Cunningham and Cunningham's article really rang home for me this week. I am finding that the articles we have been reading in class pertain to me in so many ways because I have two young children. I think that when children experiment with invented spelling, they are definitely setting a foundation for learning to spell correctly and for reading. I had never seen a Making Words activity before, but it sounds like it is a wonderful idea for bridging the gap between invented spelling and correct spelling. My seven year old son would benefit from a Making Words activity. He has always struggled with reading and spelling, and he's just now gotten to where he is reading on grade level. What surprises me is that he still uses invented spelling when he writes for fun. Although he is in second grade, I really feel that invented spelling allows him to write as a creative outlet without having to worry about being graded for accuracy. At times, I start to feel bad for not correcting his spelling during these creative writing sessions, but I ultimately decide that he should have his time to develop his creative side without rules.
What do you think? Should I let a child as old as seven write without concern for spelling or grammer?
Week One Blog Post
10 years ago
I have a hard time not correcting the writing of the third grader I work with when she is creatively writing. Should I let an 8 year old go along spelling words wrong. When I ask her if she spelled it wrong, she always knows how to spell it correctly. I feel that when I ask questions about her spelling, it takes away from the overall fun of the silly story she wrote.
ReplyDeleteI think that it does depend on the age. I think that you should correct them if it is for something formal or for a grade, but if it is for a silly activity than they do not have to always be corrected. Also if it is something that you want to display the child would probably want it to be correct because another student may notice that it is incorrect and comment on it. I have had students correct other students and sometimes that is fine, but other times it should come from the student.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one! It's important that children know how to spell and write correctly, but you also don't want to stifle their creativity and love of writing by always telling them they're wrong. I guess it's just about balance and making sure they know how to write in different situations. That's even what we do as adults. I bet if you went through my text messages you'd think I was terrible at writing!
ReplyDeleteI think if he is writing for fun, then by all means let him be creative with his spelling. Through his experimenting he will eventually come to the correct way of spelling a word. I think we often jump to telling children that the are spelling something incorrectly and quickly want to correct them. I think inventive spelling is a very important step in a child learning how to form words. If a child is consistently spelling a certain word incorrectly, I think that is the time when we need to step in and help them recognize the correct way to spell that word.
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