Teaching Spelling and Phonics

Reading the articles that were assigned for week three allowed for a deeper evaluation of what I would do as a teacher in many situations.  I was first struck by the article by Cusumano.  She gave us a sample writing by a 5 year-old student and evaluated it on many levels.  Before reading her evaluation, I too took a look at the writing that this child did, and in my head evaluated it from the beginning.  After completing the article I was shocked to find out how brilliant this child truly was, and how easily it can be overlooked.

• drawing along with writing
• writing from left to right
• flexible shapes of letters
• spaces between words
• multiple spellings for words
• a special mark at the end

All of these practices were included in the 5 year-olds writing showing her knowledge of the very complex topics on a basic level.  Thinking about how children understand these conventions and can apply them to their work shows the importance of freedoms that teachers give to children.  At such a young age, writing on lines, proper spelling, capitalization, and many other aspects of writing that are required in the later years, are not important.  Although I am not sure if I will be teaching children of that age level, it requires me to think about whatever level of students I will be teaching and how I can apply this to them as well.  If teaching students of a 1st through 3rd grade level, there will be a very wide range of writers.  Knowing each students abilities can show what should be expected of them. Working off what they can practice they will be able to grow at a better rate than throwing them into the writing of different abilities so that I can "Provide praise and

encouragement for the ideas without criticizing the errors in conventions."