I was wondering if you ladies had your young students use inventive spelling (sometimes called "kid spelling") when they were first learning to write. This is what I was taught when I got my teaching degree. Basically the child spells independently using their knowledge of phonics, and depending on the school we would then correct them or sometimes not. All the schools here seem to be teaching this, and it seems to work quite well. A big part of the reason however was probably the fact that they expected us to have kids writing at five years old, in a class of 20+, often with just one adult in the room. In that setting it made sense to encourage the children to work independently, even if they weren't correct with the spelling, rather than sit and wait for the teacher. Obviously our situation is different though, since I only have a few kids as home and can help as needed. I was just wondering what methods you guys have used and found successful with beginner writers. I’m afraid to make too many corrections and discourage the kids, but at the same time I’m afraid that letting mistakes go will just reinforce bad habits. I consider myself a good writer btw, but I have TERRIBLE spelling. Hopefully my kids didn’t get those genes!
I do that as well. When I took a class on teaching kids to read in college they taught that as well. I encourage my son to try and figure out how to spell things and I don't correct him. This is when he is doing a writing activity. When he is doing phonics and is writing down an answer I require correct spelling. I did this with both of my boys and my oldest is a good speller now. I believe the creative process of writing is what should be emphasized for beginning writers. Later when they become more confident in their abilities requiring correct spelling won't make the task overwhelming. You can see a sample of my youngest's writing here and here. His spelling is not close to being accurate. But spelling isn't what I expect of a 5 or 6 year old. I appreciate and value his ability to express his thoughts in writing. I've never heard of the rationale of using that approach because there was not enough time for the teacher. To me the rationale is simple. Writing is complex. A beginning writer needs things simplified and a focus should be on the words expressed and not how those words are written.
when my kids are actually able to get thoughts and ideas down on paper, the last thing I want to do is criticize the spelling. I leave invented spelling alone until the writing process is more ingrained. It's like learning anything else, if you do it enough and are exposed to lots of good examples of it done correctly, it will eventually correct itself.
First of all, I would suggest calling it "temporary" spelling, rather than "inventive". The purpose really doesn't have much to do with the numbers of children, but more of what Embassy stated. The goal is to get kids to WRITE. Especially with a young child, if you expected him to stop and look up a word every time he didn't know one, he becomes discouraged and his thoughts never get down on the paper. Or he will chose to use smaller words he CAN spell, rather than larger words he can't. For example, he might describe something as BIG as opposed to ENORMOUS. This allows a child to be creative without the interference. "Inventive" spelling seems to indicate that a child can just make up any old way to spell a word, and it will be acceptable. "Temporary" means you can use it FOR NOW, but you need to go check it out and make the correction later. It emphasizes the idea that we CAN'T just let it go. There's a RIGHT way, and we need to eventually use that. When teaching Temporary spelling, encourage the child to UNDERLINE each word they use it with. That way, they can find them easier when they go back over it, and you can get a better idea of where they are with spelling. That way, if there's a word they are actually misspelling and they think is correct, you're aware of it. Many moms/teachers use words from temporary spelling to create spelling lists for their students. Edited to say: I re-read what Embassy wrote, and I think there's another point that needs to be emphasized. This is for when they're writing ideas down on paper. When doing other work, such as copy work or phonics, etc., there is no excuse for misspelled words.
It depends on what my daughter is doing. If she is writing in her journal, I'm more worried about her getting the chance to write and get her ideas out. After I read it and talk to her about it, praising her for her effort, I will make corrections under what she wrote. She asked me to do this because she wants to know how it is supposed to look. I don't say anything about it unless she asks for clarification. If she wants to go back and look, great. If not, that is fine. I have noticed that her spelling has improved. If we are doing phonics, then I insist on the right spelling. That is one of the points of phonics- to learn how the letters work within words.
At a young age, of course, the patterns of spelling aren't ingrained yet, so in order to express anything, "temporary", "invented", or "phonetic" spelling is fine. For awhile, while the learning is being done. By 12, though, the student ought to know most conventional spellings and use them. I had a first grader today complete a sentence that had to do with not waking the sleeping baby, "be cwiyet". I did point out to her that she knows what makes the /kw/ sound, because we'd just reviewed it earlier in the day, and then she remembered "qu", then all I had to say was that "quiet" doesn't use a y at all even though it sounds like it, and she was all correct, and not a bit upset about having to correct her spelling. I worked for years with a very bright woman who was a teacher, Master's, +30, tons of years of experience teaching, assessing, and report-writing, who had a great deal of trouble spelling certain words and would do the same mistakes over and over again. She insisted that "Spelling is a gift from God. You either have it or you don't; there is no learning it."
I think she has a point. My DS was able to do his own spelling for too long I fear to the point that now that he's in 4th, he still can't spell simple words. I think there has to be a happy medium of letting the child do their own thing and helping them realize and fix any mistakes.
Yes, she DOES have a point. Unfortunately Faythe "doesn't have it". BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT. She STILL has to have the words spelled correctly in all her FINAL drafts. It would be a big disservice to let kids think their spelling "doesn't matter", especially in the era of spell-checkers. She has an electronic device where she can type in a word phonetically, and it gives her several different possibilities of what the "correct" word is. She can also recognize which one is correct when she sees it.
What is that electronic device Jackie???? Alexis spells phonetically all the time - but when she SEES the word correctly she can still pick it out. I bet something like that would help build her confidence (she really doesn't like turning in papers)
I agree that some people are better intuitive spellers than others. But I know that spelling can be learned because I have learned with teaching the boys how to spell words that I regularly would miss before. so. again it isn't nature or nurture...but nature AND nurture. I allow rough draft spelling (4th and 7th grade) but I ask them, during the rewriting process to circle the words they don't think are spelled correctly. I too want them to get thier thoughts down on the paper without stopping to worry about technicalities. (which for these boys is agony.) I have even, for writing, had them dictate to me what they want to say and then write it up or type it. That has also created some much more age appropriate work than having them write it. It has been very difficult for my younger son to even misspell words and keep going, so I think it has been helpful for his "perfectionism" in that we are looking for a different outcome...but that we go back and clean it up for "keeps". I like the term temporary and rough draft, instead of inventive...
Hummm so there is a name for what we have been doing? I had no idea. Yes I do that. My dd's keep a journal (6 and 8) I don't do any correction in that at all of spelling or grammar. I do correct copywork and pages of ETC for younger dd. I also don't correct when my older dd does a lapbook on her own. They also do grocery lists for me and are very creative with their spelling, but I can always read what they write. I did just get them a book called My picture speller as both my girls like to ask me "how do I spell?" when they are writing. This seems a nice resource for them to have on hand. Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad I read this
Yes, you can learn to spell, but I really believe that there's something in Faythe's brain that blocks it. She'll spell the word perfectly one time, and then mess it up the next. It's very inconsistent. Her spelling thing is called a "Spelling Ace" by Franklin. They have it in the electronic department of stores. I think it cost about $20 at Target, but that was a while ago. It also has a calculator on it, a thesaurus, and spelling games. Oh, and there's a "Confusables" button. That will show words that are easily confused with each other, such as there, their, and they're.
