Correcting spelling mistakes in schools

[Titbits]

Please help...I have started an epetition on the governments website.
My local primary school tells me that they don't correct all my children's spelling mistakes because too much red pen is discouraging! Surely it would be better to focus on ENcouraging them to spell correctly...and making them feel proud of their work?
Ofsted are actively promoting this approach even though friends in further education and the business world tell me that they throw away any applications from students with poor spelling.
It seems that in secondary school, spelling errors aren't corrected at all.
Call me old fashioned (!) but copying out a spelling mistake three times at the bottom of the page was how I improved my spelling. Weekly spelling tests seem irrelevant if the children then aren't taught to use the correct spelling in a body of text.

Hope you will help..enough names will mean it's discussed in Parliament. Link below:

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/10821

titbits i think lots of posters have eloquently explained why what you are proposing is a bad idea....

Just to clarify, I am not advocating no correction of spelling nor suggesting to a child that an incorrect spelling is correct.

But not correcting a tricky word at 6yrs and instead correcting and consolidatyion those age appropriate words will not mean that child fails to spell that word for ever more. If they used it incorrectly two years later it would be corrected.

Correcting spellings in an age appropriate way does not condemn a child to a life of illiteracy. On the contrary, encouraging a love of books, language and writing at 6yrs is, IMO, more likely to foster a lifelong love of the subject.

Are you being amusing or is your bad spelling a result of it not being corrected at primary school?

It may be school policy not to mark all spellings but it isn't government policy.

And if she's 9yrs, she will be making far less mistakes but you didn't specify an age in your OP.

Do you have a dictionary at home? Do you play dictionary games at home? I play dictionary games with my Y3 DS and it's a great way to consolidate knowledge of spelling and to improve vocabulary.

By 9yrs old, I would expect her to be getting up in class and checking the correct spellings of words she was unsure of in the dictionary.

Are you talking about my typing errors? My spelling is fine, thank you. I have an A in English Alevel and an English degree from one of the top universities in the country. But feel free to pick up on my typos rather than address the glaring holes in your argument!

I'm an English teacher. I hate spelling mistakes. However, you don't know what you are talking about and you are talking utter, utter bollocks.

On the contrary, looks like there's lots of support...
Most anti comments are based on ages under 8 it seems, which is fair enough.
I've discussed it at length with my kids and they would rather have lots of corrections and end up good spellers and improve at school....neither of them seems terrified by a bit of red pen.
Honestly I'm not asking that they're rapped over the knuckles with a birch stick....just want them to learn to spell!!!! Learning tables isn't much fun either but we make them do it...don't see why spelling is any different.

Can you explain why?

I'm not sure I have the energy. Jumping in and starting a petition on a subject you don't know about, and making sweeping assumptions like 'in secondary schools, it seems that spelling errors aren't corrected at all' doesn't make you sound like someone who'd take much notice if I explained anyway, to be honest.

There's more to any piece of work than the spellings. Scrawling all over pupils' work with red pen pointing out errors is disheartening and counterproductive.

Good teachers use their judgement to point out spelling mistakes here and there, as appropriate. What they do not do is utterly detract from the a child's achievement with any given piece of work by pointing out each and every error.

Humourme.....good for you. It's true if current teaching practices are so great then why are standards so low and getting worse?
Oh and carpetlover, great to hear you are so well educated (proper serious / not sarcastic, in case you wonder!) .... But I was replying to nonnomum (pane in da arrss)....

It doesn't have to be scrawling with a red pen...how about light underling with a green pen .....doesn't need to be scary!

Come on, OP - practise what you preach!

No? Thought not.

Iheartkingthistle....that's exactly why I'm on this site to review people's opinions. So really, do explain?
Several of the teachers at school tell me that at secondary school that is the case...and parents of older siblings too. So it may not be exhaustive research but it does make me worry.
The epetition process is supposed to promote discussion ...which is what we are doing!

Sorry ...auto spellcheck...and typing too fast ....can happen to anyone but hopefully not to my children x

Hear hear Feenie.

OP, your unnecessary multiple exclamation marks are getting in the way of the point you're trying to make.

I'd love to know whether any of the posters who've signed the petition are educators themselves.

What's autospellcheck - your missing apostrophe?

Carpetlover....have tried all those things with my daughter..but she doesn't have the love of reading or attention span of her brother...
The most success we have is when I spot a mistake then get her to copy it out three times and the repetition does seem to make it stick.....
So I'm going to keep promoting the old-fashioned way I'm afraid because it does work for her and anyway...isn't it the way that memory specialists teach people to retain information?

Titbits Tue 06-Sep-11 18:46:29

Humourme.....good for you. It's true if current teaching practices are so great then why are standards so low and getting worse?

Obviously your literacy standards aren't up to reading research or you would be aware that this isn't in fact true. However don't let the truth get in the way of your campaign.

I appear to be invisible.

The most success we have is when I spot a mistake then get her to copy it out three times and the repetition does seem to make it stick.....

And yet....?

I don't honestly see the issue with red pen. (Green pen, purple pen are we now being racist about the colour of pen. Are we discriminating against the poor old red pen, what about the pink pen is it offended too? I am tongue in cheek here btw!)
There can be constructive comments added to a piece of work e.g. "Outstanding effort, love the use of descriptives and it's clear you've really put some thought into it, however please see comments re: spelling". This kind of comment would be suitable for my yr4 nearly 9yr old dd.

Younger children need handling in a slightly different way, and I suppose it does depend on the child's sensitivity, however I believe that mistakes ought to be corrected or how else are they going to learn? Consistency, encouragement and praise combined with discipline and structure work the best here.

Could you not also argue that if a child is upset by the "red" pen on their work, that they concentrate more and improve their spellings so that the next piece of work marked is better and thus has to be corrected less?

Feenie...autospellcheck changes what you've typed and guesses an alternative ....very annoying actually and another reason why children need good spelling so they can remedy the demon auto checker.

Squishy ...you're last point is exactly the case with my kids x

Mrz....really would like to know your evidence of improving standards? Why do businesses and universities complain so much then about the quality of applicants?

No excuse. You've made an error, it doesn't matter how it's made, surely? And in your opening post, too.

Children need to check what they've written carefully - not doing so leads to mistakes - so why shouldn't you lead by example? And if errors are made, then the remedy is simple (apparently) - call me old-fashioned, but the only effective way is lots of repetition Off you go then.