Spelling
Yep, I know my friends will think I'm on a rant about Margaret Spelling. Not today, sorry. Although I will always appreciate the great humor Bush showed us when he replaced Jon Ryter with Margaret Spelling =:-)
I'm thinking about this week and the spelling test. All my kids made 100% - it was the "ar" sound - and the words were fairly easy - jar, park, dark, harm, etc. The only challenge world was sparkle, and the kids got that one. That's cool. So why write about it? Well, after the test of these words we've been studying all week, I pulled out a story about a bear. And, you guessed it - every single student said bee-"ar".
Reminds me of a story I use with teachers a lot. Lewis & Clark kept journals, and they've been published as they were originally written. It's fun to read these - this is before "standard" english was even a thought. It's not uncommon in those journals to find the same word spelled 4 or 5 diferent ways on the same page. If you're reading orally it's no prob, but for a new reader of our language - what a weird trip. I know - you want verification. One date I have here that I read today is August 23, 1804 - there's 3 different spellings for Buffalo, and none of them match the one we use today (Buffalow,Buffelow, and Buffaloe). This is from August 1: "a Cool fine eveninge Musquetors verry troublesom, the Praries Contain Cheres, Apple, Grapes, Currents, Rasp burry, Gooseberris Hastlenuts and a great Variety of Plants & flours not Common to the U S. What a field for a Botents [botanist] and a natirless [naturalist]". Writing teachers should love this excerpt from ayear earlier: ". . . Mr. Blaze Cenas being unacquainted with the management of the gun suffered her to discharge herself accedentaly the ball passed through the hat of a woman about 40 yards distanc cuting her temple. . .shee fell instantly and the blood gusing from her temple. . ."
Anyway, I wrote this to help my second grade students understand that rules are made to be broken: "The bear that will care for his lair must look for a XchearX XchareX chair! He needs XprearX XprareX XprairX prayer!
How about this list?
deer dear (how dare you?)
beer bear
cheer chair
steer stare
etc
I'm thinking about this week and the spelling test. All my kids made 100% - it was the "ar" sound - and the words were fairly easy - jar, park, dark, harm, etc. The only challenge world was sparkle, and the kids got that one. That's cool. So why write about it? Well, after the test of these words we've been studying all week, I pulled out a story about a bear. And, you guessed it - every single student said bee-"ar".
Reminds me of a story I use with teachers a lot. Lewis & Clark kept journals, and they've been published as they were originally written. It's fun to read these - this is before "standard" english was even a thought. It's not uncommon in those journals to find the same word spelled 4 or 5 diferent ways on the same page. If you're reading orally it's no prob, but for a new reader of our language - what a weird trip. I know - you want verification. One date I have here that I read today is August 23, 1804 - there's 3 different spellings for Buffalo, and none of them match the one we use today (Buffalow,Buffelow, and Buffaloe). This is from August 1: "a Cool fine eveninge Musquetors verry troublesom, the Praries Contain Cheres, Apple, Grapes, Currents, Rasp burry, Gooseberris Hastlenuts and a great Variety of Plants & flours not Common to the U S. What a field for a Botents [botanist] and a natirless [naturalist]". Writing teachers should love this excerpt from ayear earlier: ". . . Mr. Blaze Cenas being unacquainted with the management of the gun suffered her to discharge herself accedentaly the ball passed through the hat of a woman about 40 yards distanc cuting her temple. . .shee fell instantly and the blood gusing from her temple. . ."
Anyway, I wrote this to help my second grade students understand that rules are made to be broken: "The bear that will care for his lair must look for a XchearX XchareX chair! He needs XprearX XprareX XprairX prayer!
How about this list?
deer dear (how dare you?)
beer bear
cheer chair
steer stare
etc
posted by Cholla Needles | 8:14 PM
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