Charles,
Robert Hillerich is a former elementary teacher, principal, and 
assistant superintendent for curriculum and presently professor of 
education at Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he teaches 
reading and language arts.  He is a speaker, consultant, and inservice 
director to many schools throughout the United States and is past 
director of the Northwest Ohio Writing Project.  To my knowledge he is 
not a strong advocate of Whole Language (at least he doesn't mention it 
in his book _Teaching_ _Children_ _to_ _Write_ _K-8._ )
He is probably more of a traditionalist when it comes to spelling 
instruction.  In his book he offers hundreds of activities to stimulate 
writing and offers many word lists to "raise spelling achievement at 
each grade level..."
Hillerich had this to say about "invented spelling."
"In recent years there has been some interest in inventive spellings of 
young children.  Read (1975) was one of the early investigators of this 
phenomenon; others have followed and verified his findings.  Young 
children begin with random scribblings to represent writing.  Then they 
begin to use some consonant letters appropriately to represent those 
sounds.  As vowels enter the spelling effort, the long vowel sounds tend 
to be spelled by the letter name: *bake* is spelled *bak.*  Short vowel 
sounds are usually spelled, at this early stage, with the letter whose 
name most closely resembles the sound.  For example, *ship* may be 
spelled *sep,* and *him* may be spelled *hem,* since the letter name and 
the vowel sound /i/ are both articulated as high, forward sounds.  Both 
are formed in that position in the mouth.
From this point, children may develop some unique spellings of the vowel 
sounds as they become familiar with he existence of diagraphs *(rain,* 
*head,* *meat)* and the *e* marker *(gate,* *ice,* *note).*  As a result 
of false analogy the might spell *meat* as *mete,* or *rain* as *rane.*  
Ultimately, most children will arrive at conventional spelling.
From this research, teachers can establish the level at which their 
children perform.  Further than that, it seems to me the practical 
implication of such research is that teachers should be tolerant of the 
spelling efforts of young children.  Stress too early on correctness 
will only discourage writing or encourage use of a limited number of 
words whose spellings are known."    pp. 178-179
This is a man who has written a book about teaching kids to write.  In 
his book there is a heavy emphasis on instruction, though not the 
traditional method.  He considers the traditional methods ineffective.
He has written more than 100 articles in professional journals like 
*The* *Reading* *Teacher,* *The* *English* *Journal,* *Elementary* 
*School* *Journal,*  *Learning,* and *Early* *Years* on subjects ranging 
from readiness to literacy and from reading to writing and spelling.  He 
has also authored many instructional materials and books, including 
beginning reading materials and an approach to early oral language 
development (Houghton Mifflin), a spelling/writing program (Charles C. 
Merrill), and *The* *Principal's* *Guide* *to* *Improving* *Reading* 
*Instruction* (Allyn and Bacon).  
Dan
--- GEcho 1.11+
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