Students' responsibility: Correct spelling of words they misspell
The
only way to achieve correct spelling of words students actually
use in their writing is to make students responsible for correcting
their spelling errors.
Forget those lists of spelling bee words. The truly hard
spelling words are those students misspell when they write.
Some misspellings don't confuse
Research shows that most people read by looking at the first letters
of words and their length, not by the actual spelling.
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So Sammy can get away with writing adress instead of address
and Susie can get by with typing "thank you for brining that
to my attention" because the readers understand what was meant.
Of course, the reader may think Sammy is dumb and Susie doesn't
pay attention to detail, but that's not the same thing as not being
able to understand what Sammy and Susie meant.
Moreover, if Susie and Sammy use spell-check, the reader need never
see those gaffes.
Spell check and editing skills help
By the time Josh and Caitlin hit sixth grade they know the
correct spelling of words like hear and bear,
but when they hit college they are still using the wrong spelling
in their written work. Teachers in California may be willing to
"bare with" their students, but it's way too cold in
Central New York for me to do that.
Instead of treating those homonym
errors as spelling problems, treat them as editing issues.
Most of the time, they are the result of sloppy editing
rather than bad spelling. You must
Teach students how to edit.
Insist they edit their own work.
Penalize failure to edit their work.
Dont expect perfection, just competence. Even the best of
editors lets a typo slip by sometimes.
"I don't correct your writing"
You
may feel they you are not doing your duty if you don't circle
every misspelling or count off for every typo. I used to feel
that way, too. I spent a huge amount of time making corrections
my students ignored.
I finally realized that the most effective way to deal with misspelling
was to
Limit my focus to a few selected spelling errors that
crop up repeatedly.
Hold students responsible for eliminating those errors.
This strategy was more effective in achieving correct spelling
of words in student writing than correcting every misspelling myself.
Having less grading to do was a nice bonus.
Don't teach stupid stuff
Teaching material because it is interesting, fun, or uses the latest technology is pedagogically unsound.
In lay terms, that means spending valuable teaching time doing anything that
doesn't move you closer to your course objectives is stupid.