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This groundbreaking study on the psycholinguistics of spelling presents the author’s original empirical research on spelling and supplies the theoretical framework necessary to understand how children’s ability to write is related to their ability to speak a language. The author explores areas in a field dominated by work traditionally concerned with the psychodynamics of reading skills and, in so doing, highlights the importance of learning to spell for both psycholinguists and educators, since as they begin to spell, children attempt to represent the phonological, or sound form, of words. The study of children’s spelling can shed light on the nature of phonological systems and can illuminate the way sounds are organized into larger units, such as syllables and words. Research on children’s spelling leads directly to an understanding of the way phonological knowledge is acquired and how phonological systems change with the development of reading and writing ability. In addition to this insight concerning cognitive processes, the findings presented here have implications for how spelling should be taught and why some writing systems are easier to master than others. The work will interest a wide range of cognitive and developmental psychologists, psycholinguists, and educational psychologists, as well as linguists and educators interested in psycholinguistics.

An Uneasy Guest recounts how art education has been conceptualized, justified, and taught in the United States while all the time being a marginalized and vulnerable presence in our schools. The teaching of art has often been justified in terms non-art outcomes. In the 19th century children dutifully copied, line by line, pictures given to them by their teachers; the goal was to develop drawing skills for industry. In the first part of the 20th century, with the rise of John Dewey-inspired progressive classrooms, children were encouraged to express themselves freely; now the goal was to nurture the artist in the child and promote emotional well-being. Later, with the accountability movement, art education was justified in terms of its putative ability to raise standardized test scores. Since the 19th century, there have been recurrent pendulum swings between progressive and traditional approaches to art education in the United States. These swings are documented in this book along with vivid comparisons to the traditional approach the author observed in China (much like the American 19th century approach) and also to the progressive approach the author observed in preschools in Northern Italy. In the face of this uncertain past, 21st century art education has exploded with a wealth of new ideas aligned with—but going far beyond—the progressivism of the early 20th century. This book documents what art education in America used to be, and portrays how it can become a strong and central presence in the schools of tomorrow.