"Welches" wrote:


"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .

My sister has always spelled well which is perhaps why she thinks it
is important.

Would your daughter be more adventurous with what she wrote if her
spelling was corrected by the teacher, or would she be even more
cautious - not wanting to mess up?

Yes she would be more adventurous, which sounds strange, but she likes to
know the right way.

That's interesting. I wouldn't have thought that would be the case.

Even better would be if a teacher was prepared to tell her or let her use a
dictionary. What I'd have liked was for them to say "how do you think", let
her try, and then give her the right spelling or let her look it up. What
would actually happen was they'd say that she had to work it out for
herself. She'd try, decide it wasn't right, rub it out and use a simpler
word.
Because she was a strong reader, she would know it was wrong, so being a
strong reader actually handicapped her rather than helping her!
#2 otoh is much better to be left to try, and, although she's as good a
reader isn't bothered so much if it looks wrong. Just she's a bit lazy and
would rather not write at all :-) That method works for her.

I have had problems with both girls on the standard of reading books they've
bought home. When they're reading "Famous Five" standard books at home it's
somewhat boring for them to be reading "The cat sat on the mat" in a group
of children.
#2's reading book at the start of the year she could read 2 1/2 years ago,
simply because the school has them reading in groups so it goes on the
slowest person. Personally I feel it is a complete waste of her time which
would be better spent on other things. Unfortunately pointing this out has
made her present teacher clearly think I'm being pushy, which is irritating
because I'm not pushing for her to be stretched, just kept interested.
Debbie
I come from a long line of pushy mothers. That's a good thing.

In one middle school I taught in, the whole school was split up into
groups for reading first period in the morning. So they could be much
more flexible in the grouping.

But I feel your pain. Apparently when I was in kindergarten my
elementary school was judged by someone to be insufficiently
disciplined or structured or something. And so they switched
principals. Among other things, that meant that when I went with my
first grade class to the school library, I was not allowed to touch
(let alone take out) books that were above the first grade level. We
had reading time every day and I had to read whatever book I took
during that time. Since I was reading Kipling on my own at that point
(not novels, but the Just So Stories), this was agony. I would finish
the book before the library period was over and then for the next four
days I had to sit and re-read it.

I don't know if they changed this by the time my sister got there.
I'll have to ask her. She was 2.5 years younger and by the time she
got to kindergarten I had taught her to read. She could be left to
read to the class while the kindergarten teacher took a break.