The Effect of Color-Coding Spelling Words Upon Spelling Achievement

Glenda Swift

Date of Graduation

Spring 1987

Degree

Master of Science in Education in Elementary Education

Department

Childhood Education and Family Studies

Committee Chair

Darrell Roubinek

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference in spelling achievement of fifth grade students would exist when they color-coded their spelling words, and further, whether left and right hemisphere dominant students responded differently to color-coding. The data was gathered from six weeks of weekly spelling tests of 173 fifth grade students. An experimental group of 86 received instruction on how to color-code their weekly list words and were required to do so. A control group of 87 students experienced no change in spelling instruction, but received the same weekly list words. All students were administered the Hemispheric Cognitive Style Test to determine hemispheric preference. The raw spelling scores from each group were converted into mean scores with first quarter spelling scores for each group used as a covariate. The analysis of data revealed that there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups, nor between left and right hemisphere dominant children. However, females in the experimental group did show significantly increased spelling scores than males, but there was no significant difference in male and female scores in the control group. The conclusion drawn from this study is that color-coding spelling words does not significantly affect spelling achievement of fifth grade students, but that females who color-code their spelling words do achieve significantly greater scores than females who do not color code their spelling words.

Subject Categories

Elementary Education and Teaching

Copyright

© Glenda Swift

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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