er out for a rid But there was a stor and the hors went out of cuntor and her oner fel down and the hors ran Bak to his ehtre oner and they tid to But they did But ifer wort out” According to the student, the following is what the story said:“Snow Beauty”Once upon a time there was a horse. Her name was snow beauty, but for short her owner called her Snow. Her owner took her out for a ride but there was a storm. The owner fell off and the horse ran back to his mother. They both ran back to the owner who fell off. The owner went back on the horse’s saddle and when they got back home his wife asked what happened. He said, ‘I fell down but Snow came to help me,’ So it all worked out (Holgate, 1998).The above story could be an isolated case where a child slipped through the system, but this child was rewarded for being an exceptional student and she also helped as a tutor! Obviously, the school knew about her spelling and reading capabilities, but I believe that whole language allows for this creative spelling. Creative incorrect spelling and reading have become part of the whole language approach and systems need to be changed. Phonics does not allow children to guess at words. It ensures that children have the understanding of the English language by sounding out each letter to form a word. Phonics also does not allow for inventive spelling and/or creative replacement for words that are not familiar. Instead, phonics requires knowledge of letter awareness, sounds, combinations, and requires the children to sound out words that are unfamiliar until a new word is decoded. The understanding of the word then comes after the child has broken the code and mastered the letters. I believe that phonics-based systems tend to build better pronunciation and word recognition. Phonics can be taught again and again, and can help a child with spelling much better than a memorizing and guessing system li...
