Appendix A: Preparing for licensure
doctrs (doctors)
nrsis (nurses)
loyors (lawyers)
* What to do for her? *
Document #3: Still later: Ms Scanton journal reflections
April 21: Just finished a cool book, GNYS AT WRK, by Glenda Bissex, that made me think about
Ashley and her misspellings. The author described her son’s invented spellings and how they
became more plentiful and complicated at first, but eventually became more “adultlike” or
conventional. Fascinating! The mom was in no hurry to cure her child of his spelling problems, but
he seemed to outgrow them on his own. The chief point seemed to be that invented spellings may
be good because they show active efforts by the child to figure out the rules of spelling.
So maybe Ashley will outgrow her misspellings too? I do note that her misspellings—her inventions
—have become more complicated across the year. Here’s from her journal last week:
TDA W WT T JM NAD W PLY TWLIT TAG
With a little help from Ashley, I figured this out as “Today we went to gym and we played toilet
tag.”
Here’s from the week before:
TIZ WK W MAD PTY MAX.
Translation: “This week we made party masks.”
Quite a difference from the start of the year, when she would only write down a couple of letters
during journal-writing time! Maybe I need to support her efforts more and worry about them less.
But how to do that and still make sure she really is learning how to spell?
P.S. If you are interested, the book about invented spellings that Ms Scanton mentioned in
Document #3 is listed in the bibliography.Questions
➢ In these excerpts from her journal, Ms Scanton has observed and reflected on Ashley’s
learning to spell. Considered her activities as a whole, how much do they qualify as action
research in the sense described in this chapter? What should be added or changed to make
her activities a full-fledged example of action research?
➢ Consider the list of misspellings (or invented spellings) in Document #2. Suggest how, if at
all, Ms Scanton might address those misspellings with Ashley. In particular, comment on
whether she should make time to work with Ashley in the same way that she did in