Literacy Week 3

One of the prompts for this weeks reading asked the question Does "invented spelling" help or hinder young readers? I think this is a great question that could be debated for both sides. My opinion stands that invented spelling helps the reader. I am in a second grade classroom for my main placement and students are constantly raising their hand to ask us how to spell words. I usually do not just tell the student how to spell the word they asked me to spell for them but I try to help them break the word down phonetically so that they are may begin to do this on their own. I think that having students practice breaking words down phonetically will make them better readers since they will have to do the same thing when they are reading. I also think that it is important when students are using "invented spelling" that they eventually see the correct way to spell the word, if they have written the incorrect spelling. It is not good to let students do inventive spelling and then have them think that the way they are spelling these words is correct, since that will lead them to develop the habits of spelling words wrong.

The only thing that I have against invented spelling is that I was never taught in my early years phonics, and how to spell and read phonetically. It was always really hard for me to sound out words when I was younger, and because of my "invented spelling" I got into the habit of spelling words wrong, and I still to this day spell them wrong! "Especially" is a word that I still do not know how to spell right since I learned how to spell it the wrong way to begin with. Even the word as simple as "their" I spelled wrong for years! So I think that it is important if students are to use inventive spelling that eventually they see which words they are spelling correctly and which ones they are spelling incorrectly so that they do not develop bad habits that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. (I just spelled their wrong, and thankfully spell check caught it..wow I'm just making my point more and more clear!)

As a teacher with a class of 25-30 students who are learning how to spell, it would take up so much unnecessary time having to spell the words for each child every time they do not know a word, you could spend all day just on writing a story if you had to do that! I think that "inventive spelling" can also be a way for teachers to see who is developing phonetically, and who is still in the earlier stages of phonetic awareness. Letting the students do their best spelling is also a chance for teachers to asses where each student is at in their reading and writing skills.