions, everything SEI earns is plowed back into developing
and updating courses, creating needed instructional materials
and, of course, to pay for staff and office. There is little money
left over for promotion.
Linda:
Word of mouth has spread the good news about Spalding, but
literacy would take a great leap forward if Spalding was better
known. When I started teaching Spalding, I bought The Writing
Read to Reading (WRTR), text for The Spalding Method,
and the phonogram cards and that was all there was. I see that
you have more instructional materials now. Tell me what changes
you have made since WRTR was first published in 1957 and why you
have made them.
Mary:
The Writing Road to Reading is in its fifth revised
edition, making it the longest continuously published textbook
in the history of HarperCollins. Much has changed in education
since Mrs. Spalding wrote her book, and not for the better. She
did not go into great detail regarding teacher instructions because
she assumed a background knowledge that, for the most part, is
no longer taught to teachers or students. The 5th revised
edition makes explicit the knowledge base, insights and classroom
techniques that were inferred in earlier editions, making the
Method easier to teach and to learn. The revisions made to Spalding
teacher courses are designed to do the same thing. So, in answer
to your question, the revisions and new materials are to help
those who teach Spalding and, by doing that, expand our outreach.
Linda:
I was introduced to The Spalding Method in the book, Turning
Back the Tide of Illiteracy by Marguerite Field
Hoerl, so I ordered The Writing Road to Reading. In our
local library I found an old book by Mr. & Mrs. Spalding;
a guide to teaching oneself the method. I studied both books carefully,
then followed their suggestion that I study the WRR for at least
40 hours before attempting to teach it. In addition, I (as teacher)
lead myself (as student) in making the spelling notebook. Only
then did I begin teaching my high school special education students.
When I finally was able to take a Spalding course, and even though
I had carefully studied the books and followed them as best I
could, I was stunned at the amount of additional information and
new skills that I gained during the course. I soon realized that
I had learned more – not only about the teaching of reading, but
about teaching in general – in that two week course than during
all of my "teaching methods courses" at university.
I returned to my classroom prepared and confident that my teens
would finally learn to read, and they did. How do other
teachers respond to the courses and content?
Mary:
Teachers who take the courses find them enormously helpful
and often ask why this information was not part of their personal
or professional preparation. SEI provides two 45-hour courses
for teachers as well as on-site follow-up. The courses are aligned
with the 5th edition of WRTR and are now called Integrated
Language Arts 1 and ILA 2.
Linda:
I see on your web page that you have added courses for parents.
Mary:
Yes, Spalding for Home Educators is new this year. It is
offered in two parts. Part 1 (15 hours) focuses on basic skills
needed for teaching kindergarten through grade 2. Part 2 (15 hours)
expands instruction to grade 3 and above. Although we have had
many requests over the years for such a course, it has been surprisingly
difficult to launch. Home educators are a loose-knit group not
easily reached with information. Frankly, we need help to spread
the message that we will offer the course anywhere we have an
available instructor and 10 or more parents who want to take it.
The details are on our web
page. Some home educator sites link to our web site, which
is helping, and we welcome others to do so.
Speaking
of our web page, we have added a forum where teachers and home
educators can submit any questions they may have about teaching
Spalding. A qualified staff member will usually be able to answer
within 24 hours.
Linda:
What is the difference between Spalding for Home Educators
and A Parent Introduction to Spalding, your other parent
course?
Mary:
The 10-hour Parent Introduction is for parents of children
in schools where Spalding is taught. It is less detailed since
they are not the primary educators of their children. Principals
and teachers love the interaction – that the course fosters –
between home and school. Additionally, parents are delighted to
know how to help their children at home.
Linda:
What about the other instructional materials I see on your web
page. Tell me about them.
Mary:
The K-6 Teacher Guides are a response to requests, from both home
educators and classroom teachers, for more direction. The Guides
are designed to be used in conjunction with the 5th
revised edition of WRTR. In addition to providing guidance for
lesson planning, the guides elaborate on lesson delivery; assessment
and evaluation; plus contain many tips for more effective teaching.
Another reason for creating the Guides was to meet state and local
textbook adoption committee expectations. Teacher Guides have
become an industry standard and adoption committees have a hard
time understanding a program that does not provide them.
Linda:
You added something called a Word Analysis CD this year.
What is that?
Mary:
All words listed in sections A-Z of The Writing Road to Reading
have been analyzed to expedite lesson planning. The CD can be
used to sort words by rules, parts of speech, spelling lists,
and syllable patterns, all categories needed for teaching the
week's spelling/vocabulary words. Teachers and parents tell us
it saves a great deal of time.
Linda:
That sounds really useful. Do you have other products that will
be coming out in the future?
Mary:
Yes, a couple of things. In response to home educators’ requests
for decodable books aligned to Spalding phonogram introduction,
eight (8) Kindergarten decodable readers will be available for
the 2008-09 school year. They are specifically written to provide
phonogram practice. These handsomely illustrated readers, used
with WRTR and the Guide, will be introduced at weekly intervals,
beginning with week eight. They will incorporate the phonograms
taught that week, along with those already taught. The complete
set will include 8 narratives, 8 informatives and 4 informative-narratives.
The books will also be sold individually. Providing nascent readers
with books is important, and their excitement over being able
to read a real book is wonderful to behold. In addition, we believe
the decodables will help textbook adoption committees who have
frequently cited our lack of readers as a reason for rejecting
The Spalding Method.
Linda:
And after Kindergarten?
Mary:
First grade decodables are in the planning stage. Mrs. Spalding
believed that children have no need for special readers after
first grade. After that grade, children can read the good literature
recommended in WRTR. We provide a grade level reading list and
leave it to the teacher or parent to select appropriate books.
Linda:
I read in The Spalding News that you are engaged in a research
study. Please tell me about that.
Mary:
This research project is a four-year study by Arizona State University
to establish the efficacy of The Spalding Method. We have
plenty of evidence that Spalding-taught children progress faster
and have higher test scores than students taught by other language
arts programs, but we need the kind of scientific study outlined
in NCLB. So far we are delighted with the Kindergarten and first
grade results. We publish each year’s report, as it becomes available,
in The Spalding News and on our Internet
website.
Linda:
That is exciting, but not surprising. In addition to being a God
send to my younger students, Spalding has been my best tool for
remediating reading problems in older, discouraged students. I
even used Spalding at the local jail, where I was forced to do
some of the fastest instruction ever! Since the turnover in a
local jail is great, I usually had new students arrive, and others
leave, each week. Since I was only allowed in one evening a week,
I targeted spelling with rapid testing/teaching/testing. I now
use Spalding at the university level, putting my freshman composition
classes through rapid remediation in handwriting and spelling
before we move on to developing higher skills for using the three
types of writing.
Mary,
how did you ‘discover’ Spalding, and how did you become so involved
with this wonderful, successful, precise way of teaching reading,
spelling, and writing?
Mary:
I am here because of the amazing progress my 7th
grade remedial students made with Spalding. That was some 30 years
ago when, as a new teacher, I was desperate to help my students.
On the advice of a friend, whose son had been tutored with Spalding,
I bought the book. I taught my students and myself almost simultaneously.
The results were amazing. My colleagues wanted to know what I
knew that they didn’t. The word got around and the administration
asked me to bring Mrs. Spalding in to teach other teachers. One
thing led to another and Spalding was eventually adopted district-wide.
Linda:
Did you then retire from the district and go to work for Spalding?
Mary:
It was about then when my administrator asked me to assist with
the creation of what is now called SEI. Mrs. Spalding brought
her nephew, Warren North, to Phoenix to help. Warren had just
retired from NASA where he had been involved in the selection
of the first seven astronauts. Understanding that improving literacy
was the key to improving education, Warren agreed to serve as
president of SEI. The two of us met and the rest, as the saying
goes, is history.
Linda:
You were obviously in the right place at the right time. Surely,
Spalding served as Cupid in introducing you and your husband.
What about the rest of your staff? How many are there, by the
way?
Mary:
There are 11 of us.
Linda:
Only 11? The big publishing houses have departments bigger than
your whole crew.
Mary:
We are all dedicated to perpetuating The Spalding Method and
have become very good at multi-tasking! We need to keep expenses
down in order to keep doing what we do. The research study, as
important as it is to the future of Spalding, is an enormous drain
on our budget. It required that we identify five experimental
schools and provide, at our expense, all the training and materials
that the teachers need. Finding control schools with matched populations
was a big investment in staff time and took much effort, as well.
Of course, the real key to Spalding success is the highly motivated
cadre of Spalding Teachers and the Spalding Teacher Instructors
who teach our courses. They are the real future of Spalding. Seven
of them serve with me on the Curriculum Development Committee.
The Committee wrote the 5th revision of WRTR, and designed
the Guides and our other instructional materials. All committee
members are Spalding Certified – some, like me, by Mrs. Spalding
herself.
Linda:
I do envy those of you who had the opportunity to study under
her! Those of us who have been Spalding partisans over the years
have wondered
how your organization has survive whole language and the other
fads that periodically blow through colleges of education and
into elementary school classrooms. It cannot have been easy.
Mary:
It wasn’t. My class of 7th grade remedial children,
most of whom read below a fourth grade level, were the flesh and
blood victims of those fads. Finding Spalding was the answer to
my prayers. At the time, I didn’t know why it worked. It was enough
for me that it did. Later, I wanted to understand why the Method
is so successful and consistent. I read the research and earned
my doctorate because I thought that having higher credentials
would help me persuade others of the need for research-based instruction.
Much later, the National Reading Panel studied the research and
concluded that successful reading instruction requires certain
components, phonemic awareness and phonics key among them. Those
of us in the trenches said "at last."
Then,
when NCLB passed, the big publishing houses turned on a dime,
sprinkled a little phonics holy water over whole language, and
claimed to be "phonics based." After being shunned for
teaching phonics all those years, Spalding suddenly had a bunch
of well-financed competitors. Who said, "Be careful what
you wish for!"? Yet, as you noted, and despite everything,
Spalding has persevered. I wish you could read the grateful letters
from parents and teachers. They are the reason that we work on.
We are continually reminded of the difference Spalding makes in
children’s lives. Speaking of that, the friend who told me about
Spalding, is now editor of The Spalding News! When she
retired from The Phoenix Gazette, where she was an editorial
writer, I asked her to come to work for SEI. Because of her experience
with her son, she felt that it was something she had to do. Her
son had been in a dreadful first grade reading program and thought
that reading was a mystery he would never solve. After a summer
of Spalding tutoring, he was reading and loving it. He couldn’t
believe it could be so easy. He asked his tutor, "Are you
sure this is all there is to it?" And "Does everyone
know this?" Thirty-five years later, we are still working
on it.
Linda:
Thank you, Dr. Mary North, for giving me, and my readers,
so much of your time. I hope that all parents, whether they are
homeschooling their children, or not, will do much reading and
learning at the Spalding
Education International website. I remain as committed
to Spalding as ever, and my present and former students think
of Mrs. Romalda Spalding as – a wonderful extra Grandmother who
has given them the best of all gifts – the Gift of Literacy.
