Text Speak?

When I heard the phrase Text Speak, I wondered if it was really a thing?  I have two teenagers and they are constantly texting rather than talking on the phone for hours like I did when I was growing up.  All that texting do they use correct grammar and spelling? We have heard of shortcuts and acronyms the kids are using but is there a time to use text speak appropriately?  4th grade was the lucky grade level to use this lesson.  They were all to ready to talk about their texting habits and routines.  There are benefits to using text speak according to the students. It is shorter, friends understand what they mean, and quicker than a phone call.  We broke into groups to discuss when grammar and text speak are appropriate.

As you can see school was the main reason to use grammar while social media  used text speak.

They talk to one another on video games like Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox with shortened messages as to not interfere with their playing time.

Glad to see letters, business conversations, homework, emails made the grammar list.  There were a few giggles when we talked about shortening words like OMG and they knew not to use those in writing at school. Our next lesson was to see how well did they really know text speak?  I made a Kahoot and it was surprising to hear their thoughts when we were done.  Everyone knew BFF but very few knew what RSVP stood for but knew they had seen that somewhere before.  Most students used their phones-yes phones in the 4th grade to text one another. Others used iPads and computers to talk to one another during games.  The most interesting thing we found was the highest scoring students on the Kahoot did not have a phone to text friends. When asked why they thought they did so well, one said he reads the text conversations when his friends "talk" but doesn't really text back in the conversation. Interesting because it made me think about all the time I spent reading tweets before I actually made my first tweet onTwitter.  I was nervous and was almost learning a new language.  I was quite surprised how much social media these 4th graders were exposed to and interact with on a regular basis.  There are articles stating text speak is harming our student's writing skills with incorrect spellings, poor grammar, and incomplete thoughts. I think it is an important lesson to have with our 4th and 5th grades as productive digital citizens as there are valid reasons to use either. How do you feel about text speak and does it have a place in our classroom instruction?

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