Evening star., 1939-11-21
Best Method
Spelling
Rewriting Words
Many Times Is
Very Unwise
BY ANGELO PATRI.

Any normal minded child can
learn to spell, provided his vision
and hearing are good. Children in
the grades of elementary school are
normal-minded, and they can see
and hear. Some of them do not
spell simple words correctly, do not
attempt to do so, and they carry
that deficiency on to, and through,
high school, even through college
That seems to me disgraceful. BY
disgraceful mean that it indicates
habit of laxness, carelessness,
sloppiness that intelligent young
people should be ashamed to admit.
They can learn to spell, and they
should do so or be classed among
the illiterate. And that form of
illiteracy is shadow on the eff
cheney of the schools.
Such children should be grouped
and given special attention until
they understand that they have to
spell words correctly. First, their
vision and hearing and speech power
should be tested. If any one of
these is deficient, the child is han
dicapped and should be helped, not
blamed.
Once we are assured that there is
no sound cause for the poor SPELL
ing, we teach it. The children are
asked to watch the teacher write
each word on the board, while she
spells out each letter; then, as she
writes the whole word, she pro-
nounces 1t. The group now writes
the word, spelling it aloud as they
do SO. Then they write it silently
This is done, word by word, down
the list-a short one, two words for
the beginners, five for the other
grades, until the children show abil-
ity to do more.
When the words have been studied
this way and their use made plain,
the children write them-or, better
yet-are handed a printed list of
them to paste in their notebooks for
home study. Next day the teacher
reads out the list and the group
writes the words. Now they correct
them. The teacher writes each
word on the board; the children
draw a line through those they
missed.
The teacher instructs them to
look at the board, take out their
lists, compare their work, note the
right way, ignore the wrong; write
the words missed in a list kept for
that purpose; write each misspelled
word two times correctly, while the
teacher looks at the papers to catch
any error the pupils skipped. If
any word was commonly missed,
assign it for the next days work.
Keep reviewing these lists until they
are learned.
Spelling isolated words has little
influence on spelling in compost
ton, which is the reason for learn
ing to spell at all. Make a point of
having the children write brief par
agraphs, using their misspelled
word lists. Have them check COM
positions for misspeued words and
list them for use. Using words,
while spelling them correctly, is
what teaches children to spell cor
rectly when they write letters and
tests and compositions. Oral spell
ing is of little help here. Spelling
is written exercise, and the writ
ten lesson, especially applied spell
ing, is the important one.
1t is unwise to make children re-
write words many times because
they do not attend to the form Of
the word after the first two times.
If they write words as a punish
ment they accept spelling as form
of discipline to be avoided when
possible. Twice, correctly, is enough
to do the work of correction and
impression.