How do you spell....

Taken from @letmeknowhowitgoes (follow Meghan Hargrave on Instagram for more awesome tips)

One of your kids is asking (ok whining) for a snack, another kid is asking you to put on her princess's shoe, you are trying to compose a work email, and your E-Learner asks you how to spell a word. It is tempting to just spell the word for your child, so tempting that I've done it often. Often enough that I started to notice my 2nd grader asking more and more often - creating a dependence on me to spell her words for her. So when I saw this post by Meghan Hargraves (see image above), I quickly reflected and knew that I needed to shift some of my own "crisis teaching" practices. 

I needed to remember that the only way that Chloe will learn to spell is by working and thinking about sounds while attempting to phonetically spell. Accuracy is not the goal for beginner spellers, instead it's about encouraging my child to try and try again while staying reflective and thinking about what she is doing. My CHILD needs to do the hard work if I want her to learn to spell, I have to stop doing the work for her.

Here are the steps I took:

I pulled out 2 post-its and told Chloe, "Today I'm going to teach you what to do when you get stuck and you are not sure how to spell a word. Then when you don't know how to spell a word you will go to these strategies and not have to ask someone else to spell the word for you. These post-its will be like your spelling super-power."

I told her I was going to show her how to use these strategies, then we'd try together (this is the "I do" stage or model stage of guided practice). I talked about how yesterday I was writing in my blog and I needed to write the word ferocious. I explained that I was going to use an easier word, but I decided to be brave. So I...

• Said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• I wrote down the beginning and the end f          s
• I chunked the word up part-by part - Fer- o - cious (I showed her how I started with tious, but it didn't look right- so I changed it to cious).
• NOTE: I'm doing the work at this part - not asking questions- so Chloe can see the steps

Next we tried a word together (this is the "we do" part of guided practice). We talked about a character in Winn Dixie, the book we are reading together. We decided to spell friendly. So we went through our steps:

• We said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• We wrote down the beginning and the end
• We chunked the word up part-by part

Finally, I had her write her E-Learning assignment (this is the "you do" part of guided practice). I told her to get my attention when she is being brave and spelling a word so she could talk about what her brain is doing and how she's using the strategies.

Chloe has not shifted to a spelling master overnight with this instruction, but she has moved ever so slightly towards independence. She's doing the work of thinking about sounds, therefore learning and reflecting each time she writes. She's closer to not letting the unknown get in the way of what she's trying to say. Did she ask me how to spell a word again - yes (insert eye roll here). However, when she asked I pointed to the post-its and nudged her towards spelling independently without having to hold her hand.