Last week, I wrote about “brave spelling,” the approach that encourages literacy students, as they learn to write, to sound out a word and spell it as best they can, allowing them to compose fluently albeit imperfectly.
Like this:
I am finding that, as a grown-up, reading “brave spelling” is a formative and worthy exercise. Here is the work that it is achieving in me.
I read more slowly. You just can’t read brave spelling that fast. You have to slow down and consider the child and what they are actually saying. This is good. It breaks me out of the habit of considering a text (or a child) habitually and more quickly than they deserve.
I read with tenderness and and a sense of play. Read that penguin example again, and you’ll feel what I mean. Right? Ruthlessly cute. Considering a child with tenderness and a sense of play is a good place to engage.
I suspend evaluation and to compulsion to correct. When first considering a bravely spelled text, the emphasis is 100% on understanding. This breaks my tendency to evaluate and correct.
Our son’s teacher told us that if you do correct, only correct one word per text… but mostly just appreciate the child’s communication. The correct spelling will come. So if I do give feedback, it is occasional and well-discerned.
And I read with a sense of awe. I have no idea how he is becoming literate – but he is, and quickly.
We can learn lots by accompanying someone who is learning.
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