It took me a long time to get the produce and groceries unpacked after we arrived back home. It was an unbelievably balmy 73 degrees and I didn't want to stay in the house for more than a minute. I cleaned out garden beds until I couldn't put off making dinner any longer. Then I brought in a bunch of miscellaneous bits of veggies from my clean up: a hand full of scallions; a couple of carrots whose tops got pulled off by little hands weeks ago but whose bottoms were left in the ground; mache leaves that somehow survived a summer of heat; cilantro; tiny red peppers; a remaining few broccoli florets; and one little white onion found hiding underneath the brussel sprouts. Add rice, beans, and leftover corn muffins—and that was dinner. Maybe one of our last 'fresh from the garden' meals of the year.
While I made dinner, Amabel worked on a story that she started yesterday called "The Spooky Ghost." Of course I love that she is sitting there creating a story—completely of her own volition. But I'm not sure how I feel about the invented spelling that is (apparently) being promoted at school. Actually, I do know how I feel about it: I don't like it; it bothers me; and I have to resist the urge to correct every other word on that page. Do you have an opinion on invented spelling? Can you point me to a good resource, so I can read the rationale behind it (or the argument against it, for that matter)?
After dinner we dove into our new stack of library books.
Last spring I discovered that I could order any book through the Michigan electronic library system and have it delivered to our tiny local library just down the road. The thrill of this has not worn off (and I hope I don't get a call from the library telling me that I've over-used my new found library privileges!). A handful of books in this stack were suggested by Annie of alphabet glue (which I'm sure you remember me talking about). I share her taste in books, and so it's a wonderful thing to be able to consult her reading lists and trust that we'll be in for a treat when the books arrive!
I can't believe I'd never read Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip before tonight. Do you know this story by Elsa Beskow? Her books are some of my favorites, but I'd never seen this particular one. Without giving too much away—my girls burst into giggles when the two little acorn children tramped off through the woods to deliver a cart load of freshly washed troll beards. Troll beards?! The three of us had a good laugh together before tucking in for the night. And Ellen asked me to turn the light back on for a moment, as she usually does, to see everything in the room one more time before falling asleep.
(I'm experimenting with a new writing format here: for the next few months I'm going to write my posts as letters. My hope is that this will help me de-formalize my blogging voice. I'm directing this to one person as an exercise in writing, but my posts are intended for all of you!)
I've used inventive spelling with my class for the past four years, mostly because Enki recommended it. I took them on when they were six or seven years old; they are ten or eleven now. I'm not the kind of person who would be naturally inclined to use inventive spelling -- I like things to be right. And I didn't use it in everything, only in free writing -- things that went into "good books" where corrected first. And we do, of course, have spelling lessons, and occasionally I will pick a word even in their free writing and work this the child to arrive at correct spelling. But I can tell you that it does work, in that it gets the child thinking about sounds and patterns while not worrying too much about getting it right; and contrary to what I thought, it doesn't seem to encourage bad habits. The children's spelling has improved very well over the years.
ReplyDeleteDrews spelling is atrocious after years of inventive spelling. He recognized a need for learning spelling this year and I bought the all about spelling curriculum. I think it is awesome. Montessori is somewhat notorious for a lack in spelling direction and, for me personally, spelling has never been my strong suit. It is embarrassing to say that even I am learning from the level 1 spelling book.
ReplyDeleteThank you both so much for your feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to the invented spelling question. I'm going to do some more looking into this, for sure. It seems like a combination of free expression and focused attention to spelling might work best in our family.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is a crazy language with some of the most odd, unusual spelling ever invented. Many languages do not even need "spelling" as a subject because the written language rules make sense. When a child sits down to write a story, what's most important is THE STORY. Her ideas, her vision, her voice. Spelling, unfortunately for English-speakers, has to be taught, but it can be taught separately from writing. Gradually a child will incorporate standard spelling into her stories. No worries!
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm wondering is that if she isn't correctly spelling most of the words she wants to use yet, would it be better for me to suggest that she dictate her story to me? That way she can create the story, the vision, the voice—and I'm just the scribe. I don't want to discourage her from writing herself, of course, but if she writes words incorrectly over and over again, isn't that potentially encouraging poor spelling habits? I think you and Megan are right, though: if I'm working on spelling separately with her, I won't need to be concerned about it in those self-directed stories.
Deleteyes, this is what I am finding too. It should be taught separately. Creating a story is one thing and they should be free to write as they choose. Sometimes they will ask me how to spell a certain word while they are writing. But most generally once they get on a role they do not want to stop. We set aside friday for the all about spelling 'lessons' and spelling words and rules. I can see them already incorporating what we have learned with that program into their writing. If they choose to read their writing to me, or let me read it, sometimes I will point out a word or two that could be corrected, keeping it very light, always gauging if they are receptive at that moment or not (if not letting it go). I see this as a bit of an edit.. something that is very real life and necessary in writing.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of writing to a specific person to make your blogging voice more natural. It's something I want to try too.
ReplyDeleteI taught elementary grades for seven years before my daughter was born. I was taught to teach creative writing to kids in 1-3 grades and to use invented spelling. I did it for awhile but by the end of my time teaching I didn't do either.
It's hard to know what helps someone spell. It comes easily to some people, and for others is a real challenge. That said, it doesn't seem like a good idea to have kids repeating misspellings when they could be learning how a word should look.
So true—it's hard to know what helps someone spell. I think I mostly absorbed spelling through reading when I was young. That said, spelling certainly doesn't come naturally to me. But I'm not sure if I'm one that would have benefited from learning a lot more "spelling rules" as a child.
DeleteOur Elisabeth does the same thing with her spelling. It is hard to not correct her, but after doing some reading and talking with my mom (who is a fourth grade teacher), I've been reassured that it is ok, that spelling comes later. So I am just letting it go for now, and in the car we do lots of spelling tests, quizzing her on how to spell words. I really don't want to stop her from writing what she wants to write, and become self conscious or limited based on what she feels she can spell.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that jumped out at me when I was looking into this was the explanation that the written word, just like the spoken word, takes time to develop. When a toddler is learning to talk, while we may correct them once in a while, it is normal for the words to not be perfectly put together. "i not tired" for example. Over time, they learn how to say things correctly and the same sort of thing happens with the written word.
Here is the article I referenced:
Deletehttp://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/384-invented-spelling.gs?page=all
Thanks for the link, Lisa. It is very interesting to hear everyone's perspective on this issue. . . lots of strong and varied opinions, for sure!
Delete