A scary POV (in honor of Halloween): You look through your child’s notebook, and their stories are FILLED with misspelled words.
Scary right? Because, honestly, what do you DO with all of those misspelled words?
On one hand you don’t want to CRUSH their spirit. Hello! Look at all those pages of writing!
But on the other hand, strong spelling skills matter. You want to make progress on both fronts.
We get where you’re coming from here! We’ve spent YEARS researching and troubleshooting best practices for helping our own children and our students with spelling.
Here's what we have found works best:
1. Teach spelling as its own subject.
It’s a myth that if kids just keep reading a lot all of their spelling struggles will disappear. Spelling needs to be taught explicitly. The best spelling programs are ones that focus on teaching spelling in word families. We like Words Their Way.
2. Encourage children to write with courage.
When children are terrified of spelling words wrong, they write timidly, sticking to the handful of words they are confident in spelling. But we want children to use words more courageously than that! Even if they have no idea how to spell it, if it is the “right word,” we want them to go for it.
A new thought when you see a notebook filled with misspelled words: WOW! They are stretching for the words they need! Awesome!
3. Edit spelling for audiences.
There is no need to correct a bunch of spelling words if the piece of writing is staying in the notebook. Save the editing for pieces of writing that are going out to an audience.* This is when they really NEED help on spelling correctly because we want our audience to enjoy the writing and not to be distracted by mistakes.
*This, of course, is a good reminder of the importance of regular publishing! Children need a reason to polish up a piece. And–they need the excitement that comes from sharing with an audience.
Try these ideas:
1. If there are MANY words spelled wrong in a piece, help them choose 5-10 to put on a personal spelling list. Let them circle the words that really bug them and they want to learn NOW.
2. As for the rest of the words, go ahead and fix them. You can be the editor-in-chief here. This is what editors do.
3. They should keep this personal spelling list handy and OWN these 5-10 words by spelling them correctly on their writing moving forward. They can add words to this list ANYTIME they need or want help with a word! It’s very cool to watch this list G R O W !
If you take this smart, intentional approach, your children will become stronger spellers in a way that makes them want to keep writing. That’s nothing to be scared of! Count those misspelled words, and what you do with them, as a big writing win!
We hope your writers create some BOO-tiful stories!
Write On!
