A study examined the experiences of elementary teachers as they learned about the developmental nature of spelling, how to analyze student spellings, and ways to restructure their spelling program based on the needs of individual students. Nine teachers at two elementary schools volunteered to participate and expressed discomfort about current practices for spelling instruction. Surveys were completed and interviews were conducted. Inservice teacher education sessions over a 6-month period showed teachers how to administer and analyze the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge (QWIK). Results indicated that: (1) at the beginning of the intervention period, most of the teachers' questions centered on issues of time, instructional organization, classroom management, and grading; (2) at the end of the period, teachers' questions shifted to a concern for how to refine newly adopted teaching strategies; (3) use of the QWIK enabled teachers to expand their understanding of their students as spellers by encouraging them to reconsider instructional grouping decisions and documenting patterns of errors in a systematic way; (4) teachers expressed frustration about the amount of time it took to conduct the QWIK analysis and about difficulties they experienced in doing the analysis; (5) teachers varied in the amount of change they instituted; and (6) the teachers expressed a strong desire for continued support to explore innovations in their spelling program. (Contains 16 references and 1 data table.) (RS)