(Click above for previous Saturday Sayings.) Unexamined wallpaper...I'm guessing we all have some of that hanging around our classrooms, our schools, and our districts. Whatever the wallpaper represents, we've always done it and never thought twice about whether it's best for kids or not. Take for example, spelling tests. Years ago in my classroom, spelling tests fit into the category of unexamined wallpaper. The teachers around me gave them. The parents expected them. The kids just played along. I gave one spelling test to the whole class every week, because that's the way it was done. Then I came across some professional reading that challenged the concept. Are weekly spelling tests best for kids? Should everyone in the class, from the most challenged speller to the child who can spell beyond their grade level, be accountable for the same words? Will a spelling test teach them to spell correctly in their daily writing? I experienced a paradigm shift, and as a result, my own classroom culture changed. I took down the old wallpaper and replaced it with something that I felt met the needs of my kids better. That's just one example, but over the years, a lot of wallpaper has come down from the pedagogical walls of my room. In fact, there are still some unexamined bits and pieces hanging around. In all reality, I doubt there will ever come a day when I should feel content that it's all been removed. "We must always look critically at ourselves and our practices in order to improve and refine them." Regie Routman, Literacy at the Crossroads 37 If I've opened a can of worms and you'd like to know more about what spelling looks like in my classroom, go here. Chrissy from Read Write Sing is joining me today with her own Saturday Sayings. Let's go see what she's got to share. It's bound to be good!