Learning to Spell

Hi K. my son is also in first grade and mispells his words. According to what I've been told, the teachers are teaching the students to sound out and put into writing their thought right now, the'll work on the spelling a little later. It's more about sentence formation. (I still corrrect my son's spelling at home, I do tell him that he did a good job sounding it out)

I read through the responses and they are correct. This is how they are teaching kids now. For my son, though; it has not been very good. He is in 4th grade now and is really struggling with spelling. I think for him he should have been taught the correct way from the beginning. I suppose he is in the minority from the responses here. He LOVES to write stories but you can't read them because he doesn't spell correctly. We are trying to work with him in his spelling.

I'll just say that I used to work in a school and the first grade teachers there used what they called "best guess" spelling. The idea was not to emphasize always knowing the correct spelling or just memorizing how to correctly spell words, but for kids to try to sound things out. It wasn't about bruising their self-esteem. It was a teaching method that aimed to teach children to sound it out and listen to the word to determine which letters made the sounds, etc. The kids also had spelling lessons at a different time of the day. But when they were writing it was supposed to be their "best guess." Find out what the teachers in your son's school tell the children about what to do if they don't know how to spell a word (when you meet with the teacher) and what their purpose is so you can decide if you agree with their goals and their method of getting there.

Hope you've gotten lots of help!
B.

My son's school uses the same method, and I am torn about it. I understand where they are coming from, just wanting the child to try to sound out the word, and start to learn the different letter combinations that make sounds...but at the same time, if they are not told the correct way to spell it, they may have it in their mind that they have been spelling it right the whole time, and then later not catch on to correct spelling...now did that make sense? haha! Fortunately, my son is doing pretty well w/spelling, and is actually reading at a mid 2nd grade level (don't know WHERE he got that from!) and he started 1st in August! Like you said you would, go ahead and talk to the teacher about it at the conference, and she/he will be able to tell you why they use that method and how it works. I have still helped my son to spell correctly at home. He will guess at what the sound should be, but I have him keep guessing if its an easy one, and if not (like in the word COULD) I help him along. I say...well it does sound that way, but in THIS case its this way. He has a pretty good memory about spelling too! He blows me away! Good luck and glad you are loving your time here in the states!

it's a pretty common way to teach littles to write, and one i like. lets them fall in love with the process of creating stories and communicating their thoughts on paper before getting down to the nitty-gritty of spelling and grammar. it was hard for me to let spelling mistakes pass but both my boys ended up being very good at spelling. i don't think parents who are sticklers for correct spelling (and pronunciation and so forth) are doing the damage that some folks think an insistence on perfection will create, but why not just roll with it for a bit? if he enjoys the writing process and feels empowered to do it he'll most likely carry that pride forward and want to spell correctly without too much intercession from you when he gets to that point.
enjoy your stay on this side of the pond!
:) khairete
S.

That is what I do as a first grade teacher. Right now we are focusing on creative writing - having the children write the sounds they hear onto paper. Sounding out the words and "stretching them out" are a great way for you to help your child as he writes. At this age more are spelled wrong than right and by pointing them all out you may discourage him instead of helping him. As the year goes on spelling will improve with him reading more and recognizing more words and also with the formal program your schools formal program he'll amaze you with how quickly he is spelling!

This drove me nuts too. I would always try and correct my sons spelling too because I believe that people learn from their mistakes. I wanted them to correct him. But apparently in 1st grade they want to stress more about the transfer of thoughts to paper and the ideas rather than spelling. They don't want the kids so worried about spelling that they lose track of the big picture of writing. Good luck with it. Ask the teacher too though just to find out for sure what exactly her thoughts are.

I noticed this as well as "guess" reading at my son's kindergarten two years ago, amongst other things. I was very disappointed in the public school system. I chose to homeschool.

They say in public school that correct spelling doesn't matter at this age, and they should spell phonetically, but I think this is wrong minded and is only going to cause problems later on as the child has to try to correct mistakes they have learned to make, (aided and abbetted by their previous teachers). I believe that children should learn to do it the right way the first time, like we did when we were in school so many years ago. For a long time I wondered how the public school system got this way, then I read two books that changed my perspective. "Dumbing Us Down" and "Weapons of Mass Instruction" both by John Taylor Gatto, an award winning New York City teacher (he won Teacher of the Year amongst other awards). After reading his books and checking his facts with the research I was able to do on my own, I am now even more fervently grateful that I chose to homeschool my children.

So in essence, I think you're right to be concerned, very concerned, and if you can't or don't feel like you can homeschool or you can't choose a more fitting private school I would encourage you to get involved with the school. Join the PTA, campaign for a school board position, or even just attend a school board meeting and demand answers from the ones who make the rules.

Best of luck!

My experience with first grade spelling was that the teachers encouraged them to spell the words the way they sounded rather than focusing on spelling rules. Somehow it all worked out fine. My oldest son is in fourth grade and does well with spelling.

Your son is exactly right, just get the letters you know or close to the word down on paper. I think they want the children to just get in the habit of writing. Second grade they start with the spelling of words, Third-Fifth with the grammar and By middle school they are doing great. It is a long process and one I really want to correct when the kids are doing it, but it does work.

Sometimes they want the children to learn by phonetics... sounding out the letters and writing what they think it sounds like. My son is doing the same thing. On his homework, the teacher doesn't want us to correct the spelling, just let them write the letters they think the word sounds like. The idea is that they will learn in class the actual letter sounds and eventually the "rules" of spelling will make more sense.

Certainly, I would ask questions and learn more about your teacher's specific plan for teaching letter sounds and spelling.

BTW: My son is in a private school, and in Kindergarten, so the methods may be different, though they do sound similar.

Good luck. This is an exciting time for our children, learning so very much. Isn't it wonderful? :)

If the school stresses phonics than he is right on track. He's spelling the words phonetically, which is the beginning stage of writing. Once they get the phonics down and a better understanding of letter sounds then they begin to stress spelling the words correctly. Phonics is great for teaching children to read, and understanding the relationship of how letters can be turned into words. IMO I think it ends up creating horrible spellers, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, and with the use of computers and spell check its not that huge an issue. I wouldn't worry to much about it right now. Work on it at home as much as you can without stressing out your son. I'm sure he'll be fine.

My daughter is in 2nd grade, and last year they worked on spelling words the same way...they want the kids to sound them out and spell them like they sound at first. Second grade they are learning the correct spelling of words (spelling homework and spelling tests). You can certainly ask at the conference, but I'll bet it's the same method: get them making words and letters, practicing writing, and forming words, sentences and punctuation. Accuracy comes later. Enjoy the fun spellings he comes up with!
K. too:)

Hi K. - that is normal for 1st grade...they are not exposed to as many words as older children, so they will get the hang of phonics later on...right now the focus is on handwriting and effort, so that is what she is grading on. It's fine for the teacher to take it easy on them that young...they are getting used to school still and need to be encouraged and not scared of getting check marks. BUT, it is ok for you as a parent to push your child to do things correctly, and I would actually encourage it because it helped my kids tremendously. I would point out errors, let tell them how to correct it, and then later on, I would point out the errors and ask them how to correct it.
That would make them think and decide for themselves what they did wrong instead of me just giving them the answers. A lot of kids in NC had horrible grammar, which my kids picked up, so I would correct them all the time so they would know how to conjugate verbs, etc. Now they are great in their writing and verbal skills.
P.S. Ironically 'spelt' is not the past tense of 'spell;' it's 'spelled.' Spelt is "hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed." JK...sorry, I thought that was funny. :) I think spelling is a continuous learning process for us all...

Hi K.,

This is normal when learning to spell. The teacher is probably asking the kids to phonemically (spell them how they sound) spell the words. I'm not sure what school district you are in, but if you have questions, you should try the county website. For instance, I'm in the Frederick County, MD school district and they have a website: fcps.org or fcpsteach.org I was able to find out about the Language Arts portion of my daughter's grade on fcpsteach.org. It is very in depth and gives you ideas on how you can further work with your child at home. I hope this helps.

Take care,
D.

Yeah, they were doing this when my son was in first grade, too. At first, they want kids to just be happy about writing the letters correctly most of the time. The spelling comes in a little later. They don't want kids to get discouraged by criticizing their work. They'll start on the vocabulary words before you know it, and then they'll focus more on the spelling. I think reading with your children helps. Sit with them, show them the words. They see what they look like and hear what they sound like. Eventually it sinks in and it makes a difference in their school work. The school my son went to had his class all drawing and writing in their own journals. Some of the stories they came up with were very creative. It was amazing to see the differences in the journals from the beginning of the year and the end of the year.

Hi, K.!

There's nothing to really worry about in terms of how spelling is taught. Because our language has more exceptions than rules, learning to recognize words (sight words) is a big part of spelling, too, b/c phonetically, certain words make no sense! Take "the," for example. How do you teach a child to pronounce it correctly when the e is silent? And think about the many words with a silent e! It can drive anyone nuts.

If you wish to reinforce phonetics at home, try Starfall (http://www.starfall.com/). It's simple, direct, and slow paced. And read to your child each night. My daughter and I (she's in K) work on context clues as a way to learn new vocabulary, and if a particular story is in rhyme, I ask her to fill in the end word so that she practices sound. In her montessori (pre-K), the teachers frowned upon learning the letter names; instead they asked us to work on letter sounds at home. So with my younger son (17 months), we sing the alphabet using the sounds. Visually, he's connecting the sound to the letter (I have the alphabet up in his room.), which is much more important b/c it's a precursor to spelling.

Good luck and have fun with your children! And remember that it's never too early to introduce them to reading.

L.,
former English teacher

This is done to encourage kids to write without "fear" of making a mistake. Kids tend to be much better writers (and readers) by learning this way. Unfortunately, my daughter's first grade teacher focused too much on the spelling and now she doesn't really enjoy creative writing even though she is my most creative child. The spelling will come as they get their weekly words and practice spelling them correctly. Hope this helps.

Having been a teacher, I know that mis-communication occurs, yet you do not want this type of question unanswered. The best way to know is the face-to-face encounter with his teacher. If this is a serious question, you may not want to wait that far into the school year to get your answers.

There are many schools of thought out there in learning/teaching approaches, but the feel-good, self-esteem approach is not a good one. If your child is not getting a good phonetic base, you should step in and see that he does. It will effect his entire learning career.

Blessings...

My son is in first grade also. Starting last year in kindergarten and continuing into this school year, he started what his school calls "kid writing." This is when the children write out words based on the letter sounds they hear. The teachers said that at this age, the focus is on whether or not the children can recognize letter sounds (which is necessary for reading!). So, yes, my son comes home with papers with mispelled words all the time. The only exception is with the frequent sight words (i.e. on, the, with, etc...) The teachers aren't interested, at this point, in the correct spelling, but in whether the child is able to hear sounds and match up the correct letters with those sounds. Of course, as they get older, this will change, but for now, it's normal! Hope this helps.

This is called phonetically learning to spell, basically this is when they sound out the word this is how they would spell it because it is what they are hearing. When my two sons were in first grade (now 5th and 2nd grade) this is how they did their work. This is what is suppose to be taught in their school. (I know this because my neighbor was both of their teacher). They are now both excellent spellers! My daughter is now in 1st grade at the same school as my boys, she has a different teacher than my boys did (she has a teacher who has been teaching for 42 years), basically even though all 5 first grade teachers are suppose to teach the same way she still goes back to old school teaching. If my daughter misspells anything she sends it home for homework to be corrected, we sometimes then have 5 sheets to be corrected each night. Needless to say this is causing her a lot of heartache. I asked my neighbor about this just this past tuesday, I used the example of girl since it was word she misspelled the 3rd day of school and we were already getting papers home to correct. My daughter spelled the word gril. My neighbor said she would have been ecstatic because many kids at the beginning of first grade leave out the r. So in your situation don't be worried this is very normal and in the long run it will be very good for your son, you will be amazed at how well he will be able to spell from the beginning of this year to the end of this year! I hope this gives some insight from our experiences.

My daughter goes to a mMontessori kindergarten. The way I understand their philosophy is that they focus on the goal of a lesson. For example, if they are doing addiiton work, they only correct the addition (did they solve the math problem). If a number is backwords or incomplete they don't correct it in that work. Instead, the teacher notes the error and encourages work at another time that practices penmanship and writing practice. They do this to encourage success so there is less "That's right, but..." I know most elementtary schools don't have that type fo curriculum, but it sounds like the same thing could be going on.

Hi K.!

I taught first grade for 8 years and in my school district, spelling wasn't formally taught until the latter half of first grade. Initially spelling isn't emphasized because the goal is encouraging kids to write. If they get bogged down with spelling every word correctly, they write less or become so frustrated that they don't write at all. From your examples, your son is doing very well with writing the sounds that he hears in words! I would be excited with a beginning first grader who spelled that well!

My son is also in first grade this year and we play the spelling game (in the car, in the shower, waiting in line, etc.) where we choose a word, he spells it, and then uses it in a sentence. We begin with easy words that are spelled like they sound and follow a pattern (ex. - at, cat, bat, sat, etc.). This shows him that if you can spell one of these words, by changing the beginning sound you can now spell many more words. This is very low key, no pressure, and if he makes a mistake, we spell it correctly for him and move on. He loves it because it is a game and not something we are forcing him to do.

So, encourage your son's ideas in writing and don't focus on the spelling. You want him to see writing as creative and fun, not as something he needs to worry about getting wrong.

Good luck!
K.

This is a "new" practice in schools. I for one HATE it. it is called Kid Spell. And they are actually encouraged to spell words wrong if the 'sound' right. This is a ridiculous practice and I beleive it is contributing to an already messed up public school system. I hate that my children are in public school. I was homeschooled and I cannot stand the laziness that is encouraged by these teachers. If I did not have to work so many hours just to pur groceries on the table... well, things would be much different. I was taught that there is a right and wrong way. That anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Ours did that too. I did talk to the teacher about it, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really remember her explaination. Either way, all the 1st grade teachers did it that way.

When we go over homework, I still make him correct any misspellings but I did notice the homework was marked off by the teacher even with misspellings. I think they just want them to get used to writing and trying to sound it out.

You can always talk to his teacher. I've found that teachers don't mind questions, they get happy when they know the parents are actively involved.

Enjoy!

K.,
It is called inventive spelling. My kids (19 and 15) both did this. The teachers don't correct because it's not spelling words, it's about getting the child to learn how to write sentences and express ideas. Don't worry, spelling will come in time. Eventually they will have spelling words and spelling tests, I believe just a little later in the year? Either way, it's more important for the little guys to learn how to form sentences and get answers on paper than to spell the words properly at this point in their education. Some of the words also have more advanced spelling concepts that the kids are not ready to learn yet. As long as you can decipher what it is they are trying to get across they are learning valuable communication and writing skills. I hope that sets your mind at ease.