Ah, the relief of having a good whinge and not being censured for it…at least I don’t THINK I’m censured (or thought ‘less of’) for it…
Anyway, I had a meeting with my managers and one of my peers, and aired a lot of frustrations about how hard the job is. And it helped. At least it helped me to feel better. Which is a good start. And it clarified some ways I can go forward a little bit differently, which might lessen some of the multi-tasking stress.
I am fascinated that the search terms people are using to find this site are STILL the same old ones that have been prominent since the beginning (of this blog): ‘jean chall’ and ’stages of reading development’. I keep making a mental note to look into these things more – partly so that I can satisfy my own curiosity and partly so that I can offer something meaningful to those searchers.
At that meeting I referred to, one of my managers talked about a staged system of developing spelling skills. For her (in her early learning), it didn’t work, and she wasn’t recommending it – but I just had to find out more, as it was something I thought I hadn’t come across before. Oddly, after a little time for my brain to process it, it is starting to ring a miniscule bell, as something that I have at least sighted, many years ago – and paid no attention to, as far as I (so far!) recall. I am at that age where the brain can take days to “remember” things…
The thing I recognised, is the character for the ‘ng’ sound, and the fact that the development was instigated or promoted by a relative of the (shorthand) Pitman fellow.
Here are some links if you are interested: It is the ITA system, and here is an article which puts some pros and cons. What I especially liked from this article was this:-
….”the enthusiasm for texting has made it clear that English speakers are frustrated with conventional spelling. ” I hadn’t really thought about text message spelling that way – at first it just really annoyed me, and now I do it so often that I sometimes want to spell the ‘txt msg’ way in normal writing (shock horror!).
So here are some more links about ITA – they do have a website of their own, but, at this instant, I can’t immediately find it, and it is such a nice day that I really must get away from this computer and get out of the house. I am going to see my mother, and I think it was through her that I heard of this system, all those years ago – because when I was a child, she was a teacher…so I’ll ask her what she remembers of it.
http://foolswisdom.com/users/sbett/nu-speling.htm
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j29/itaexpt.php
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j15/ita.php
2 Comments
21 April 2008 at 12:51 pm
I once met and attempted to teach spelling to a woman who had been part of this grand experiment. She would have agreed that the system was OK in isolation, but made it impossible to spell in the real world. She was borderline dyslexic and felt that her life in education has been ruined by the experiment.
Chris
22 April 2008 at 3:34 pm
Thanks for that comment, Chris. Through your (name) link, I had a look at some of YOUR resources and I am “blown away” by HOW MANY there are and HOW GOOD they are! Thank you for leading me to this treasure trove at City College Manchester. I will certainly be using your online resources in my classroom.