Hi Sheila, 
 -=> Quoting Sheila King to Charles Beams <=-
 -> Good readers don't read word by word Goodman argued. "[t]hey
 -> construct meaning from the [entire] text. Indeed, accuracy is not an
 -> essential goal of reading".
 SK> Arrgh! Accuracy is not an essential goal of reading? I would think
 
 No! (Qualified Statement) Do real readers read for accuracy or 
 comprehension? Even five year olds who are almost readers go past that 
 stilted word by word style and when they begin to fly they don't stop to 
 correct a substitution ie a the for an a. 
 Are we teaching children to read every single syllable or language and 
 literature and their fun and rhythm and games? Only when we begin to 
 analyse our reading can we nit pick over the accurcy of words and their 
 interpretation. 
 Good readers skip words because they are fast and don't need to read every 
 word. Study this the next time you read. Are you really reading every single 
 word or do your eyes bounce over the text?
 This leads onto the old debate about silent reading versus reading out loud.
 Of course children need accuracy to read out loud less their peers might 
 make assertions about their ability BUT children should not be made to read 
 old "round robin style" without practicing to raise their confidence. So it 
 gets back to confidence. Do you assert the child is wrong simply because 
 they made a substitution? If it makes no difference to the meaning then no 
 and you would probably point it out at the end reminding the child that many 
 words start the same and that they really need to look all the way to the 
 end or some other decoding clues...
 BUT and here comes my qualification...
 children who are struggling are a different story. Aren't they always?
 If they are making many substitutions because they have miscued many words
 then the text has no meaning and remedial action must take place. They are 
 not coping. The general rule of thumb is that is there are five words in a 
 page that are miscued then the text is too hard. This is a principle I 
 often teach older children for when they are borrowing from the libarary.
 I could go on here about remedial steps etc but not necessary...
 Shouldn't we be teaching children that there are different styles of 
 reading? When I went to school there was such an emphasis on oral/
 performance reading/ speech of drama and I was very good at this. No one 
ever 
 thought me that you could read fast when no articulation was required. I 
 read everything as though I was on stage!!!
 Shouldn't we teach children that reading has many purposes or genres and 
 that different effort and appication is required in different situations.
 SK> Anyone who thinks that the accuracy of a single word is not important
 SK> in teaching reading is IMO simply wrong!
 As for your daughter and spelling. Doesn't the hidden curriculum teach 
 that what we allow, we teach? Spelling is part of presentation, a skill 
 that everyone should do their best at. John Feltham and I recently has a 
 discussion with a university student on the K12 teacher chat echo about 
 this point. 
 I let children know that spelling is tricky, that there are many variations 
 and inconsistancies and that there are some words that they will just have 
 to learn. They will always spell the words they want to know properly - like 
 dinosaur. We have a dictionary where I write the words they want to spell 
 correctly in their writing.
 Again there is a fine line between confidence and fear. Unlike reading, it 
 is far more difficult to get children to start writing confidently. They 
 are struggling with the fact that they don't know how to write the letters 
 let along making up a story and remembering it long enough to put onto 
 paper. Then other methods kick in.
 If your daughter was in my class I'd be taking her aside while doing writing 
 conferences and telling her how impressed I was at the way she gets the 
 words right and using her as a role model etc etc. Then I'd probably start
 talking to her about her handwriting. You might have to press upon her that 
 she mightn't think it matters to the teacher but it will matter to her and 
 her future. Not an easy concept in Year Two!
 Bye, 
 Erica.
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