Masha Bell

Author:
'Understanding English Spelling',
… Youtube videos
and more

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

"Our kids are going into a competitive world that won’t really care about educators’ high ideals. What matters is whether they can read. "
Yes, @Parents4RJ.
And only way to ensure that mor than 1 in 6 lern to too so is with modernisation of EngSpel https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Sadly, neerly all English spelling patterns hav sum exeptions and make lerning to spel verry time-consuming, with menny hindering lerning to reed too.
11 patterns hav so menny variants (in purpl)
that the spellings of all words with those sounds hav to be lerned word by word.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

If English used just its main spelling patterns, lerning to reed and write it wuld bee quite eesy and take litl time.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Neerly all the 78 main English spellings (or graphemes) hav sum exeptions
but the following 15 groups of unsistematic spellings ar moast responsible for making lerning to reed and write much harder than uther alphabetically written languages
and unatainable for menny children.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

It is NOT "time to go back to the old ways" @DesireeAmerica4
Scools began to adopt new ways of teeching half a C ago becos too menny children wer failing.
Wee shuld take a good look at English spelling and consider how best to make lerning to reed eesier: https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Insted of worrying about "improving 5th graders spelling" class by class @smorrisey, we need a debate about making lerning to spell English eesier.
Its inconsistencies absorb far too much teeching and lerning time and wich culd be mor proffitably spent on uther subjects.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

@bellwetherorg @naep @RANDCorporation The 271-yeer-old Johnsonian English spelling sistem is unsuited for 21st C circumstances and needs updating https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

"only 14% of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day, down from 35% forty years ago"
Thats becos reeding is no longer a major sorce of spare time entertainment.
But beeing able to reed is mor important than evver and the case for making lerning to reed eesier mor pressing.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

The simplest way for anglophone cuntries to improov thair educational atainment @DrJenniferWeber
+ @alexanderrusso
is to make lerning to reed eesier by https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE.
For as long as that remains ridiculously difficult, litl wil change.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Evry litteracy program claims to make a difference @Literacy_Trust.
Yet overall reeding ability and enjoyment of reeding ar steddily declining,
becos the ireggular spellings that make lerning to reed English difficult continue to be axepted and unchanged
https://t.co/y2jHN4QohT

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

It matters litl @scotteabbott + @laurapatranella
how teechers skedule reeding.
For as long as English spelling continues to make lerning to reed too difficult and time-consuming for menny children, a high %age wil fail to becum proficient.
It shuld bee made mor lerner-frendly.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Congrats on yor promotion @MmeLockhartLDS.
But pleese bee aware that
eevn the best teacher training and professional learning cannot make much difference to the educational atainment of anglophone students wile English spelling remains unimprooved
https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Wot is urgently needed @teacherhead is and an EducationFest
wair the brigtest minds in education put thair heds tugether with the aim of making lerning to reed and write English eesier https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

"Kids seeing themselves as literate from early stages of learning are subsequently more likely to practice, demand & achieve".
So @alwriting, wy not amend sum of the needless ireggular spellings that prevent menny kids lerning to reed, like those for /e/
https://t.co/t4Z7LyBxjE?

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Nuthing causes mor "confusion and anxiety" for yung children @JohnBaldLangLit
than having to cope with the incomprehensibl inconsistencies of English spelling from the start scool.
If at leest the start of lerning to reed and write wos made eesier, moast wuld cope much better.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

"lots of things we sometimes think are useful, have no evidence to back them up".
And the change that wuld make a huge difference, and wich is supported by cleer reserch evidence @tombennett71
we choose not to make
https://t.co/zf5PLcaQIV

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

@johncosgrove405 @CF_Farrow We send kids to scool, insted of up chimnies, picking up rubbish from factory floors or to help on the land.
But by not modernising the way we spel, menny lern much less than thay culd during thair 10+ yeers in education.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

@johncosgrove405 @CF_Farrow There won't be enny significant improvements to the educational attainment of enny anglophone cuntry for as long as they all keep using the spelling chosen by S Johnson in 1755 https://t.co/fHjK5yzrRj

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Apart from the failure to understand the costs of not repairing an aplphabetically highly dammaged spelling sistem in the 21st C
https://t.co/uLSZTOq1DM
thair is also litl understanding how reecent increeses in the retirement age hav afected the employment chances of yung peepl.

[Masha Bell @Mashabell]

Much discussion of yooth unemployment currently in UK
but without mentioning that rate of functional ilitteracy amung scool leevers remains 18-20%, as since time imemorial
due to https://t.co/y2jHN4QohT
wile need for good litteracy skills has becum mor esential.