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