I did more writing conferences Wednesday, but they were more difficult than the last two weeks I’ve done them in field study. I’ve not experienced a child correcting me on spelling before. I wasn’t even sure how to handle it. He read his story to me and most of the errors he had were spelling related. I went through each page and picked words that were slightly off to go over. He didn’t really have too many words that were way off (we went over those too though). I came across the word “orenge” and said to the student that it sounds like it’s correct but it’s actually spelled “orange.” He said, “No, it’s with an ‘e.’ I’ve never gotten it wrong before. This is how my sister spells it.” He was so adamant about it, I didn’t want to argue; but I wanted him to learn the correct spelling. I told him that maybe his other teacher missed it and that maybe his sister’s teacher had made a mistake since everyone makes mistakes. He still seemed hesitant, so the only thing I could think of was to put in into the computer and show that spell check underlines it or changes it automatically to “a.” He seemed satisfied with this, but disappointed. I’m not sure if I did the right thing. I didn’t know how to handle it. The next child’s handwriting I couldn’t even read, so that was difficult to deal with too. I didn’t want him to think his handwriting was bad, so I tried my hardest to read what I could. He couldn’t read some of it either. How do I help him fix his penmanship? Is that something I should do, or say something about during the conference?
On a different note, Allen’s chapter on poetry taught me new forms that I never knew about. When I write poetry it usually rhymes. It’s nice to have some examples of other types of poems to reference, especially if I want children to do a multi-genre research paper. I really enjoyed the six-room form. I’ve never read a poem like that before and it made sense to me. It was great for description purposes. Poetry in general is a genre that can be easily appreciated according to Allen. She says,” If you have reluctant writers in your classroom or if you as a teacher are a reluctant writer, poetry is a good place to ease into writing.” She says it’s short and easy to edit. I’m not sure if I will use a poem for my MGRP, but it’s a possibility.
The invitation piece was confusing to me. I looked at the children’s work given and the blank worksheet. I didn’t see how it really related to an invitation. It was more like an observation/inference and question prompting sheet in my opinion. I’m not sure that invitation is the right word for the activity the author is talking about, but I can see how it would be beneficial to students in regards to literacy.
Nicole,it is funny that you mention the handwriting because just recently Stacy and I were discussing our penmanship with our observing classroom teacher. She was discussing how it is sad but penmanship has become much less important that it used to be. She said there isn't much focus anymore about making children write neatly. I wonder when this all happened??! It seems so important for a child to be able to write neatly, and at least be able to read what they have written. I know when I was in elementary school it was still very important. I don't know what to tell you about working with that child but I am sure you will come up with something that will work! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI agree that deciphering when to intervene is difficult. Once you decide that you need to do so, figuring out how you're going to approach it brings about new challeges.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was a little perplexed by the invitations article.
My opinion is: you're not going to do irreparable damage by teaching a child how to spell a word correctly, especially if the student sees you as someone who has a general pattern of helping them reach their own goals in writing. I was in publishing for a while and I find myself constantly biting my tongue when I'm working with students. :)
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