I have always been a fan of invented spelling because it can be such a great way to develop and assess phonemic awareness and spelling abilities. I agree with the article that unguided invented spelling can leave struggling learners in the dust as others who are developing the needed phonemic awareness skills are flying by. For that reason methods for guiding invented spelling are essential. The activity the article shares, making words, is an excellent example of a fun method both the teacher and student can benefit from. The teacher can use this activity to assess the students strengths and weaknesses in a non stressful manner for the student. Also, this technique allows for a variety of teaching opportunities. The student can benefit from this activity in numerous ways as they are practicing decoding words and developing phonemic awareness. They also are given the chance to share what they are learning as they tell the teacher and their peers the patterns they used and how to sort the words. Along with all the other benefits of this activity, it is multi-leveled. Therefore, teachers can assess the level on which their students need to begin and work up from there.
Parents may question the emphasis put on invented spelling and prefer it to be on corrective spelling. Below is an article and a website that would be useful to share with parents in order to explain invented spelling, the benefits, the developmental progress, and why it is used in schools.
http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/384-invented-spelling.gs
http://www.lindaslearninglinks.com/earlywrtgdev.html
Here is another helpful site for guiding invented spelling:
http://mrsjonesroom.com/writing/adult.html
I agree- Invented spelling is so important, and it isn't something to be frowned upon or worried about as parents. I have a "memory book" from when I was in kindergarten, and it features many activities I did on a computer with my own invented spelling. Look at me now- I turned out okay! haha
ReplyDeleteI loved your link to provide to parents about invented spelling! My parents used to think my invented spelling meant I was behind when it came to reading and writing. Providing an educational resource for parents is key so they can promote invented spelling at home! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI agree that invented spelling is a part of a child's natural process of learning how to read and write. It should definitely be encouraged! Thanks for sharing the links, they were very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI think invented spelling is a great place to start! It always makes me laugh when I see examples of children spelling words phonetically correct, yet incorrect according to the american language. Sometimes I feel like the invented spellers are on to something with the way they've written some very weird words. (like straight. It makes no sense to me how we figured out that -aight sounds the exact same as - ate!)
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