Templeton's article was pretty interesting to me, however, I think I was looking for answers to a couple of questions that I have had for quite some time now, but did not find any. To answer the blog prompt for this week the things that I have seen in my placement that have to do with spelling focuses around word sorts.
The teacher has the students in various group levels, depending on what she though each child needed to work on the most, which might be vowel sounds, or vowel-consonant sounds (I'm not too sure how the groups are "labeled" anymore since I have been out of the room for some time to be honest).
What I do know is that each child gets a new list of words on Mondays and they sort this words all week, first by sorting to the appropriate sound, prefix, suffix, and "oddball" group. The kids have to read their sorts and then they play different games with the words through out the week and have a spelling test on Fridays.
From what I have gathered, the kids do not necessarily like the word work. There are a lot of moans and groans when it's time to do them, which is pretty early in the line-up of the morning activities. However, they love to play the games, so I think it's a win-win situation.
The one question that I have regarding spelling is when do you start really correcting their spelling? I am a firm believer that the must participate in invented spelling when they are getting their ideas down on paper or they end up spending too much time worrying about the spelling of words rather than getting their ideas down on paper. However, when I walk around the room do assist with their writing, I am constantly being asked to spell words. My MT carries sticky notes around with her to write the words down for the kids. Does this help them with spelling? Is it better to bypass the "just sound it out" method and give it to them?
I'm also a firm believer (after reading Routman) that published work needs to be just that: published work. If you are to hang a child's writing in the hall, then it needs to be free of conventional errors. However, with this comes the teaching of the writing process! I think that kids need to know that there is a time in the writing process that a lot of concentration will be focused on spelling. I see this right now in the classroom where they are talking about editing and will soon start peer editing. I'm just wondering what this looks like for the second grade.
So here is another thought, what about those students who struggle? How do we effectively teach proper conventions and keep their sanity and and school in a positive light? Following this thought, here is another perspective on this very issue that brings forth many more questions!
I feel that more focus needs to be on the different processes of writing and then you should go into what those processes look like. It is at this point that I wish I was in the classroom 5 days a week right now. I feel like I miss so much with just being there for two days. I guess I still have a lot to work out in my own head too. I'm not sure.
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