To wish teachers had to take a spelling proficiency test before qualifying?

[ChwatFeechers]

DD, 11, is in her final year of primary school.

Yesterday she brought her books home from year 5. I was gobsmacked at the number of spelling mistakes which had been missed, whilst others had been marked in green pen. It wasn't an oversight either, as the same mistake was made often without being corrected, for example Febury for February.
There were also some grammar corrections to things DD had written correctly.
This isn't the first time I've noticed mistakes either.
AIBU to wish teachers had to prove they can spell adequately?
[runs]

It sounds as if that's not true, though, ginger - loads of teachers are on this thread explaining that it doesn't work the way you might think.

Good spelling alone does not make an effective business letter!

No, but poor spelling can really undermine the impact of an otherwise good letter.

Besides, the poster you quoted from wasn't just talking about spelling, so it's a wee bit rude to suggest they were. I agree with you that there's much more to effective writing than spelling and grammar, though.

I work with lower achieving children.

Some of them find it very difficult to even pick up a pencil, never mind write!

I would much rather they attempted ambitious vocabulary than stuck to something 'safe' that they can spell. Think how awful the early reading books were- 'Look! Look here!' and 'Spot can run. Run, Spot, run!'

I am thrilled when my children (age 5) produce something like 'I am misrbl bcos my kitn has gon.' instead of 'I am sad.' I can teach them to spell the words later. If they get into the habit of sticking to 'safe' words that they can spell then a) they'll never learn to spell harder words because they won't be using them and b) the content of their writing won't progress, they generally won't be able to use longer, more complex sentence structures, or to vary the content of their writing etc.

In the above example, I would praise them for using the word 'miserable' and for attempting to write it using the sounds they know. I would also praise them for using 'because'. Finally, I would praise them for spelling 'my' correctly, as that is a tricky word for some children, particularly the lower achieving ones (they often want to write it mI- m capital i- they figure 'I' says 'eye' so put a 'm' in front) I would pick up on 'kitn' and get them to write it correctly 3 times, because that is a word that they can read using their phonic knowledge, so it isn't too much of a stretch to get them to write it.

Good spelling and good creative writing are two separate skills. It is very hard for many children to produce good writing when they have to think about the spelling at the same time. But I do wish children were taught to go back and edit their own work, without the necessity of having to copy it out all over again.

Well, I can't speak for other schools. But we do highlight areas where the children can improve and ask them to edit (in a different colour). With 5 year olds though, it's a time consuming process, so we can only really pick up on one thing at a time.

How teachers teach is an entirely different thread so getting back to the op re their own spelling yanbu.

The spag errors one of my dc's teacher makes are appalling. Yes I know we all make mistakes on here and at home but frankly in school,in reports and homework I don't think it's much to expect the teachers teaching our DC to be proficient or at least vigilant. If a dictionary is needed there should be no shame,just use one. I totally get that teachers aren't robots but an awareness and honesty is crucial,blindly ignoring their own errors encourages kids to do the same.

This year I was in the ridiculous situation of having to teach my year 5 child crucial errors her teacher made in her homework that her year 6 siblings were covering in spag for Sats. I finally ended up reporting it to the head as a) I don't have the time to mop up b) it gives me little confidence in what is going on in class and c) I don't think it's that helpful in fostering trust and respect with a teacher.

Frankly imvho with Spag being pushed now I think regular training and maybe a Spag qualification for teachers is needed.

Interesting punctuation there LilyTucker. It is a good thing your spelling is so good that it might provide some support for an overall literacy assessment.

Totally agree. It is a nightmare when colleagues misspell things.
After I retired I did Supply teaching and several times found words on the board for the children to copy which were wrongly spelt.
However, we were told not to correct every spelling as for some children it would be very demoralising if every other word was corrected.

Lily,

The OP - on her original post - WAS commenting on how spelling is taught:

"I was gobsmacked at the number of spelling mistakes which had been missed"
"the same mistake was made often without being corrected, for example Febury for February."

As I and others have pointed out, such spelling mistakes may not have been MARKED, but that doesn't mean that the teacher didn't notice them - there are good pedagogical reasons why a teacher may not mark every spelling error in a piece of work. However, for repeated errors as described, I would note the error in my planning, and plan it into my spelling lessons (which are separate from my main English lessons).

"Whilst others had been marked in green pen"

I use green, as is my school's policy, to show areas for improvement. Other schools use green to show that something is correct. The presence of green pen could mean either right or wrong.

"There were also some grammar corrections to things DD had written correctly."

If that is systematic (rather than a genuine error on the teacher's part - all of us are human, some of us mark until very late at night, and mistakes do happen.) then this is worth raising.

I would expect a teacher with poor spelling and grammar to be picked up by the leadership team in the school, and appropriate CPD to be put in place. I did work with a colleague who, despite being a truly excellent Reception teacher (used by the county to train others), found formal written English tricky. She was given specific support and continued training, and arrangements were put in place for proof-reading formal documents that she needed to send out in the interim - exactly as my relative weakness in PE teaching has been addressed through training, co-teaching and mentoring by a PE specialist.

For this reason, feedback to the school leadership about specific examples of poor English in letters and reports, if done appropriately, is very useful. However, it MUST go beyond a single example in marking a child's book that could be put down to a simple mistake.

Rose when MNing I'm not working or teaching children. I frankly couldn't give a stuff what people spell or punctuate on here as nine times out of ten we post with wine in hand, on an IPad or mid 2 second flight. My children also aren't reading it.It is chill out down time. In school it's entirely different and frankly I don't think it's much to ask teachers to get things right in year 5 particularly when children will be tested on it a year later.