Pupils 'distressed over spelling' - 给力英语
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Pupils 'distressed over spelling'

发布:wenhui    时间:2008/10/3 22:16:54     浏览:2676次

BBC NEWS(2 October 2008 12:34 UK) - Whitminster Endowed Church of England Primary School, near Stroud, has decided not to give pupils lists of words to learn by rote as homework.

Headmistress Debbie Marklove said there was a risk that children would feel a "sense of failure" if, having learned the words at home, they were unable to spell them at school the next day.

She wrote to all parents of the 105 children aged between four and 11 at the school to tell them about the change.

"You will notice that the children will not be given spelling lists to learn over the week and then be tested in class," she wrote.

"We have taken the decision to stop spellings as homework as it is felt that although children may learn them perfectly at home they are often unable to use them in their daily written work.

"Also many children find this activity unnecessarily distressing.

"The spelling patterns will continue to be taught explicitly in the classroom and assessed as part of the normal marking by the teacher."

Mrs Marklove said the lists of words were more a "test of memory" than learning how words are constructed. She said parents had been invited to the school to discuss the issue.

"If children are given spellings to learn and get five out of five when practising with mum and dad and then only get one out of five the next day at school, it can give them a sense of failure.

"I've heard comments in the playground from children asking each other what they got and, where this can be a positive thing when they get five out of five, it can also impound failure."

Gloucestershire County Council's head of school improvement Karen Charters said it was down to the individual school as to how it taught spelling and literacy.

"Each school and each pupil has different needs and each school knows its own pupils best," she said.

"This school is continuing to teach spelling on a daily basis and encouraging the pupils to apply this learning to their writing.

"It is more effective for pupils to know and understand the various spelling patterns and "tricky words" and be able to use these in their writing, showing understanding about why words are spelt in a particular way, than to learn a series of words for a one-off test.

"Where we see there is an issue, we are quick to intervene. However, in this instance, the school is reinforcing that partnership by inviting parents into school to learn more and offer their views to the school directly."


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