to creatively spell or not to creatively spell

Throughout last semester and this semester of my masters program, I've had the opportunity to work in various elementary classrooms through substitute teaching and a field placement. During these experiences I've heard the term creative spelling used repeatedly by teachers in the classroom. Initially, I don't think I thought much about the term, until I began helping students during writing workshop and with other literacy related projects. Students soon began asking me how to spell words and I was forced to think about how to respond to their questions, 

• Should I provide the student with the correct answer?
• Should I have the student use other resources to find the correct spelling?
• Should I allow the student to use creative spelling?

These were just a few of the thoughts that ran through my head.

After working in many different classrooms, I have found that teachers vary widely in the freedom they give their early childhood students when it comes to literacy and writing. As a pre-service teacher, I am looking forward to developing my own techniques of teaching reading and writing to my future students. 

I was initially unsure of the the term creative spelling and the reasoning behind the use of creative spelling.  In Kate Foley Cusumano's article, Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and the Community Members about Young Children's Writing, the author writes, "...at first glance, most family and community members will notice the apparent mistakes before noticing the strengths of the piece, while as a teacher, I am looking for the message, the content of the story first, before conventions."Cusumano demonstrates that it is not the mistakes that we should be seeking out in a a student's writing, but we should be looking for the message that the student is able to communicate through his or her writing. 

In Teaching Phonemic Awareness by Rasinkski and Padak, the authors' write, "...invented spelling, is a powerful way to help students develop their phonemic awareness as well as basic phonics knowledge..". This strategy provided by Rasinkski and Padak shows that creative spelling may even improve a student's literacy abilities down the road. 

As a soon-to-be teacher, I hope I am able to implement a literacy culture in my classroom that supports creative spelling and encourages children to make mistakes so they may in return learn from those mistakes to become better writers and readers.