Independent Writing (and Spelling)

Learning spelling separately from writing is like learning music theory without playing music. What’s the point and where’s the enjoyment?

Supportive conditions for writing… Time Choice Response Demonstration Expectation Routines Evaluation Brian Cambourne

What is a ‘good’ speller? Turn and talk

What is a good speller? A good speller is not necessarily someone who spells all words correctly. Good spellers read often and enjoy reading. Good spellers use what they already know about words to figure out new words. Good spellers assume responsibility for proofreading and editing. Good spellers integrate sound, visual and meaning knowledge.

What is a good speller? A good speller is not necessarily someone who spells all words correctly. Good spellers take risks and attempt new words. Good spellers use different strategies to try words. Good spellers use resources like dictionaries and word lists. Good spellers are interested in words. Good spellers are aware that their writing needs to be easily read by others.

Writing samples One day I went to daycuer and I brot two benebabs. One was a rabit and one was a duk. I poot them in my bacpac and then when I cam bac to my bacpac they wer gon. I lookt evrewer. The techer poot up a sin a bat my benebabs. Thay wer mising. I had a cat. I like my cat. My cat is fat. My cat is good.

What is the difference between a ‘good’ speller and a ‘safe’ speller? Turn and talk

Spelling test There are ten words in the test. Predict how many you will spell correctly.

Spelling test seal haemorrhage polyphonic carbonaceous reign separate integrate diarrhoea parallelogram didgeridoo

Research tells us… Good spellers are usually good readers. Children move through predictable, developmental stages in spelling. Children use invented spelling to explore their understanding of spelling rules and patterns. These ‘errors’ inform our teaching. Helping a child to become a competent reader and writer must take priority over helping him to become a proficient speller. Students learn more about words through an inquiry approach than a one-size-fits-all memorisation process. Summary from Gentry & Gillet (1993)

A hard word to spell is one you don’t see very often. What are the implications for our teaching?

What are our beliefs about learning to spell? Write down 3 beliefs that you hold strongly about helping students to become effective spellers.

What does this mean for us as a school? What are our pedagogical beliefs about spelling at Winters Flat PS? Bundling activity