Kid Writing-Spelling by Stretching Out Words
One unique focus of kid writing is teaching children how to stretch a word to hear the prominent sounds or phonemes. Teaching children how to stretch a word, or as Feldgus calls it “stretching through with a moving target” in the early stages of writing development, becomes a powerful tool that not only empowers but also helps children become independent writers more quickly over time (Feldgus, E., et.al, 2017, p. 30, para. 1). This process of stretching involves “knowing specific sound-symbol relationships, but also understanding the process of how those sound-symbol relationships map onto words” (Feldgus, E., et.al, 2017, p. 30, para. 3). Stretching a word involves differentiating instruction for each child since the teacher must make calculated decisions by only emphasizing sounds the child will have success in hearing. This important process includes the following process: “watch my mouth”, emphasizing the target sound louder, and “elongating or dragging the target sound” (p. 31).
During focused mini-lessons in Kid Writing, the teacher continuously models how to stretch through words students that would match the students’ developmental level (as modeled by the transcript in the previous section). It is important to note our participant educators did not stretch through every word, but rather focused on those that had sounds the students had been trained to hear in previous phonics lessons. In groups working independently, we observed students coaching each other on how to do this. A student would say the word, another would offer a letter that corresponded to the sound, and they would continue stretching the word together. Even as early as November of the school year, some students had already mastered this process, while others relied on their peers to hear sounds their ears were not trained to hear just yet. This strategy reappeared during small group instruction with the teacher or adult volunteer coaching the students through the stretching of the word. For this strategy, students use letter combinations they are familiar with. For example, a student might stretch through a word and spell “love” l-u-v. Our teachers did not correct the students at this point in time, but rather praised the student’s ability to pick out the beginning, middle, and end sounds, which matched where the child was in their development.
References
Feldgus, E. G., Cardonick, I., & Gentry, J. R. (2017). Kid writing in the 21st century: A systematic approach to phonics, spelling, and writing workshop. Los Angeles, CA: Hameray Publishing Group.
