Does anybody care about spelling?
Interesting discussion on the Read Street blog yesterday under the headline "Is spelling ded?" In a world where we fire off e-mails, text messages, Tweets and Facebook updates, does anyone care about accurate spelling anymore?
I'd be curious to hear from teachers about how much spelling is emphasized in your schools. If you're trying to get kids interested in writing, how much spelling correction is appropriate? There was a huge debate about this a couple of years back when I wrote about the Studio Course curriculum being used in Baltimore middle schools that urged teachers to let spelling errors go.
But then, the educators need to spell accurately, too. A few weeks ago, I saw a letter to the editor from a prominent local educator (who will remain nameless in this post) that was filled with spelling mistakes when it was submitted. I'm hoping the issue was lack of interest rather than lack of knowledge. The Sun's letters editor does, after all, clean up spelling and grammar before publishing -- unlike InsideEd.
Categories: Around the Nation, Teaching
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Comments
Sara,
Perhaps adults have become too reliant on "spell check" tools in word processing programs. Of course, such programs cannot and will not correct homophones (I've seen "there" used for "their" to many times to count).
This behavior trickles down to our children: when parents and other adults are too lazy to work on accurate spelling (whether due to technology or otherwise) it sends a message to the next generation.
On a related note: spelling ain't -- er, isn't -- the only issue that should concern us. What about punctuation, parts of speech, sentence structure etc.?
Peggy Benner, the director of Towson University's Online Writing Support program, maintains a cool Web site at www.towson.edu/ows/ that has received more than 290,000 visits from as close as a TU dorm and as far as Peru.
I can only imagine what type of questions Ms. Benner receives!
Stu Zang
Media Relations Specialist
Towson University
Posted by: Stu | March 25, 2009 1:44 PM
I try to emphasize it as much as I possibly can.
The worst grammar/ spelling I ever saw was when I was a student teacher out in Ellicott City.
I see the common "there/their/they're" "to/too/two" and the ever-maddening inappropriate apostrophe" but by and large I find it to be not that much of a problem at my school.
I have not seen the "leet-speak" (or "teh L33t Sp33K") too much where I am.
Posted by: James from Hampden | March 25, 2009 2:44 PM
"to many times to count?"
Posted by: Lala | March 25, 2009 2:55 PM
affect v. effect - drives me crazy.
Posted by: Bill | March 25, 2009 3:37 PM
On blogs, in texts, or other online venues where people are typing fast and fingers (or cognition) slips, I do try to be forgiving. BUT in documents that really matter-like published books, newspapers, or even business-related emails- there is little excuse for being sloppy. On facebook you can join a group called "if you don't know the difference between your and you're...you desrve to die." Albeit a bit extreme, but I get the point.
I personally have a huge problem with commas. I'm always putting them in places where they don't belong or using too many of them to make my run on sentences barely hang together. It's a "stream of consciousness" thing that I translate to paper when I write.
Anyway, our students should know the correct spelling of things because you can't avoid looking like a dumb-a$$ when you can't spell.
Posted by: Alrigthy Then... | March 25, 2009 4:04 PM
Re: James from Hampden
I wasn't sure if my "to/too" example was "to subtle" or not.
I guess not!
Stu
Posted by: Stu | March 25, 2009 5:00 PM