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Wow! I truly hope that this is more of an isolated incident because if not, then we should be hearing parents up in arms all over the place. No spelling tests?? I confess to relying on spellcheck a bit, but I would never, ever want children to not know how to spell correctly without it.
I teach in an elementary school. We don't have spelling lists or spelling tests, but that does not mean we don't teach spelling. We don't teach it in isolation. "Spelling" is not a grade on the progress report. We don't teach particular word patterns each week. It can be taught without a list of words on Monday and a test on Friday.
I would never say that spelling doesn't matter. I tell my students and their parents that it does matter. When we write we have to think about how to spell. We have to use our spelling strategies and think about spelling, otherwise our writing will look like this: hj firk even hurt gbh jeffie. I would also never tell a child to rely on spell check. It is a tool, a resource that can be used, but again you still have to be able to recognize which suggested word is spelled correctly.
Spelling is not on the standardized tests therefore it's not important.
I say it tongue in cheek but it's the truth.
Teach to the test, nothing more.
We tell our students all the time that spelling is important. I remember 15-20 years ago when teachers would actually say to students when drafting, "Don't worry about your spelling". We don't say that any more.
Parents, educate yourselves and ask questions. I was willing to work with the school, but they were not willing to work with me or my son. A teacher change probably would have worked out fine. All they would have had to do was get out of my son's way while he taught himself. That's what I've always done with him. There is a gifted program, but it doesn't start until third grade. This is typical across the nation. Our elementary school is a blue ribbon school and people move to our area to go to this specific school, because its reputation is so good.
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Originally Posted by CA4Now
Wow. My oldest's elementary school principal said that very thing....back in the early1990s. That group of kids went on to spell phonetically and once they reached middle school, they could barely write. We took our kids out of our (supposedly highly ranked) public school system after that and sent them to parochial schools.
*groan* (or should I write *grown*)!
The administrators here all fed me the same lines about how the word study method is what research shows is effective. I didn't buy it. I taught and I know better. A tiny bit of googling sent me to an author who also knew better, and it turns out that he's an expert in the field of spelling.
You are in CA - I am in the Midwest. Even back when my parents were beginning teachers, all the education fads started on the coasts and worked their way in. Ten years ago when I moved here they tried to tell me that "whole language" was an effective method for teaching reading. Now they have finally moved back to phonics.
To this day, I continue to give credit to one CP English teacher that handed out a new vocabulary word each day with a little cartoon using that word in it.
The cartoons still stick in my mind and made remembering while learning that word (spelling and meaning) fun.
I ran into her son not long ago and told him how much I appreciated her. She's long since died, but I will never forget her. At a high school reunion this summer, a group of us all said she was the one teacher, while strict and tough, we feel left the most lasting impression on us all.
I am so frustrated because we moved to an area that is supposed to have great public schools. Kindergarten was great and the teacher was willing to let me son work on his level, at least enough to keep him from going crazy. This year was a different story, and I'm glad I found out at the beginning of the year. I tried to work with the school but I was totally shut down.
My biggest clue that there was a HUGE problem was when the teacher said there would not be any spelling lists or spelling tests. In first grade! Even prior to this, I suspected something might be a problem because of the poor quality of work that was coming home. Very different from last year.
I delved a little deeper into the spelling issue and the principal told me that kids didn't need to learn how to spell because they can just use spellcheck! He said spelling isn't even important enough to be on the report card in the upper grades. He also told me that public school cannot meet the needs of a gifted child, and that my son is ahead so I should not worry and everything would "even out by third grade."
The teacher, principal, assistant principal, and curriculum director all assured me that "word study" would teach conventional spelling of irregular words. Because I am a former teacher, I knew that it would not. I found an author who also was concerned about spelling not being explicitly taught, and I voiced my concerns. He wrote an article about us and our decision to homeschool:
Spelling was just the tip that led to opening the whole thing up. Reading and math were not ok, either. As I asked questions I kept getting more and more dismayed.
Word Study IS spelling. It is just a more effective approach than traditional spelling lists, which really don't work at all. I've used word study and it was definitely more effective, plus in general more educational than a random list. And it IS the explicit teaching of spelling - more explicit than the old spelling list method. If you are a former teacher and don't know about word study and what it actually is, then you are way behind the times. Most likely the principal didn't give a good explanation because he himself doesn't understand it. Most principals don't have a clue about instructional methods, but they try to pretend to.
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