Learning to Spell

I found the discussion this past week related to spelling instruction and the use of spelling inventories very interesting.  I, like others in the class, consider myself a fairly poor natural speller.  However, I don’t see much if any correlation to my ability to spell and my ability to read.  While I have the skills necessary to decode hundreds of thousands of words, I am afraid that it must be a different brain process that is involved in recreating or spelling words.  The discussion in class got me thinking about spelling instruction.

I can honestly say that I don’t remember much about my own spelling instruction as a child.  I think that I remember doing many phonics-based worksheets and I remember having spelling lists, but not much beyond that.  My spelling lists must have been based around spelling rules but I don’t really remember if that was the case.  I don’t think that I spent much time of the spelling rules or exceptions as a child and I think that may have something to do with my spelling today.  Well, that and an almost total reliance on spell check which has made me even lazier when it comes to spelling!

I also got thinking about my spelling instruction as a K teacher.  I am constantly asked by parents if they should correct their child’s spelling or just let it go.  I also am asked how to respond to questions from their children about how to spell something.  I have always encouraged parents to help their children to sound out the words and to let the kindergarteners get their ideas down in any way possible before worrying about spelling.  I don’t want the students to get discouraged when they try something if it doesn’t come out “right” so when they ask me if it is spelled right I help them to make sure they have all the sounds they hear in the word.  As mentioned in class, as sight words are introduced I do begin to make the children accountable for those words and other words taught in class.  I think it is hard to judge exactly when students need to start being held accountable for spelling, but I do think that when a rule has been addressed in class it should be used by students.  There should be some sort of balance and eventually the invented spelling has to obviously be phased out as students master spelling concepts. 

         What can we do as teachers though when students master the concepts at different rates?  I continue to find it difficult in whole group lessons to have somewhat different standards for different children.  While I speak with the children individually, they seem to know that for some students it is ok to get down 1 or 2 sounds in a word while for others I expect more effort because they have mastered more decoding skills.  Since we are not having spelling lists each week and spelling inventories are still a little beyond them, how can I successfully hold some children who are ready accountable for certain spelling rules and allow others the freedom to explore inventive spelling more?