Spelling and Handwriting in Spelling and Handwriting in the Language Arts Classroomthe Language Arts Classroom
Chapter 9
Why teach spelling and Why teach spelling and penmanship?penmanship?
Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation demand the most difficult constant attention of all the language arts.
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.
Children receive criticism for invented spelling.
Students do not learn to self-initiate their own editing.
Words in the English language are difficult to spell.
– No one-to-one relationship between phonemes and graphemes
– Few spellings have unique sounds
– There are 500 different letter combinations.
Spelling and writing conventions have been altered by changes form Old and Middle to Modern English.
75% of the new words added to our language are borrowed from other languages and the spellings are foreign.
Positioning is important in spelling and handwriting.
Stages in Spelling Stages in Spelling Development Development
Precommunicative Early Phonetic Spelling Phonetic or Letter Name Transitional Correct Spelling
How to Teach Spelling, How to Teach Spelling, Capitalization, and Capitalization, and
PunctuationPunctuation 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
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
– Use theme words
– Group for similar problems
– Can work at own pace Basic word list instruction
– divide 3,000 most frequently used words into lists
– one hour of instruction
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
How to teach handwritingHow to teach handwriting The need for legible handwriting has increased 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
ManuscriptManuscript
Requires less small muscle coordination
Looks like typeset Teach lowercase then
uppercase Teach by type of
stroke family
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
Cursive WritingCursive Writing
Strokes of looping, retracing, rounding, and closing are taught separately.
Teach less complicated letters first Use short words, then go to longer Teach proper pencil grip, correct paper
placement, and correct posture
Left handed writersLeft handed writers
Hand preference makes no difference in level of success in life.
They push the pencil rather than pull it. Alter the way they hold pencil, the position of
the paper, and how they form letters Grippers help
Calligraphy is fun to learn.
How to improve penmanshipHow to improve penmanship
Practice downstrokes, upstrokes , circles and slants in cursive writing.
One-story, two-story and basement letters Assess for problems and remediate
Teaching Spelling demons Teaching Spelling demons and Writing conventionsand Writing conventions
Post a Spelling Demon chart Use configuration Use class writing samples Cartoon strips with capital letters and
punctuation whited out Editing committee spelling rules chart Explore how punctuation mark began Audible Punctuation system Computer software
Building punctuation and Building punctuation and capitalization skillscapitalization skills
This should rise in importance during the editing and revising
Myths, legends, folktales, and proverbs develop these skills because these stories have a wide variety of punctuation.
Historical fiction
Helping Multicultural ChildrenHelping Multicultural Children
Put pictures or write word in first language beside it
Teach survival words
Self-Assessment of Editng Self-Assessment of Editng and Small Group Discussionsand Small Group Discussions
Helpful for students to evaluate the strategies discussed
Especially valuable in editing during writing and after discussions
Write annotations to attach to their grade card
Technical supportTechnical support
Hypertext computerized way of linking information
HyperCard-supports hypertext Enables immediate cross-referencing, help,
support, and shifts in approaches to a topic to meet student’s purposes and pursuits
Teaching word patterns
– Word Wizard
– Use morphemes to help spelling
– teach related words
Spelling journalsSpelling journals
Identify words that they misspelled- 3 to 5 a week
Use for spelling assessment
Taking spelling homeTaking spelling home
Select one difficult word to learn and teach their parents. Create mnemonic device to go with it.
Parents suggest words that are difficult for them.
Make a spelling demon list