Correcting DITHOR work - what do you do?

[abrightmom]

My DS9 is a good speller and is doing fine with dictation (he's in Level 3 and rarely makes a mistake). However, he is often a tad careless in his written work elsewhere. He often makes spelling or mechanics errors that he probably shouldn't be making. I do understand that carrying skills across the board takes time. I'm not worried about it at all. BUT I'd like to know how you would handle the "correcting" of the written work, specifically in DITHOR. He did a fabulous job content wise today but made several spelling errors that fall under the "simple words to spell" umbrella. Do I ask him to correct these? Should I require him to edit the page and correct the spelling and mechanics errors (mainly capitalization)? It pains me not to as I'd like to train him toward a standard of excellence in ALL of his work. Yet, I don't want to be overly critical either and I have perfectionist tendencies.

WHAT DO YOU DO??

[pjdobro]

I fall in the category of perfectionist as well so I might not be the best one to answer. I will have my dc correct mistakes like that. Sometimes I really hate to do it, but I figure if I don't, they won't see the value in getting it done correctly and hopefully getting it done correctly the first time. Most of the time for my dc, it is just careless mistakes, but I know that some of it is that they are concentrating so intently on the content of their work that they make these mistakes. One thing you can do is go over his answers and write them out on a white board or piece of paper for him. Then have him copy them into his student notebook. That way he can focus more on the content than the mechanics, but he still gets the mechanics when he copies it into the notebook. That is more time consuming for you, but it's an idea.

[my3sons]

Good question! I agree with Patty. I have really come to believe in CM's thought on immediately correcting misspelled words, so they don't begin to appear to be spelled correctly because they have been written and seen spelled incorrectly so many times. So, I do have my dc correct all errors such as this. For DITHOR, I have gone to using a pencil to jot the correct spelling of a word in the margin of the workbook (or in whatever open space is closest to the misspelling). Then, my dc correct it and erase my word that was in the margin. If they don't capitalize a word, I put three lines under it (proofreader's marks are a quick way to edit). If they are missing a punctuation mark, I put the punctuation mark in the margin of the line it needs to go in, and they figure out where to put it. Now, for my ds who is just starting DITHOR, I will do this, but I will talk it through with him briefly (i.e. See the 3 lines here. You need a capital letter here because it is the start of a sentence. Can you guess where you needed this punctuation mark I jotted down? You misspelled this one word. Please change it and hand it back in. Good job overall though! ). Within Student Notebooking, I put a sticky note next to the box, and do the same, jotting on the sticky note next to the line in which the corrections are needed. Then, I can throw away the sticky note, and they have a lovely notebook. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie