1. Spelling and Handwriting in the Language Arts Classroom Chapter 9

2. Why teach spelling and penmanship? l Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation demand the most difficult constant attention of all the language arts. l The ratio of time students spend speaking and listening is three times greater than the time spent writing. There is less time to learn spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

3. l Children receive criticism for invented spelling. l Students do not learn to self-initiate their own editing. l Words in the English language are difficult to spell. –No one-to-one relationship between phonemes and graphemes

4. –Few spellings have unique sounds –There are 500 different letter combinations. l Spelling and writing conventions have been altered by changes form Old and Middle to Modern English. l 75% of the new words added to our language are borrowed from other languages and the spellings are foreign. l Positioning is important in spelling and handwriting.

5. Stages in Spelling Development l Precommunicative l Early Phonetic Spelling l Phonetic or Letter Name l Transitional l Correct Spelling

6. How to Teach Spelling, Capitalization, and Punctuation l Invented spelling and creative conventions –Valuable stage in writing development –Written the way they sound, the way they make sense, or the way they look. –Allows higher ordered thinking –Develop a deeper understanding of English orthography and writing principles. –Quality of writing increases

7. l Modified textbook approach –pretest –correct their own tests to get immediate feedback –Use no more than 12-15 minutes –Use more than one grade level –Have students add words –Use words that were misspelled in writings

8. –Use theme words –Group for similar problems –Can work at own pace l Basic word list instruction –divide 3,000 most frequently used words into lists –one hour of instruction

9. l Learning to spell during the editing stage of writing –minilessons –disappearing lists –wheel of fortune spelling –Friday-Is-Game-Day –Look, say, cover, and write –Word families –Discovering famous author’s use of conventions

10. How to teach handwriting l The need for legible handwriting has increased l Principles –model visually and ask them to say letter strokes –Make sure students are ready physically and give proper instructions –One-to-one instruction to alter errors –Cross our errors

11. Manuscript l Requires less small muscle coordination l Looks like typeset l Teach lowercase then uppercase l Teach by type of stroke family

12. l Activities –Verbalize what you are doing and then have them verbalize as they write. –Trace letters in the air –Chalkboard –Model on desk –Variety of writing tools

13. Cursive Writing l Strokes of looping, retracing, rounding, and closing are taught separately. l Teach less complicated letters first l Use short words, then go to longer l Teach proper pencil grip, correct paper placement, and correct posture

14. Left handed writers l Hand preference makes no difference in level of success in life. l They push the pencil rather than pull it. l Alter the way they hold pencil, the position of the paper, and how they form letters l Grippers help l Calligraphy is fun to learn.

15. How to improve penmanship l Practice downstrokes, upstrokes, circles and slants in cursive writing. l One-story, two-story and basement letters l Assess for problems and remediate

16. Teaching Spelling demons and Writing conventions l Post a Spelling Demon chart l Use configuration l Use class writing samples l Cartoon strips with capital letters and punctuation whited out l Editing committee spelling rules chart l Explore how punctuation mark began l Audible Punctuation system l Computer software

17. Building punctuation and capitalization skills l This should rise in importance during the editing and revising l Myths, legends, folktales, and proverbs develop these skills because these stories have a wide variety of punctuation. l Historical fiction

18. Helping Multicultural Children l Put pictures or write word in first language beside it l Teach survival words

19. Self-Assessment of Editng and Small Group Discussions l Helpful for students to evaluate the strategies discussed l Especially valuable in editing during writing and after discussions l Write annotations to attach to their grade card

20. Technical support l Hypertext computerized way of linking information l HyperCard-supports hypertext l Enables immediate cross-referencing, help, support, and shifts in approaches to a topic to meet student’s purposes and pursuits

21. l Teaching word patterns –Word Wizard –Use morphemes to help spelling –teach related words

22. Spelling journals l Identify words that they misspelled- 3 to 5 a week l Use for spelling assessment

23. Taking spelling home l Select one difficult word to learn and teach their parents. Create mnemonic device to go with it. l Parents suggest words that are difficult for them. l Make a spelling demon list