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#1
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Spelling
My niece is considering sending her child to private school because
they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. I never learned to spell until I learned to type because up to then I didn't read the individual letters in the word (I was taught the whole word method rather than phonics). But with all the texting etc that goes on, spelling seems to be almost irrelevant. My sister (whose grandchild this is), is a newspaper editor and she is mentoring a freshman student at one of the Ivy League schools. She says he has several times he has misspelled a word (college) but in misspelling it, he has spelled another word correctly (collage), and of course a spell checker doesn't pick that up. She asked if spelling was just not taught anymore. |
#2
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Spelling
Rosalie B. writes:
My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. Now there's good reasoning for you: some people in the class have trouble spelling, so *nobody* in the class will be taught how to spell! That way we achieve complete equality in terms of spelling ability! Apparently spelling isn't the only problem here. It looks like logical thinking was not taught to the people responsible for this idiotic decision. -- Darius S. Naqvi email: dsn at dsn dot incentre dot net ("From:" line email address with "nospam" removed) |
#3
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Spelling
Rosalie B. wrote:
My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. I know that there are other public schools where the majority of students are not native English speakers that continue to teach spelling. Although it varies quite a bit from school to school, spelling is now often taught within the context of rules and categories of words rather than just lists of unrelated words to memorize. If spelling is the only issue she has with the school, it might be simpler for her to hire a spelling tutor to cover spelling outside of school. If the spelling issue is just one example of many ways in which the school is not serving her child's needs, the private school option may make more sense. She may want to find out whether spelling is taught in other classes. The age of her child makes a difference too. Many teachers don't believe in teaching spelling before second grade. There can be a risk of stunting a child's writing vocabulary by insisting on correct spelling too soon. --Betsy |
#4
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Betsy wrote:
Rosalie B. wrote: My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. I know that there are other public schools where the majority of students are not native English speakers that continue to teach spelling. Although it varies quite a bit from school to school, spelling is now often taught within the context of rules and categories of words rather than just lists of unrelated words to memorize. If spelling is the only issue she has with the school, it might be simpler for her to hire a spelling tutor to cover spelling outside of school. If the spelling issue is just one example of many ways in which the school is not serving her child's needs, the private school option may make more sense. She thinks the child is not being challenged at all. But having had children and grandchildren in private schools, I don't think private schools will necessarily be better. Plus I think it depends more on the teacher than on the school. OTOH, this IS in Washington D.C. where there are quite good private schools and the public schools seem to be in flux. She may want to find out whether spelling is taught in other classes. The age of her child makes a difference too. Many teachers don't believe in teaching spelling before second grade. There can be a risk of stunting a child's writing vocabulary by insisting on correct spelling too soon. --Betsy This child is in 3rd or 4th grade and his younger sibling is starting kindergarten. |
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#6
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Spelling
"Rosalie B." wrote in message ... My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. You did not say how old this child is. Elementary age, I guess, because spelling here is not taught here after 5th or 6th grade. They get points off a writing assignment if they misspell words, but it is not actively taught, and children have been using spellcheck for a long time by that point anyway. Proper spelling is something you get from reading and writing a lot. Mostly from reading. "Teaching" spelling does no good unless a child reads, writes, and is constantly exposed to written language in all aspects of life, not just school. That being said, some people are just "spelling blind". It's just not something they get. If your sister wants her grandchild to be a good speller, she needs to make sure he's a good reader. |
#7
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Spelling
"dejablues" wrote in message ... "Rosalie B." wrote in message ... My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. You did not say how old this child is. Elementary age, I guess, because spelling here is not taught here after 5th or 6th grade. They get points off a writing assignment if they misspell words, but it is not actively taught, and children have been using spellcheck for a long time by that point anyway. Proper spelling is something you get from reading and writing a lot. Mostly from reading. "Teaching" spelling does no good unless a child reads, writes, and is constantly exposed to written language in all aspects of life, not just school. That being said, some people are just "spelling blind". It's just not something they get. If your sister wants her grandchild to be a good speller, she needs to make sure he's a good reader. Good reader doesn't necessarily equal good speller. I was an avid reader, I read Lord of the Rings at 6yo. But I still can't spell. At times I can't even get close enough to the word for the spell check to recognise it. I've been asking #1 (age now 9yo) to spell words for me for a good couple of years. Dh never has a problem on spelling, and never did. He just seems to do it naturally, and sometimes thinks I'm messing around when I can't spell a word because it seems so obvious to him. #1's been having spelling tests in school since she was year 1 (age 5-6) but they tend not to corrrect spellings in the writing as they're concentrating on the "flow" rather than the spellings. This hinders her because she likes to be correct, so she'll only write words she's confident of spelling correctly. The non-English speaker suggestion sounds like an excuse rather than the real reason to me. Debbie |
#8
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Spelling
"Welches" wrote:
"dejablues" wrote in message ... "Rosalie B." wrote in message ... My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. You did not say how old this child is. Elementary age, I guess, because spelling here is not taught here after 5th or 6th grade. They get points off a writing assignment if they misspell words, but it is not actively taught, and children have been using spellcheck for a long time by that point anyway. Proper spelling is something you get from reading and writing a lot. Mostly from reading. "Teaching" spelling does no good unless a child reads, writes, and is constantly exposed to written language in all aspects of life, not just school. That being said, some people are just "spelling blind". It's just not something they get. If your sister wants her grandchild to be a good speller, she needs to make sure he's a good reader. Good reader doesn't necessarily equal good speller. I was an avid reader, I read Lord of the Rings at 6yo. But I still can't spell. At times I can't even get close enough to the word for the spell check to recognise it. I've been asking #1 (age now 9yo) to spell words for me for a good couple of years. I agree - I never learned to spell until I learned to type and had to look at all the letters in the word. (That's why I could never get into all those Russian novels that people want you to read - I couldn't tell the characters apart.) Dh never has a problem on spelling, and never did. He just seems to do it naturally, and sometimes thinks I'm messing around when I can't spell a word because it seems so obvious to him. #1's been having spelling tests in school since she was year 1 (age 5-6) but they tend not to corrrect spellings in the writing as they're concentrating on the "flow" rather than the spellings. This hinders her because she likes to be correct, so she'll only write words she's confident of spelling correctly. The non-English speaker suggestion sounds like an excuse rather than the real reason to me. Debbie My sister has always spelled well which is perhaps why she thinks it is important. Would your daughter be more adventurous with what she wrote if her spelling was corrected by the teacher, or would she be even more cautious - not wanting to mess up? I have myself taught writing without the correcting of the spelling in order to facilitate the child actually getting over the barrier or putting words on paper. I used to make my sixth graders spend 10 minutes a day writing. Anything they wanted to write, but they had to write. I didn't grade the content or the spelling. If they wanted to, they could even copy out of a textbook. Just so they did 10 minutes of writing. I also gave them a quarter project where they had to write at least a paragraph telling everything that they saw from a specific location three times a week. No time limit or space limit. They just had to sit in a location they picked and described it in a paragraph. |
#9
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Spelling
"Rosalie B." wrote in message ... "Welches" wrote: "dejablues" wrote in message ... "Rosalie B." wrote in message ... My niece is considering sending her child to private school because they don't have spelling in the her son's class. The reason given is that some people in the class are not native English speakers. Does that reason make sense to anyone? It doesn't to me. You did not say how old this child is. Elementary age, I guess, because spelling here is not taught here after 5th or 6th grade. They get points off a writing assignment if they misspell words, but it is not actively taught, and children have been using spellcheck for a long time by that point anyway. Proper spelling is something you get from reading and writing a lot. Mostly from reading. "Teaching" spelling does no good unless a child reads, writes, and is constantly exposed to written language in all aspects of life, not just school. That being said, some people are just "spelling blind". It's just not something they get. If your sister wants her grandchild to be a good speller, she needs to make sure he's a good reader. Good reader doesn't necessarily equal good speller. I was an avid reader, I read Lord of the Rings at 6yo. But I still can't spell. At times I can't even get close enough to the word for the spell check to recognise it. I've been asking #1 (age now 9yo) to spell words for me for a good couple of years. I agree - I never learned to spell until I learned to type and had to look at all the letters in the word. (That's why I could never get into all those Russian novels that people want you to read - I couldn't tell the characters apart.) Dh never has a problem on spelling, and never did. He just seems to do it naturally, and sometimes thinks I'm messing around when I can't spell a word because it seems so obvious to him. #1's been having spelling tests in school since she was year 1 (age 5-6) but they tend not to corrrect spellings in the writing as they're concentrating on the "flow" rather than the spellings. This hinders her because she likes to be correct, so she'll only write words she's confident of spelling correctly. The non-English speaker suggestion sounds like an excuse rather than the real reason to me. Debbie My sister has always spelled well which is perhaps why she thinks it is important. Would your daughter be more adventurous with what she wrote if her spelling was corrected by the teacher, or would she be even more cautious - not wanting to mess up? Yes she would be more adventurous, which sounds strange, but she likes to know the right way. Even better would be if a teacher was prepared to tell her or let her use a dictionary. What I'd have liked was for them to say "how do you think", let her try, and then give her the right spelling or let her look it up. What would actually happen was they'd say that she had to work it out for herself. She'd try, decide it wasn't right, rub it out and use a simpler word. Because she was a strong reader, she would know it was wrong, so being a strong reader actually handicapped her rather than helping her! #2 otoh is much better to be left to try, and, although she's as good a reader isn't bothered so much if it looks wrong. Just she's a bit lazy and would rather not write at all :-) That method works for her. I have had problems with both girls on the standard of reading books they've bought home. When they're reading "Famous Five" standard books at home it's somewhat boring for them to be reading "The cat sat on the mat" in a group of children. #2's reading book at the start of the year she could read 2 1/2 years ago, simply because the school has them reading in groups so it goes on the slowest person. Personally I feel it is a complete waste of her time which would be better spent on other things. Unfortunately pointing this out has made her present teacher clearly think I'm being pushy, which is irritating because I'm not pushing for her to be stretched, just kept interested. Debbie I have myself taught writing without the correcting of the spelling in order to facilitate the child actually getting over the barrier or putting words on paper. I used to make my sixth graders spend 10 minutes a day writing. Anything they wanted to write, but they had to write. I didn't grade the content or the spelling. If they wanted to, they could even copy out of a textbook. Just so they did 10 minutes of writing. I also gave them a quarter project where they had to write at least a paragraph telling everything that they saw from a specific location three times a week. No time limit or space limit. They just had to sit in a location they picked and described it in a paragraph. |
#10
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Spelling
"Welches" wrote:
"Rosalie B." wrote in message .. . My sister has always spelled well which is perhaps why she thinks it is important. Would your daughter be more adventurous with what she wrote if her spelling was corrected by the teacher, or would she be even more cautious - not wanting to mess up? Yes she would be more adventurous, which sounds strange, but she likes to know the right way. That's interesting. I wouldn't have thought that would be the case. Even better would be if a teacher was prepared to tell her or let her use a dictionary. What I'd have liked was for them to say "how do you think", let her try, and then give her the right spelling or let her look it up. What would actually happen was they'd say that she had to work it out for herself. She'd try, decide it wasn't right, rub it out and use a simpler word. Because she was a strong reader, she would know it was wrong, so being a strong reader actually handicapped her rather than helping her! #2 otoh is much better to be left to try, and, although she's as good a reader isn't bothered so much if it looks wrong. Just she's a bit lazy and would rather not write at all :-) That method works for her. I have had problems with both girls on the standard of reading books they've bought home. When they're reading "Famous Five" standard books at home it's somewhat boring for them to be reading "The cat sat on the mat" in a group of children. #2's reading book at the start of the year she could read 2 1/2 years ago, simply because the school has them reading in groups so it goes on the slowest person. Personally I feel it is a complete waste of her time which would be better spent on other things. Unfortunately pointing this out has made her present teacher clearly think I'm being pushy, which is irritating because I'm not pushing for her to be stretched, just kept interested. Debbie I come from a long line of pushy mothers. That's a good thing. In one middle school I taught in, the whole school was split up into groups for reading first period in the morning. So they could be much more flexible in the grouping. But I feel your pain. Apparently when I was in kindergarten my elementary school was judged by someone to be insufficiently disciplined or structured or something. And so they switched principals. Among other things, that meant that when I went with my first grade class to the school library, I was not allowed to touch (let alone take out) books that were above the first grade level. We had reading time every day and I had to read whatever book I took during that time. Since I was reading Kipling on my own at that point (not novels, but the Just So Stories), this was agony. I would finish the book before the library period was over and then for the next four days I had to sit and re-read it. I don't know if they changed this by the time my sister got there. I'll have to ask her. She was 2.5 years younger and by the time she got to kindergarten I had taught her to read. She could be left to read to the class while the kindergarten teacher took a break. |
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