Many parents have a hard time when their kiddos come home with writing that they cannot read or that has many misspelled words. I had an interesting situation in my grandson's class on Grandparent's Day. Grandparents were supporting their grandchildren with writing. I was supporting my grandson. Every time he asked me to spell a word I said, as a teacher, let's listen to the sounds that you hear in the word and write them down. he asked me if the spelling was correct and I said,"Can you read it?" He said, "YES!" " then that is great spelling. I can read it too!" I said it may not be exactly what an adult speller would write but look you have all the sounds!" I continued to say, "When you are not sure, sound out the word, or look around the room for the spelling if you know it is around here somewhere or maybe it is a sight word you can find on your word wall." "You are doing an awesome job! Keep on writing and reading and before you know it you will be zooming with spelling!" He smiled and felt extremely proud and his confidence blasted off into a galaxy of spelling and writing!
However, as I listened in to other grandparents helping their grandchildren, I heard things like, That's not the way you spell that word, here let me show you," OR "change that d to a b now the word is spelled correctly!" Even, "Don't you know how to spell that word? That word is easy here: p-l-a-y?"
I started to ponder about how many parents are struggling with kid spelling, inventive spelling creative spelling or whatever you may call it. So, I created this letter with the idea of writing it in Kid writing and then gradually improving as I wrote to end with standard adult spelling to demonstrate to parents that we are not ignoring spelling but in K-1 and maybe into second grade Kid Writing is developmentally appropriate and as your child reads, writes and practices spelling sight words, their writing and spelling will improve!
In my opinion Kid Writing is the way to go. It gets kids writing and using bigger more difficult words because they know that if they try and they can read it, then it works. As children progress and read and write more, their spelling will also improve. Put this altogether with sight words and eventually standard spelling ideas and/or programs and you develop a great writer and speller! If children are constantly worried about how to spell a word or if a word is spelled correctly, then this interfere with their writing and vocabulary and they will only write using words they know how to spell...how boring is that, but more importantly children's spelling progresses through stages that lead to conventional or standard spelling and it is NOT simply rote memory of spelling words!
What are your feelings or thoughts about spelling?
Spelling: Kids Writing Parent Letter Freebie
Here is a link to a great book that speaks to this topic: How Children Learn to Spell
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