The dangers of 'have a go' spelling
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:05 am
Alison Clarke writes about the dangers of 'Have a go' spelling via her excellent 'Spelfabet' blog. Susan Godsland flagged up Alison's posting via Twitter.
This issue is very, very close to my heart and I suggest teachers right from Reception (the point when there is more emphasis on teaching writing in an explicit way) should develop a very supportive and proactive technique to fully engage children with the notion of the English spelling system being particularly tricky and therefore adults ..."will need to teach them and help them with spelling for a very long time".
http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2014/05/hav ... more-11969
If you cheerfully ignore all children's attempts at spelling without setting up a regime of helping them, "Let me help you with that word...", then teachers become reticent and fearful of pointing out wrong spellings and they miss out on an ethos of attributing the spelling errors to the history of the English language and the very complex English alphabetic code (the most complex alphabetic code in the world - tell the learners that!).
In effect, you set up a regime of 'invented spelling' which is hard to transcend.
Teachers do not have to pick up on every word spelt incorrectly, but they should not waste a second of their time supervising children writing generally without utilising the time to constantly support with spelling.
Of course, the most helpful resources for this are the Alphabetic Code Charts as visual aids ('giant' and 'mini'), plain font 'tricky common words and words arising', and then building up spelling word banks via displays and in learners' phonics/spelling books or folders.
www.alphabeticcodecharts.com
Note: Professor Diane McGuinness draws attention to the researched fact that even adults will damage their spelling ability if they look at mis-spellings prior to a spelling test that they re-take - thus there are 'before' and 'after' scores.
This issue is very, very close to my heart and I suggest teachers right from Reception (the point when there is more emphasis on teaching writing in an explicit way) should develop a very supportive and proactive technique to fully engage children with the notion of the English spelling system being particularly tricky and therefore adults ..."will need to teach them and help them with spelling for a very long time".
http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2014/05/hav ... more-11969
If you cheerfully ignore all children's attempts at spelling without setting up a regime of helping them, "Let me help you with that word...", then teachers become reticent and fearful of pointing out wrong spellings and they miss out on an ethos of attributing the spelling errors to the history of the English language and the very complex English alphabetic code (the most complex alphabetic code in the world - tell the learners that!).
In effect, you set up a regime of 'invented spelling' which is hard to transcend.
Teachers do not have to pick up on every word spelt incorrectly, but they should not waste a second of their time supervising children writing generally without utilising the time to constantly support with spelling.
Of course, the most helpful resources for this are the Alphabetic Code Charts as visual aids ('giant' and 'mini'), plain font 'tricky common words and words arising', and then building up spelling word banks via displays and in learners' phonics/spelling books or folders.
www.alphabeticcodecharts.com
Note: Professor Diane McGuinness draws attention to the researched fact that even adults will damage their spelling ability if they look at mis-spellings prior to a spelling test that they re-take - thus there are 'before' and 'after' scores.