ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602190058 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
FEAR OF SPELLING can keep kids from expressing themselves, some teachers say.
Some young children are afraid to write because they can't spell many words.
They worry they'll make a mistake. If schools insist on correct spelling during the early grades, many pupils never will take a risk and express themselves on paper, Roanoke teacher Linda LeFever says.
"They'll just write short sentences and simple thoughts. They will use only words they know how to spell," says LeFever, a third-grade teacher at Oakland Elementary and former reading consultant for a textbook company.
LeFever allows her pupils to use "invented spelling," one of the most controversial aspects of the whole-language philosophy, to overcome this inhibition.
Invented, or temporary, spelling is children's early attempt to match letters to the sounds they hear in words. To encourage writing, whole-language teachers allow children to use their own spelling until they learn the correct spelling.
An example would be: "Hln is a sr hd. Gz ft in the nt. I like Hln." This is one kindergartner's spelling for the following sentences: "Halloween is a scary holiday. Ghosts float in the night. I like Halloween."
LeFever says she doesn't use the term "whole language" any longer because it is misused and misunderstood, particularly by critics.
She describes her instructional approach as "total language," saying it includes phonics and many aspects of more traditional instructional approaches, as well as the whole language philosophy.
"I have never stopped using phonics. I teach phonics in context. The only difference Is that I don't use work sheets with drills," she says.
"I wish the critics would come into the classrooms and see what is being taught. We teach phonics, spelling, punctuation and grammar."
But like whole-language teachers, LeFever doesn't demand correct spelling in the initial draft of young children's writing. Some parents have become upset when they discover that their children's misspelled words have not been corrected by the teacher.
Proponents of whole language say it's to be expected that spelling may not be correct because children are writing before learning the traditional phonics approach. Even kindergartners and first-graders are writing in the whole-language approach.
In pure phonics, reading is considered to be a prerequisite for writing. But reading and writing are taught concurrently in whole language.
"I tell the children to spill their guts first. We want to get them to write," LeFever says. "I tell them that spelling is important, but I try to get them to want to write and take a risk."
After they get their ideas on paper, she says, they can correct their spelling. The correct spelling will come naturally as children write more, she says.
LeFever says spelling is best taught in the context of writing and reading - not as a separate skill. The misspelled words in children's writing can become spelling words for the class, she says.
In the traditional approach, lists of spelling words for a class may have no connection to the children's reading, she says. "Everything is connected in the total-language philosophy."
At Oak Grove Elementary School in Roanoke County, teacher Mary Alcoke also allows her first-graders to use invented spelling when they begin writing.
Alcoke tells the children to write words as they sound, even if they don't know how to spell them. "I want them to write, to be creative, to get their ideas on paper," she says.
If teachers insist on correct spelling in the first draft, the young children will use a limited vocabulary and write simple sentences, she says. Before the pupils can "publish" and display their writings to the class, they must have correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization, she says.
Alcoke says her pupils are required to spell "high-frequency" words correctly in the initial draft. These are words - such as boy, girl, man, in, the, go, hat, cat and old - that appear often in stories and poems that children read.
On one side of her room, Alcoke has a "word wall," where high-frequency words are posted. Six words are added to the wall each week.
The children are tested regularly on the spelling of words on the wall and are also required to keep a spelling journal. Proponents of whole language claim the invented spellings show that children are developing an understanding of the phonetic system.
Many parents fear their children will never learn how to spell correctly when they see the misspelled words.
But whole-language advocates say children who write with invented spelling will learn conventional spelling more quickly than they would with traditional teaching methods. They say the spelling will become correct as children are exposed to print and do more reading.
Alcoke says she tells her pupils that correct spelling is the ultimate goal, and she expects it as they progress through the school year.
The effort to get children writing early seems to work. Several children in Alcoke's class say they like writing better than reading.
"You get to make up stories about your favorite things," says Meredith Haynes, 6. "It's fun. I've written about my cat and other pets."
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