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Reading and spelling


newbieoftwo
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I just got off the phone of a heated conversation with my younger sister that is working on her bachelors in education and plans to teach 1st or 2nd grade. According to what she has learned, reading and spelling are vastly different and completely unrelated :glare:

 

I disagree.

 

Any other views???

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They *are* different, although I don't know if I'd say "vastly."

 

Spelling rules and phonics rules are not the same. They're connected, but not the same.

 

How many people just on this forum have been puzzled because their children can read well but their spelling is awful?

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The argument began over 1st grade writing assignments. She was telling me about the 1st grade class she worked with today and a student needed help completing his sentence because he lost his train of thought each time he tried to spell a word. I asked why they didn't focus more on spelling before writing or do copywork? She said copywork is highly discouraged and that they are working on only spelling the 100 sight words that are required for 1st grade :001_huh: She also said that the focus is more on sentence structure than spelling :001_huh:

 

My experience may be different as ds is picking up spelling informally just by focusing on phonics reading. He may just be a natural speller, I'm not sure yet as we are just doing CVC words.

 

I simply mean that focusing on phonics instruction and then moving on to the spelling rules that go with the sounds they previously learned (in Kindergarten) seems more rational than learning spelling from a sight word list.

 

She then told me I had no idea what I was talking about :lol:

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They *are* different, although I don't know if I'd say "vastly."

 

Spelling rules and phonics rules are not the same. They're connected, but not the same.

 

How many people just on this forum have been puzzled because their children can read well but their spelling is awful?

 

This is what I meant. They are different, but still connected. A child could still be good at one and not at the other. In her opinion, you take a completely different approach to reading than you would when teaching spelling and they are not related in any way.

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The argument began over 1st grade writing assignments. She was telling me about the 1st grade class she worked with today and a student needed help completing his sentence because he lost his train of thought each time he tried to spell a word. I asked why they didn't focus more on spelling before writing or do copywork? She said copywork is highly discouraged and that they are working on only spelling the 100 sight words that are required for 1st grade :001_huh: She also said that the focus is more on sentence structure than spelling :001_huh:

 

My experience may be different as ds is picking up spelling informally just by focusing on phonics reading. He may just be a natural speller, I'm not sure yet as we are just doing CVC words.

 

I simply mean that focusing on phonics instruction and then moving on to the spelling rules that go with the sounds they previously learned (in Kindergarten) seems more rational than learning spelling from a sight word list.

 

She then told me I had no idea what I was talking about :lol:

Although I still agree with her that phonics and spelling are not the same, she has way more issues than that. She doesn't have a clear understanding about the importance of phonics in the first place.

 

Children who are very visual tend to be better spellers, because they *see* those words in their heads when they go to write them (I'm that way). That doesn't necessarily mean they understand all the spelling rules, and most children will need to be taught those rules specifically, whether they read well or not.

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Maybe I will have to call and apologize.

Don't rush into that. :D

 

Phonics is not used very much in my local school district and my sister doesn't understand my obsession with it :lol: But that is why I am homeschooling :001_smile:

This is something we should always remember when reading reviews of certain reading products: Public school teachers, and parents whose dc are in public school, generally do NOT have a good understanding of what phonics is and why it's important, so when they rave about something and how well it teaches "phonics," they could be totally off, KWIM?

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I think spelling & reading are 2 different sides of the same coin. Spelling is encoding the verbal English language (writing down the letters that correspond to sounds to form a written word). Reading is decoding written English language (looking at the written word and knowing how to verbalize the sounds represented by the letter combinations). They are different, but also very related.

 

I guess I think it's both. Certainly they are related, but kids are often natural at one and terrible at the other. Usually if that's the case they are good readers and bad spellers. I don't know if there are many good spellers who are bad readers because natural spellers seem to usually be natural readers.

 

I think it is most practical under normal circumstances to teach reading/phonics before you focus on spelling for developmental reasons. Likewise, I think it's wise to focus on spelling before you start doing too much writing.

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They *are* different, although I don't know if I'd say "vastly."

 

Spelling rules and phonics rules are not the same. They're connected, but not the same.

 

How many people just on this forum have been puzzled because their children can read well but their spelling is awful?

 

:iagree:

 

If you can, find Andrew Pudewa's Spelling and the brain. We keep spelling totally separate now, and ds is finally improving with spelling.

 

They are different. He is a 5th grader. Last spring (before we started PZ) we had him tested. His spelling was high 2nd grade and his reading comprehension was mid 9th grade.

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I guess I am seeing this skewed as I have a natural speller that has picked up spelling through his reading (and is better at it!). I now see that spelling can be a completely separate subject that requires completely separate teaching.

 

I will call to apologize :D

 

And then continue our constant argument over copywork vs original writing in the lower grades :lol:

 

Oh the joy of having a sister as a teacher :tongue_smilie:

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