Words of Wisdom

I spent last Saturday morning listening to Lester Laminack talk about writing and spelling.

First of all, he is HILARIOUS, especially if you like sarcastic!

He is very real, down to earth, and REALLY knows what goes on in our classrooms.

Here are just few of his words of wisdom that came my way while listening to him.

*The only kids who need to spell are writers and kids in a spelling bee.

*We need to study spelling as a language, not a stimulus response system. Spelling has to be broader than for a a test on Friday.

*We need to be building a repertoire of skills that will translate. We need to know how to transfer the patterns of spelling. Spelling needs to be learned in the act of writing.

*We need to help kids understand why language is the way it is.Students need to understand why, even in spelling. They need to understand why we do it before, how to do it. If we don't know why, we are just memorizing.

*The beauty of a child is in the passion of his/her language, not in the structure of the spelling.

I say...I'm not there but my goal is to get there!

He also had some powerful things to say about bullying. He will say it to children in an upcoming book called Sam Loves Pink. It's on my list.
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I am sad to say that in all my professional reading and research, I did not own one of his books. How sad for me. That changed has since changed.

My next read will be...

My next purchase will be...

The children's books I now own are...

and...

Not only do I own these, someone else will own a new book because I am giving one lucky follower a copy of an autographed...

It is autographed especially to...

If you are interested in winning this autographed copy of Snow Day by Lester Laminack, just be a follower and leave a comment below.

Be sure to leave your comment by before Friday at 12:01 a.m. EST.

The winner will be selected by a random number generator on Saturday.

Good Luck!