Spelling and punctuation
Until recently there had been little educational research about emergent writing and punctuation. Gunter Kress has developed many insights into early writing and Before Writing is an excellent example, his approach must be seen as principally of a ‘case study’ kind as he draws very heavily on individual instances and examples [see also Kress 1994]. Nigel Hall and colleagues [Hall, 2001] have begun to examine how children learn to punctuate and there is a real need for similar work with older pupils.
Mina Shaughnessy’s research, published in 1977 in Errors and Expectations was certainly a landmark text as she offered a much more positive approach to ‘mistakes’. She put them in the context of the learner’s struggle to attend to the myriad demands of writing and of the terrible damage done by simplistic ‘correction’, including the tyranny of the ‘red pen’. She asked teachers to take a much longer perspective than the immediate production of a particular piece of writing, showing evidence that writer’s can gradually improve but only through patient teaching and combination of support and challenge.
There have been one or two small scale studies looking at spelling such as Sowerby and also Daw in the late 1990s but this remains another area where research needs to be ongoing. We have learnt a great deal in the last 20 years about some of the problems facing learners such as dyslexia and dyspraxia and teachers have become knowledgeable about the implications for their teaching. Teaching assistants are now supporting many pupils with such ‘Special Needs’ and in itself this is a step forward.
Daw, P., Smith, J. and Wilkinson, S. (1997) ‘Factors associated with High Standards in Spelling years R-4’, English in Education, 30, (3): 15-27.
Hall, N (2001) Developing Understanding of Punctuation with Young Writers and Readers in Evans, J (ed) The Writing Classroom: aspects of writing and the primary child, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Heinemann Books
Kress, G.(1994) Learning to write, Routledge, London
Kress,G. (1997) Before writing: rethinking the paths to literacy, Routledge, London.
Shaughnessy, M. (1977) Errors and Expectations: a guide for the teacher of basic writing, Oxford University press, New York.
Sowerby, J. (1999) Extending Children’s Spelling Strategies, The Teacher training Agency, London
 
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