When a student approaches you and says, "How do I spell fish?" Your first response might be, "f-i-s-h" or maybe " /f/ /i/ /sh/" or possibly you might say to them in you teacher voice "go stretch out like you've learned!" Yes, I have most likely done a little of each of these! However, as I am maturing in my teaching and learning so many great strategies from other teachers and presenters I've learned some great tips to help those kiddos that want you to help with their spellings.
It's important to remember that writing time is actually a time of problem solving and thinking. During writing students are able to focus and mature on both problem solving and thinking! For young learners it's highly important to give students a concrete way to problem solve during writing. There are so many awesome ways to do this! Also, more than just having a concrete way to problem solve children should also be encouraged to think out loud during writing. Thinking out loud is extremely important for students to make the connection to their writings.
Remember that invented spelling is A-Ok! However, there are some words that should be considered no excuse words. This list includes; a, of, was, and, that, in, the, to, I, is, it, & he. Now in Kindergarten it's likely your students will not come in knowing these words and depending on how you introduce your sight words it's possible they might know all of them until the end of Kindergarten. Another important aspect to writing is writing patterns! If children know word families they will have an advantage when writing unknown words. About 1/2 of the high frequency words follow word families.
If a student is asking for help to spell a word it's usually a good sign that they are conscious of their writings and want to succeed and please their teacher. However, as a teacher is can become very overwhelming when your students become so worried about the spelling of a word that they forget about the rest of their story.
When conferencing with a student during writing think about giving 2 praises and 1 prompt. We know our young writers are super proud of their work and it's our job to commend them on that! Okay now to some strategies! I am going to list them for easy access!!
- Give them a song!
Sound It OutTo the tune of: If you’re happy and you know it
If you have a new word, sound it out.
If you have a new word, sound it out.
If you have new word,
Then slowly say the word.
If you have a new word, sound it out.
An alternate version to the song according to how you phrase it in your room could be 'stretch it out.'
It's important to remember that writing time is actually a time of problem solving and thinking. During writing students are able to focus and mature on both problem solving and thinking! For young learners it's highly important to give students a concrete way to problem solve during writing. There are so many awesome ways to do this! Also, more than just having a concrete way to problem solve children should also be encouraged to think out loud during writing. Thinking out loud is extremely important for students to make the connection to their writings.
Remember that invented spelling is A-Ok! However, there are some words that should be considered no excuse words. This list includes; a, of, was, and, that, in, the, to, I, is, it, & he. Now in Kindergarten it's likely your students will not come in knowing these words and depending on how you introduce your sight words it's possible they might know all of them until the end of Kindergarten. Another important aspect to writing is writing patterns! If children know word families they will have an advantage when writing unknown words. About 1/2 of the high frequency words follow word families.
If a student is asking for help to spell a word it's usually a good sign that they are conscious of their writings and want to succeed and please their teacher. However, as a teacher is can become very overwhelming when your students become so worried about the spelling of a word that they forget about the rest of their story.
When conferencing with a student during writing think about giving 2 praises and 1 prompt. We know our young writers are super proud of their work and it's our job to commend them on that! Okay now to some strategies! I am going to list them for easy access!!
- Give them a song!
Sound It OutTo the tune of: If you’re happy and you know it
If you have a new word, sound it out.
If you have a new word, sound it out.
If you have new word,
Then slowly say the word.
If you have a new word, sound it out.
An alternate version to the song according to how you phrase it in your room could be 'stretch it out.'