How much spell check is too much?

[Emila]

I'm a TA in a primary school. I work in years 3-6, depending on where I'm needed.
When I was at school, teachers would correct spelling mistakes in your English work. The word would be underlined and it would then be written out correctly by the teacher in the back of your book for you to copy three times

However, when I was marking today, the class teacher told me to only correct 2-3 spellings per page and leave the rest. Obviously for the lower ability children this makes sense as we're more interested in having them actually form sentences and spell phonetically. However I was marking the book of one of the highest ability students in the class. They had about 6 spelling mistakes that really should have been picked up on.

I wonder what message this sends to students if they write a word and it isn't corrected, surely they'd think they've spelt it correctly?
What is the reasoning behind limiting the spelling corrections?

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.

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...

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.

@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.

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

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

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

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.

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