I hate it when English teachers teach spelling like that

Mad Mama wants to know why her daughter's spelling scores are so low when her seventh grade English teacher gave her really hard spelling words. The perception here is that by giving her daughter really hard spelling words to memorize, that somehow taught her to spell. Nope. May have increased her memorization skills, but not her spelling skills. Those words and their spellings were forgotten long ago.

I have to explain carefully because this is the seventh grade English teacher who feeds parents bullshit walks on water.

Spelling, even in English, is predictable. You have to know the patterns, the rules, the roots and etymologies. Naturally gifted spellers know these things intuitively. To someone who is a naturally good speller, the word "stopping" is naturally spelled with two p's, although they can't usually explain why. Someone who is not a naturally good speller (a good portion of our student body) will spell that as "stoping" until they are taught to double the consonant before adding -ing.

But what if they are never taught that? What if English teachers, instead of looking at what spelling concepts the students still need to learn, simply give lists of really hard spelling words to memorize? The common perception among parents will be, "My child will learn a lot about spelling." The reality is their child still won't be able to spell the word "stopping" with two p's, although they will be very proud of their temporary ability to spell "intermittent."

I hate it when English teachers teach spelling like that. That approach creates in parents a false hope of spelling mastery, and it does very little to further the language skills of students.

What is it like at your school? Do you teach spelling or memorize words? Right now, at my school, we're not doing so well with the teaching of spelling. I'll work on that.