Jack, I have a problem with the use of spell checkers in this qualified way. When I was in University, for example, calculators were not allowed on most exams (only on certain ones where it was needed to speed up progress through the test), nowadays children use them in Grade 8 or earlier to do their homework. The same goes for English, children are using computers to type their Grade 9 essays to get bonus points for neatness. They use a spell checker, and I know it does not get all errors, but it helps them to make sure it is pretty close. A spell checker, like a calculator, in the hands of a person who knows the language can be extremely useful and helpful with typing mistakes. However, in the hands of those who have not grasped the language, it only compounds the spelling problems. A calculator, in the hands of someone who can't work it out, is the same situation. I had to teach a Grade 10 student last year how to do long division showing all the work. He had no idea, because he had always used calculators, and never practiced actually doing the long way.
Last year, there was a strike by the Ontario teachers, and students in Grade 12 wrote letters to their Member of Provincial Parliament in support of the teachers that were printed in the newspaper. The ones they printed were in my estimate about a Grade 7-8 writing level, full of spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and basically very poor in content. I was shocked, but I remember a policy in Ontario schools that as long as a child could spell a word phonically or phonetically it was considered correct. If they spelt "flour" and when the teacher asked them, they explained the word "flower" it was correct as far as grading goes.
Many things compound learning and using assisted methods of doing homework, in my opinion, will only cause that student to have problems that will last a lifetime. Practice by writing the long way, with pen and paper, is the best option. |
