So what about spelling....?
Linda
I know the usual question is 'so what about Math?' but I need some guidance on this one please.
DS 13 decided to keep a 'Travel Journal' on our recent vacation to a game park. This is something I do, so he thought it would be good to have a book to look back on and remember his vacation. (No coercion, honestly!!) This was his entry on one of the days:
"didn'en slepe went in the heppo pools sor crocadials we sor cheat and lion sor two water hols they wer dri got to low sardi came bach ladz a round went to a brid hide slept."
This boy is 13!! Surely he should be able to communicate better than this in writing? I have made no comments to him about this, but I am worried that he will never learn to write and spell without some input!
He can read, but does not choose to do so every day. He prefers Asterix to 'normal text'. He enjoys being read to, which i do often.
Any ideas on this for me please?
DS 13 decided to keep a 'Travel Journal' on our recent vacation to a game park. This is something I do, so he thought it would be good to have a book to look back on and remember his vacation. (No coercion, honestly!!) This was his entry on one of the days:
"didn'en slepe went in the heppo pools sor crocadials we sor cheat and lion sor two water hols they wer dri got to low sardi came bach ladz a round went to a brid hide slept."
This boy is 13!! Surely he should be able to communicate better than this in writing? I have made no comments to him about this, but I am worried that he will never learn to write and spell without some input!
He can read, but does not choose to do so every day. He prefers Asterix to 'normal text'. He enjoys being read to, which i do often.
Any ideas on this for me please?
swissarmy_wife
--- In [email protected], "Linda" <wolrablk@...> wrote:
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This was his entry on one of the days:
Have you asked him? Depending on which of my children, I might just ask them. "Hey, I really enjoyed reading your journal today, but I had trouble with a few words. Could you tell me what they are?" That would be enough for my oldest. He is very sensitive to me pointing our mistakes.
Maybe you could just ask him if he'd like some assistance with his spelling? The only word I actually, haven't been able to figure out is "sardi".
I'm smiling because you MUST be from the Boston or maybe New York area? "Sor" for "saw". <G> I can't remember which, but one of those accents actually SAYS "I sor it".
-Heather
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> DS 13 decided to keep a 'Travel Journal' on our recent vacation to a game park. This is something I do, so he thought it would be good to have a book to look back on and remember his vacation. (No coercion, honestly!!)******Cool! We (well I) kee photo journals of our trips. We love to travel around.
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This was his entry on one of the days:
> "didn'en slepe went in the heppo pools sor crocadials we sor cheat and lion sor two water hols they wer dri got to low sardi came bach ladz a round went to a brid hide slept."******Who is the journal for? Is the journal for his own personal use? I know that when my oldest writes something that is for himself he tends to care much less about spelling and punctuation. But when he writes something that people will see or in a game on the internet he asks me a lot of questions about spelling and things.
Have you asked him? Depending on which of my children, I might just ask them. "Hey, I really enjoyed reading your journal today, but I had trouble with a few words. Could you tell me what they are?" That would be enough for my oldest. He is very sensitive to me pointing our mistakes.
Maybe you could just ask him if he'd like some assistance with his spelling? The only word I actually, haven't been able to figure out is "sardi".
I'm smiling because you MUST be from the Boston or maybe New York area? "Sor" for "saw". <G> I can't remember which, but one of those accents actually SAYS "I sor it".
-Heather
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Joyce Fetteroll
On May 28, 2009, at 1:01 AM, Linda wrote:
of standards and what he "should" be able to do, the happier the both
of you will be.
There are oodles of adults who went through school and spelling
programs who can't spell. Pressure does more harm than good.
The biggest jump
communicating with himself. If he can read it, his writing is serving
it's purpose.
Once he starts writing to others: IMs, message boards, emails, tweets
and so forth, he'll have reason to spell in ways that others can
understand because he'll know what it's like to try to read other's
misspellings ;-) If your computer has automatic spellchecking, that
will give him a big boost since he'll have immediate feedback on
misspelled words.
It's hard to wait for them to have a reason. But when we learn
because we need something, we learn far better than we learn when
someone else is pushing it in. Wait for him to need it and pull it in.
In the meantime take up a hobby so you have less time to focus on him
and worry ;-)
in written language, he's picking up a language you may know little
about. All the icons on your computer are picture language. They say
far more and express it far more effectively than words.
Scott McCloud and Will Eisner have written extensively about the
language of pictures and how they work with text. It's a language
that will be far more useful in the future than the past.
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> This boy is 13!!That's your problem there, not his spelling! ;-) The more you let go
of standards and what he "should" be able to do, the happier the both
of you will be.
There are oodles of adults who went through school and spelling
programs who can't spell. Pressure does more harm than good.
The biggest jump
> Surely he should be able to communicate better than this in writing?Who is he communicating with? If it's a journal for himself then he's
communicating with himself. If he can read it, his writing is serving
it's purpose.
Once he starts writing to others: IMs, message boards, emails, tweets
and so forth, he'll have reason to spell in ways that others can
understand because he'll know what it's like to try to read other's
misspellings ;-) If your computer has automatic spellchecking, that
will give him a big boost since he'll have immediate feedback on
misspelled words.
> I have made no comments to him about this, but I am worried that heWhich works really well in school, doesn't it?
> will never learn to write and spell without some input!
It's hard to wait for them to have a reason. But when we learn
because we need something, we learn far better than we learn when
someone else is pushing it in. Wait for him to need it and pull it in.
In the meantime take up a hobby so you have less time to focus on him
and worry ;-)
> He can read, but does not choose to do so every day. He prefersPictures have their own language. While you're focusing on his lack
> Asterix to 'normal text'. He enjoys being read to, which i do often.
> Any ideas on this for me please?
in written language, he's picking up a language you may know little
about. All the icons on your computer are picture language. They say
far more and express it far more effectively than words.
Scott McCloud and Will Eisner have written extensively about the
language of pictures and how they work with text. It's a language
that will be far more useful in the future than the past.
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
G Wilhelm
I had to giggle at this one because my now 17yo dd couldn't spell (or be bothered to spell, more accurately) until she started IMing and started her own web magazine at 14yo. Among many other words, I always had to spell "Happy Birthday" for her... Even though she had been making her own cards(drawing/writing) and baking cakes (decorating, etc) since she was 3!!! We laugh now about the **hundreds** of times that I spelled those two words for her (I wrote it out on a big board, but she preferred me to tell her). Now, *she* tends to get annoyed w/ people who don't spell properly and I have to gently remind her to be tolerant, they're just emailing/texting and some people just have a harder time w spelling...
I know that this isn't exactly on point, but I stumbled across this web site recently and wanted to share. A man w/ cerebral palsy found his way to communicate/draw beautiful pictures with a typewriter. I thought it was just incredible..
http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/index.html
G
I know that this isn't exactly on point, but I stumbled across this web site recently and wanted to share. A man w/ cerebral palsy found his way to communicate/draw beautiful pictures with a typewriter. I thought it was just incredible..
http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/index.html
G
----- Original Message -----
From: Joyce Fetteroll
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] So what about spelling....?
On May 28, 2009, at 1:01 AM, Linda wrote:
> This boy is 13!!
That's your problem there, not his spelling! ;-) The more you let go
of standards and what he "should" be able to do, the happier the both
of you will be.
There are oodles of adults who went through school and spelling
programs who can't spell. Pressure does more harm than good.
The biggest jump
> Surely he should be able to communicate better than this in writing?
Who is he communicating with? If it's a journal for himself then he's
communicating with himself. If he can read it, his writing is serving
it's purpose.
Once he starts writing to others: IMs, message boards, emails, tweets
and so forth, he'll have reason to spell in ways that others can
understand because he'll know what it's like to try to read other's
misspellings ;-) If your computer has automatic spellchecking, that
will give him a big boost since he'll have immediate feedback on
misspelled words.
> I have made no comments to him about this, but I am worried that he
> will never learn to write and spell without some input!
Which works really well in school, doesn't it?
It's hard to wait for them to have a reason. But when we learn
because we need something, we learn far better than we learn when
someone else is pushing it in. Wait for him to need it and pull it in.
In the meantime take up a hobby so you have less time to focus on him
and worry ;-)
> He can read, but does not choose to do so every day. He prefers
> Asterix to 'normal text'. He enjoys being read to, which i do often.
> Any ideas on this for me please?
Pictures have their own language. While you're focusing on his lack
in written language, he's picking up a language you may know little
about. All the icons on your computer are picture language. They say
far more and express it far more effectively than words.
Scott McCloud and Will Eisner have written extensively about the
language of pictures and how they work with text. It's a language
that will be far more useful in the future than the past.
Joyce
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
BRIAN POLIKOWSKY
> This boy is 13!!-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My native language is Portuguese. A pretty straight forward spelling language. Its a hard language to learn because of verbs but not on spelling.
I was a great student that learned to read by myself early on and that got As on grammar all my life ( in Portuguese ).
I have re-read some of journals from when I was around that age and I did make many mistakes spelling simple words.
Maybe a little less or creative than your son but Portuguese is not English!
I think you are expecting too much of him.
My 6 year old asks for help spelling and he does like to spell correctly.
He likes me to point it out. Some kids don't. Have you asked your son?
Alex Polikowsky
http://polykow.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingmn/
________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
The Coffee Goddess
My daughter loves to write...and has never been a great speller. I ask if she'll read me what she wrote, and then I can hear what she really meant instead of guessing or looking at her writing and saying "what a mess!". I always told her--what's most important is getting your thoughts onto the paper. You can always fix the spelling later, but if you don't get your thoughts down, there won't be anything to fix!
When she was 15, she got a laptop that had automatic spell-check (by underlining in red misspellings), and it within 6 months improved her spelling by 1000%. She'll never be a natural speller like some people are, but SO WHAT? She loves to write and share her work, and she writes prolifically and passionately--and how much more important is that to her than being reminded how BAD she is at spelling?
Dana
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
When she was 15, she got a laptop that had automatic spell-check (by underlining in red misspellings), and it within 6 months improved her spelling by 1000%. She'll never be a natural speller like some people are, but SO WHAT? She loves to write and share her work, and she writes prolifically and passionately--and how much more important is that to her than being reminded how BAD she is at spelling?
Dana
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Amanda Mayan
Just to put your mind at ease regarding spelling..
My husband is 42. He has lived in the US for 10 years, and speaks English
(his 3rd language) totally fluently and with barely an accent. He is a
successful entrepreneurial businessman (who incidentally never went to
college and barely graduated high-school). There are no native English
speakers in his office, so I proof all of the important documents that are
produced.none the less, he probably send out at least 30-50 un proofed
emails a day.sometimes he runs them through spell check, but even then does
not pick up on spell check choosing the wrong version of a spelling/ word.
When I see his emails my frequent remark is "you actually sent this out???
To people you do/ want to do business with you???" Regardless, this has
never seemed to hinder his ability to earn an income!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
My husband is 42. He has lived in the US for 10 years, and speaks English
(his 3rd language) totally fluently and with barely an accent. He is a
successful entrepreneurial businessman (who incidentally never went to
college and barely graduated high-school). There are no native English
speakers in his office, so I proof all of the important documents that are
produced.none the less, he probably send out at least 30-50 un proofed
emails a day.sometimes he runs them through spell check, but even then does
not pick up on spell check choosing the wrong version of a spelling/ word.
When I see his emails my frequent remark is "you actually sent this out???
To people you do/ want to do business with you???" Regardless, this has
never seemed to hinder his ability to earn an income!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Linda
Thank you all for you insights and suggestions, and to you, Joyce ,for your wisdom- you always put things into such perspective for me!I am, in fact, making a big deal about nothing!