Among Friends

[Jackhound Mom]

Are children taught how to spell using phonics/fonics.  We were, and it didn't always work.

Sounding out the word is Not always how it is spelled.

Example Wednesday

Wed Nes Day

[skatting44]

When , my daughter was in grade school  back in the late 1980's , her teachers said they were not concerned as they were teaching a " new way to  learn to spell ".. Well,  they way they taught her never worked out. She's almost 40 and  relies on spell check for alot of simple words . The old fashion way of learning to spell  by repetition , memorization and looking up  words in a dictionary are helpful, along with  addition of spell check.

[Suzeecat]

What is your question?

[On It]

I agree. We were taught to read and spell by a sight word method. Patterns in words, long vowel patterns, etc. were part of the spelling curriculum. Word shapes were emphasized by boxes that were drawn around the letters to show shapes.  I am a speed reader and a heck of a "Wheel of Fortune" player because of this method.

I quit teaching 20+ years ago and phonics was the method being used for both reading and spelling. Some words were taught as sight words since phonetically spelling them was impossible. In my opinion phonics slows down the reading process, but I have no research to support my theory.

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@Jackhound Mom wrote:

Are children taught how to spell using phonics/fonics.  We were, and it didn't always work.

Sounding out the word is Not always how it is spelled.

Example Wednesday

Wed Nes Day

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[CelticCrafter]

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@skatting44 wrote:

When , my daughter was in grade school  back in the late 1980's , her teachers said they were not concerned as they were teaching a " new way to  learn to spell ".. Well,  they way they taught her never worked out. She's almost 40 and  relies on spell check for alot of simple words . The old fashion way of learning to spell  by repetition , memorization and looking up  words in a dictionary are helpful, along with  addition of spell check.

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I know for a time it was okay to spell it the way it sounded.  I don't know if they have gone back to the old fashioned way.

[Zhills]

My 3 Boomers were taught to write by phonics for the sake of writing stories and creativity, but they also had Spelling and English where they were taught how to use and write words correctly!

Learning to read by phonics is one way to read.

Writing in phonics is not using English correctly and they were also taught that fact! 

English is a required subject every year of school. 

[Love my grandkids]

@Jackhound Mom I'm 73 and from what I can tell my whole generation was taught phonics. So was my 52 year old son. So were my grandchildren.

I can't speak for the whole generation but anyone I've ever known who is a boomer was taught phonics as this topic comes up often.

[PA Mom-mom]

@Jackhound Mom  I had phonics, and my children had phonics in their early years. I taught all of my children to read using McGuffey's Readers.  Later, they had spelling in conjunction with their various English and Lit classes. In my opinion, the best way to learn to spell is to READ.

[Carmie]

I am a boomer.  I was taught phonics for reading.  I think that is best.  I taught all three of my children to read using phonics and they all read well before they went to kindergarten.

Spelling was taught by studying a word list.. 10 words a week.  I had spelling homework every night.  I had to write the word 10 times and use the word in two sentences...every single night. Spelling tests were given every Friday.  I had spelling classes from grade one to eight.

We also were taught spelling rules...like i before e, except after c.

If I turned in any paper with a word misspelled, it was given back to me to correct, even for other subjects like history or science. If I misspelled a word on a test on any subject, points were deducted.

I went to Catholic school with four classrooms and four  teachers for eight grades.  One teacher taught 1st and 2nd grade in the same class room..one teacher for  3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th and 7th and 8th.  There were about 30 students in the class rooms.

The teacher also taught art, music and gym.

Our textbooks were old and falling apart, but we learned.

When I was working, I was often asked if my major was journalism or English.  When I said I had no degree, I was asked where I learned my skills...answer, grammar school.

[chickenbutt]

This is kind of sad - I don't remember at all. 

I was always good at spelling, however, so I remember that part.  I used to win spelling bees (just little school stuff, nothing national).  I'm still a good speller but my typing is starting to go backwards (which I hate, as I was always good and fast at typing).