How much spell check is too much?

It's not lazy. It makes the kids feel awful.

How is that condescending?

I think it's more demotivating to give 20 plus corrections, than saying "I've picked up 3 words each that you individually need to work on. These are specific to you will help you to improve if you learn how to spell those words".

You know what, sometimes I even make a class practise a common misspelled word.

Sometimes I stop lessons and correct a common misconception with everyone. Other times I address students 1:1. Because I'm good at my job.

So unbelievably condescending. I know they're children, but you should never condescend, even to children.

It's a fairly "new" rule, if anything, the current SPAG(or lack of) on MN is a product of the "good old days".

You only need to look at the spelling and grammar on MN to see the outcome of that ‘rule’!

@Chichimcgee

Why can't you correct 'would' and add it to their spellings but also cross out evenchily, spell it right but not add to their spellings.

Because in the vast majority of schools, if you make a comment in a child's book the child has to respond to it. Doing what you say means the child still has to write eventually correctly 3 times plus respond to any other comments, otherwise we get pulled up on it.

There isn't an error in my thinking and people are allowed different opinions.

It's no wonder children are growing up so weak and entitled.

In my school, we correct the spellings we'd reasonably expect them to be able to spell at their age. That's been the case in most schools I've worked in and it's usually limited to three corrections.

If a child is in year 3, we'd correct words from the year 1/2 and year 3/4 spellings lists but not 5/6. If the word is phonetically plausible, then we let the spelling go. If it is on the vocab wall or given to them in the lesson to copy, we correct.

The reasoning is, as others have said, its only one part of writing and we'd rather children attempt to use adventurous vocabulary rather than limit the words they use out of fear of spelling it incorrectly.

Those words will he addressed at some point but its not helpful to highlight every misspelt word.

In the same vein, I'm also pleased we got rid of two stars and a wish. It must have been very demoralising to be a child who has put everything into a piece of work only to read, "Yeah, you did that and that well but it would have been even better if you'd done X," especially as sometimes, we were clutching at straws to find something appropriate and they'd actually just done a really good piece of writing and deserved to feel that.

It might not he perfect and other people might do it differently but that's why we follow school policies based upon government directives in all areas and don't just do what parents think should he done.

I'm surprised that a TA wouldn't already be aware of their school's marking policy or pedagogy and that they'd think they'd find an explanation from a load of non teaching professionals on MN rather than someone in school, tbh...

I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent but I don't think I have the energy to continue this argument.

The error in your thinking has been drawn to your attention multiple times by trained professionals and you still haven't corrected it. I guess correcting isn't magic.

Hats off to you teachers. Hats off.

Because it is totally demotivating for a child to get a page of work with red (or purple) ink all over it.
My (as it eventually turned out) dyslexic DD would have totally given up if that had been the policy at her schools.

The child may well learn to spell eventually and delicious properly all by themselves as part of a general improvement in their literacy

That is the epitome of lazy teaching. Why can't you correct 'would' and add it to their spellings but also cross out evenchily, spell it right but not add to their spellings. At least then they know they're wrong, they've had positive praise saying they made a good attempt and can see the correct spelling written down. So next time they use the word they'll at least have seen it written down and know where they went wrong last time.

I’m still not convinced. If this is better for kids, shouldn’t spelling and learning in general be improving? Whereas my impression is that we have poor spelling levels and not noticeably improved writing ability?

You're surely not under the impression that people actually retain most of what they are taught? You can correct children over and over again and they make the same mistakes. The majority of people who make spelling and grammar mistakes will have had those mistakes corrected by teachers. Possibly many, many times.

It is done for a variety of reasons.

1. It can be demotivating, especially for kids who struggle with spelling.

1. We don't want kids to restrict their vocabulary so that they only use the words they know. Big vs enormous for example. Especially if they're younger and it's not a "required " spelling.

1. Time. There isn't enough time to write another paragraph, use fronted adverbials, add conjunctions/extra details is, improve vocabulary or actually do the required task/show the specific skills and also write 10 spellings 3 times.

There's more, but these are the 3 main ones.

The child may well learn to spell eventually and delicious properly all by themselves as part of a general improvement in their literacy, or as they improve the spelling of their high frequency words and spell would, happy and walking correctly they will be corrected on eventually and delicious.

If a child can't spell "would" correctly, it's pointless worrying about "delicious". "Would" is much more important, and also shows them how to spell "could" and "should". Focussing on getting the basics right before worrying about the harder words is sensible, just like we don't worry about teaching division to a child who can barely add. They'll get there in time.

I was marking work today in a Y3 class.
We were copying definitions of words from the dictionary. Most of the class had spelling errors to correct!
They were supposed to be practicing dictionary skills but most of them couldn’t even copy words down correctly.

No, because kids don't type much! Also it's a quick in the moment fix that most of the time no one sees.

Compared to 20 underlines left in a book forever.

The reasons for this all seem obvious.

1. it would be disheartening to see lot of words marked as incorrect
2. you don’t want children to be put off using their full vocabulary to just limit themsleves to words they can spell
3. if children have made 10 errors there is no way they will learn the correct spellings of all them in the 5 mins they have to read their feedback

Out of interest, do children also feel demoralised when they see words underlined by the spell check in Microsoft word?

So what happens if that child continues writing eventually and delicious wrong?

I don't think getting them to write words correctly if they've got lots of errors but correcting like they did at my school should be done for every word. evenchily - eventually. Great attempt! For example

The reliance on spellcheckers I agree with.

The motivation point you are wrong. Imagine being the child with 20-30 words spelt incorrectly and the person next to you has 3. You'd. Feel shit about yourself. This is why many kids have maths anxiety. Because it has to be right or wrong, and kids getting it wrong get demoralised over time as they realise their peers aren't.

Gosh this thread is infuriating enough as a parent. Poor teachers. 🙈

Agree about opinions on teaching. This is because everyone has spent a lot of time in school, so they think they know how it should be done.

Also people want things to be the way it was when they were young, so they are suspicious of change.

I understand the reasons given, I disagree with them.

A 2023 study found that:

Standards of spelling and grammar among an entire generation of English-speaking university students are now so poor that there is "a degree of crisis" in their written use of the language
amp.theguardian.com/uk/2003/mar/01/education.highereducation

This is obviously linked to a reliance on spell checkers and lack of correction at school.

The argument put forward that correcting a pupil's work will be demoralising is ridiculous. Pupil's surely expect their work to be corrected and secondly, the results speak for themselves.