If
you want students to have the correct spelling of words they use
in their writing, you have to teach them how to avoid the errors
that spell-check won't find: correctly spelled but wrong words.
There are four categories of these misspellings:
-
Typos — such as a dress instead of address
or whore instead of where.
-
Mis-heard words — as in "it’s a doggy-dog
world."
-
Homophones— words that sound alike but are spelled
differently, like war and wore or its and
it’s.
-
Homonyms — includes homophones and words spelled
alike but pronounced differently, like read and read.
To help students eliminate these errors and achieve correct spelling
of the words they use, requires two different approaches.
1) Treat typos and mis-heard words as editing issues, not as spelling
problems.
In most cases, typos are careless mistakes that students should
find when they edit their work. Penalize typos in a final draft
as writing errors since editing is an important part of the
writing process.
Just as you should encourage student to ask "does that make
sense?" as a check on their
reading comprehension, you ought to encourage them to ask "does
that make sense?" about things they hear.
When I heard McDonald's advertising its "99-cent plastic cheeseburger,"
I was pretty sure what they were saying wasn't what I was hearing.
When I heard the ad the third time, I realized the promotion was
for the company's classic cheeseburger.
Students often hear different words than speakers use because
their experience is limited. For example, my students have told
me about "the wind chill factory" and assured me that
"a bird in the hand is worth two of George Bush."
Although these misunderstandings are more creative and possibly
more accurate than what was said, the fact remains that the students
did not understand correctly what they heard.
It's good practice to introduce students to references like dictionaries
of idioms so they can check out things that don't make good
sense. Using references is part of the editing process. It's also
a literacy skill.
Collaborative editing is also useful as a check on misunderstanding
of oral expressions. If you have students whose first language is
not English, working in pairs or teams with native speakers may
make them comfortable asking about expressions they don't understand.
2) Treat mistakes in use of homophones and homonyms as writing
mechanics errors.
Students usually can spell homonyms,
but they get them mixed up when they write. The
problem is not the correct spelling of words but identifying the
correct word to spell.
Teach students how to distinguish the uses of the easily confused
words by concentrating on a few
errors at a time, perhaps three to five a year.
Homonym errors are highly resistant to correction, so prepare
to spend as much as a year on a handful of errors.
Remember that telling students isn't teaching. You
need to use more than just words to make the spelling-meaning connection
for students who are not highly verbal. Look for ways to use colors,
pictures, hands-on activities, or music to make those connections.
Make students responsible
for eliminating the errors until they disappear entirely from
all students' final drafts.
Grading habitual misspellings
If students misspell words on your "points off" list,
the should have their grade reduced or capped at a certain
level for failure to measure up. However, if you want students to
continue trying to write better, don't fail a student for just
writing mechanics issues.
Correct spelling of words is important, but the content of the
writing should always be the focus of your grading. When any
error prevents readers from understanding content, then the error
is a problem.
created 13-Aug-2008; updated 07-Sep-2008
