I said this already. A couple times. It’s probably starting to border on whining, but I’m saying it again anyway.
Kindergarten is hard!
It’s way harder than it was 30 years ago.
Kindergarten is the new First Grade.
Seriously.
The stuff David had to know before he started Kindergarten was what I learned in Kindergarten.
I’m not up to speed with these new education methods either, and honestly I question some of them.
For example he’s being taught to write using D’ Nealian Handwriting instead of standard printed letters. It’s a hybrid cross between printing and cursive. I think it’s supposed to make the transition to cursive later on simpler.
There are a couple problems with D’ Nealian. One, since I didn’t learn to print this way, it makes it difficult for me to help David make his letters correctly. Two, I think it might cause confusion when learning to read and recognize letters since most printed materials are produced in standard Roman fonts.
I don’t like some of the theories applied to reading either. Two weeks in a row David’s had worksheets for homework that required him to write eight words by sounding them out.
They haven’t even gotten all the way through the alphabet yet. They haven’t mastered recognizing the letters, and their sounds yet. They haven’t mastered writing all the letters. They haven’t learned any phonics or consent blends. But they’re supposed to spell words based on how they think they sound?
And here’s the kicker. According to the instructions, it’s OK if they spell them wrong, as long as they spell them like they sound.
(Where was this theory when I was spending hours writing out each of my spelling words 10 times every week?)
You know what? It’s NOT OK!
Oh, I know all you people with your education degrees are going to want to leave me comments explaining the reasoning behind this theory. But I don’t buy it. You know what I think this is? One more slip down the slope of mediocrity into Language Arts anarchy.
They’re educating a generation who will grow up thinking naber is the correct spelling of neighbor.
In fact, let’s just awl spell words the wa we thenk they sound. We can figur owt what evere1’s saying bi sownding it owt.
(My spell check just exploded.)
That’s absurd, right?
I think this is teaching a bad habit. All words are not spelled how they sound. Spelling should be based on the foundations of phonics, rules like, “i before e except after c,” and memorization. Not just sounding everything out.
Foundation first. Application next.
But David has to do this, because it’s the work he’s expected to complete for school. So I have to help him figure it out.
And I do.
Gritting my teeth, and biting my tongue to keep from exclaiming, “This is dumb,” in the middle of homework time.
Photo by Leo Reynold’s used under Creative Commons Licensing.
I feel your pain. As an educator, I agree with you. David needs to learn phonics. They should be teaching the letters, blends, sounds, etc. I’m with you!
Call me traditional, but I’m pretty happy with the way I was taught to do things, a la the mid- to late eighties. I know many education majors would disagree, but reading is reading, and I don’t remember the method used on me to be that hard.
Oh my gosh that has to be so hard. I would not be able to grin and bare it. I would be setting up meetings with the teacher, principal, parent’s group, who ever I could that would listen and hopefully help me make changes. Or I would just switch schools.
That all just sounds crazy. Good luck.
Just another Hedgehog lady!!
This would honestly drive me nuts. You have a lot of self control not telling your son that it’s wrong (and dumb). I don’t know if I’m more more disgusted or worried by what’s happening to the English language.
I hope it’s just one backwards teacher and not the school or the county.
That is the way they are doing it at Parkside; have been for 10-plus
years or more. Give a kid a crayon and tell him to write something.
They call it “Creative Writing.”
Then afterwards, they try to get him to spell it correctly after years of spelling it incorrectly. The pattern has been set by allowing them to do it incorrectly from the start.
A good phonics program like A Beka is far superior. Temple was way
ahead 30 years ago.
My son is in first grade and last year in K they did the same thing with all the spelling words – total phonetic ANARCHY!! Made me nuts!!! And judging by my teen nieces and nephs texting…the spelling does NOT get better!
Oh my. No wonder some people homeschool? (Totally different set of issues, yes, but teaching kids via correct methods would be appealing.)
The invented spelling (yes, that’s what it’s called) REALLY rubbed me the wrong way at first as well. But the person teaching it was THE BEST first grade teacher ever – and the more I learned, the more I saw the logic. By my second child, I was totally on board. And for the record, I am NOT an education major and not a teacher – just a parent who has recently been through the same experiences!
First, the creative spelling will NOT be accepted forever, trust me. This is simply ONE STAGE in the learning process. Second, they are NOT learning to spell things wrong – they are learning problem solving skills for later and to listen to the words coming out of their mouths, which is a huge developmental skill. Many kids don’t realize that words are made up of different sounds. This inventive spelling – which is a stage we ALL went through, by the way (just ask your mom!) – is a step on the road toward blends and chunked sounds. It all works together in the long run. You truly DO want him to learn to take his best guess right now, then look it up or learn it correctly later one or, trust me, he will ask you how to spell EVERYTHING always! (Both my girls are avid readers and champion spellers, so I have anecdotal personal proof that invented spelling doesn’t harm them!)
Good teachers will usually incorporate phonics skills and sight words (which violate the rules and cannot be sounded out) as well. But learning theory has really progressed in the last 20 years and we are so lucky to live in a time where there are multiple tools to use to get to the answer rather than just one right way. (Wait until math – good math instruction has changed RADICALLY since we were kids and it is SO MUCH BETTER now!)
Definitely talk to the teacher about your concerns and ask for more info on invented spelling and the research behind it. Having that information will make you more comfortable with what goes on in the classroom.
Here are a few websites that talk about invented spelling, what it is, why some schools allow it, and how it is more of a natural process teachers accommodate on the road to learning rather than a instructional tool:
http://www.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules/invented-spelling.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267
Just wait until they think that everything is spelled in “text language”
Um…wow. I want to say something articulate but really, “This is dumb,” sums it up so perfectly.
This is crazy! And since I graduated from Plainwell I’m not surprised, I’d complain to the principal, maybe they give him a more “creative” way to learn sounds – like phonetics??
I could not agree with you more!!! This is the exact reason my son is in private kindergarten. I wish I could continue private school forever, but I haven’t hit the jackpot yet so THAT isn’t happening! This education theory would drive me nucking futs. My 4-year-old is already correcting other people’s grammar because that is what he is used to at home. This is why people who learn English as their 2nd or 3rd language end up speaking it better than we do; they learn it correctly!
i have my education degree and i think this is bunk! it drives me crazy! i feel so overwhelmed trying to prepare cora for next year. she is not really picking up on ABC recognition. it scares me so much b/c i don’t want her to be behind starting the first day of school. i know we have like 10 months yet but wow, it will go so fast. i agree that the way we were taught just makes so much sense. i love what you said about needing to be given the foundation. so true. i wish we could do preschool, i know that would help too. ugh!!!!!
Wow I am in shock. I can’t believe the school would let a curriculum like that exist. Teaching kids the wrong way to spell words is only going to confuse them. The English language is getting abused every day in this society. Compare modern times to when Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin wrote so eloquently. Those men would use words that are completely gone in this society. Teaching Kindergarten kids slang is just wrong.
I taught D’ Nealian. It was a little easier for children. Inventive spelling seems to be driving everyone nuts. A neighbor was just complaining about it next week. I let children write down words the way they sounded so they wouldn’t be afraid to use a word in their work. We later worked on the spelling together.
I agree that phonetics is better. I know enough people with trouble spelling already. I can’t imagine how bad it might get if kids are taught incorrect spelling from the get-go.
Hmm, I hadn’t seen that handwriting style. Why do they keep changing everything? Wasn’t the way we learned good enough? Apparently not! I don’t understand the spelling it like it sounds, that sounds like texting now.