Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy When should teachers correct written work?

DD6's school uses Sweetie's method, but honestly the two teachers she's had since her schooling began have been the worst spellers. I'm constantly shocked that teachers can be such bad spellers. Eg, "piolit" for "pilot".
DD also writes stories about things teachers have no knowledge of - like geocaching, which DD spelled perfectly and the teacher tried to change to "geocoaching" then "geocatching" and DD had quite a job convincing her she knew what she was doing without any alleged help.
Anyway, although she's still mostly in the 'creative' spelling phase, DD comes from a long line of awesome spellers and the teachers have a big enough list of sins in my eyes, that spelling is not on my radar

Well, it was good enough for the Barde.

Er-- or Bard.


Whatever.



In all seriousness, how on earth are we to produce the next Shakespeere without invented spellings, one wondurs.

Similarly, we shall soon have no free verse at all if teachers insist upon correcting capitalization and punctuation
i will not have that
i plan for my child to be
the next
great poet


Just a thought, mind. I didn't say the logic was GOOD, mind you.

I remember when my kids did the invented spelling in first grade - I couldn't even figure out the subject of the writing piece. However, by third grade all were good spellers. DD18 is one of those people that just "gets" spelling - she very rarely makes a mistake and almost never cracks open a dictionary. DD16 is a good speller but makes a mistake once in a while (typically on a difficult, commonly misspelled word, and she usually realizes and looks it up). DD9 is similar to DD16.

I'm not certain how they made the leap from invented spelling to correct spelling. It may have something to do with attending a French immersion school from Pre-K through early elementary. While invented spelling is tolerated in English, it is not in French. Perhaps the push for proper spelling, grammar, etc. in French may have had a positive effect on the English.

DD8 is a whiz at spelling tests, and her written output has been atrocious. She has not only internalized the idea that "spelling only matters for spelling tests," but repeated misspelling has reduced her ability to notice errors. Write a word the wrong way enough times, and it feels right.

What really annoys me about all this is that the school set her up for this, and now they're grading her down for it.

We're in the process of helping DD unlearn three years of learning. Not fun.

Interestingly, my view on this issue has shifted as my children moved from early elementary to late elementary. Regarding special work that are displayed, I still believe that a clean corrected copy should be prepared by the students with teacher input. However, for regular daily work, I am completely fine with the teachers not correcting every spelling and grammatical errors. The amount of daily writing is overwhelming and times 25 students would be too heavy a burden. I am glad that my children's teacher focused comments on content (i.e., literary analysis) and structure (i.e., supporting details).

I think that it is partly an issue of brain maturity and working memory capacity. My 5th graders (DS & DD) have always been near perfect spellers on spelling tests, but regularly made spelling errors in their written work. However, the frequencies of spelling errors have decreased substantially over time and were fairly rare by 4th grade. I think that when DS/DD have to focus so much working memory on quickly drafting coherent/cohesive substantive answers, it affected spelling. However, if I handed them the writing days later and asked them to locate errors, they can ususally find them. Therefore, my suggestion would be to have your DD try to locate her own errors rather than marking up her papers yourself I also think that with increased exposure to standard spelling (from lots of reading practice over the years), that many students do naturally improve their spelling. While I am not a proponent of "invented spelling," I do think that it frees many K and 1st and even 2nd graders to write freely and focus on content.

Aha! This quote from Bostonian's link leaves me convinced that my child's rigid, awful teacher had been expertly trained in this very method... sure explains a lot... Can't imagine why my Dysgraphic child was having severe anxiety attacks every morning since this wonderful writing program was how his class started each day. Also explains the philosophy as to why he had recess taken away when he complained that his hand hurt and did not "complete his work" by drawing AND coloring a picture with his writing. Wouldn't want to let him "get away" with not doing it.

Here's the quote:

In her later work, however, Calkins’s notion of the writer’s notebook is prescriptive, even rigid. She instructs teachers as well as parents to make sure children “never miss a day” of writing in their notebooks, because “if you allow kids to get off the hook once, they’ll try to get off it all the time.” In Raising Lifelong Learners (1998), she describes how she needs to stand over her son while he writes down his thoughts after returning from a play date. The earlier “jotting” and “bits of life” sensibility seems to be gone, as she complains that her sons, then six and four years old, “often say non-sequiturs,” and how she, and all parents and teachers, should confront “sidetracks,” and prohibit any “detours.”

Wow-- and NOT in a good way.