What Jennifer says that's especially important, I believe, is: "Spelling generalizations will transfer when students compare and contrast words and develop their own generalizations. Rules are only really useful as a mnemonic once students already have some understanding of how words work."
When you are really a constructivist philosophically, this seems so obvious that you can't understand why others don't "get it" when it comes to "school learning" but understand it well out in the world. Sometimes it appears we decide what we believe and just never see any evidence to the contrary, such as when my teaching partner knew that her kids spelled fewer high-use spelling words correctly than mine, she never wavered as to her belief system about best practice. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
