Hi Charles, 
 -=> Quoting Charles Beams to Erica Long <=-
 CB> Responding to a message by Erica, to Dan on ...
 CB> If a golfer practices the wrong swing over-and-over again, or even 
 CB> swings differently every time he hits the ball, he will have some 
 
 That's why we have coaches or teachers guiding them with their practice 
 before the terrible habits set in. Good teachers do this through insight 
 and experience; by knowing which children are ready at 5 to spell, 
 which children can have greater demands for correctness thrust upon them 
 and which need gentle persuasion.
 EL>Were you a perfect driver the first time you drove and did you know 
 CB> Really?  Here in New York State one must study the rules of the road
 CB> and  pass a written test before you can get even a learner's permit to
 CB> get  behind the wheel of a car.  It is simply not acceptable to ram
 Oh Chuck! If you read my words I asked if you were perfect ie 100% the 
 first time you drove. Believe it or not even Queensland has the same driving 
 qualification standards as you but can one expect one with a learner's 
 permit to know everything about driving? Can one expect an emergent reader 
 to know everything about reading? If they do when they come to my room at 
 5 yrs I don't need to be there!!!
 I get the feeling that some techers still believe that children learn to 
 read in Year 1 and should be accomplished by the end of that year. If we 
 allow for the diversity of the human population; if we allow for academic 
 giftedness then we must also allow for the fact that some young children 
 will take longer to go through developmental stages than others. We must 
 allow for environmental factors. How many children have not handled a 
 story book before they come to school? Where I teach, several each year. 
 These are usually the children who also take the longest to learn their 
 letter names and initial sounds.
 The transitional stages children go through in spelling in the first year 
 are remarkably rapid which is why I go back to Cambourne's beliefs in 
 immersion and good literature. If you point out the phonics, chunks, 
 glass clusters, rhyme, rhythm and bookishness of language they will write 
 enthusiastically and the most amazing thing is that if you type up their 
 stories or 'publish' them into books, they are self centred enough that 
 they will remember every single word that they wrote. So you are right I 
 am not reinforcing the spelling mistakes. By conferencing with each child 
 I outline my expectations for them as an individual and the books they 
 publish become their reading. (Along with other reading activities.) We 
 then have guest writer to read the books to the class and the children are 
 invited to comment on the book thus avoiding show and tell (if I'm lucky).
 Chuck, I am probably more traditional that you think. It is all swings and 
 roundabouts to me and I'll do anything to turn that light bulb on. I can 
 post you a Biblio of Cambourne's research papers/books if you wish. He was 
 by no means the first and his model is more often called the Language 
 Experience Approach. Rather that coming from New Zealand or Australia I 
 believe   these approaches to language evolved from the seventies through 
 the research of people in USA Britain NZ and Aust. Like many things though 
 something got lost in the translation. Reading recovery is now the big 
 thing as governments push to justify the expense of education. Budget day 
 tomorrow. Many Queensland teachers are in NZ now training to become reading 
 recovery teachers. A recent report and reintroduced standardised testing 
 found that there had been no drop on the standard of literacy. Our rate 
 has always been high. The govt now knows where to spend the dollars - where 
 the teachers have been telling them for years.
 Regards, 
 Erica.
... I never said I could type...
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