Fun Way to Teach Spelling

Today when I was on Twitter, I came across a tweet from a Canadian school principal whom I follow that tweeted this:

I was curious about why George sent out this tweet, so clicked on the hyperlink in his tweet, and found this image, which I captured and annotated using the Awesome Screen Capture and Annotate feature I have attached to my toolbar. Take a look at what these 2nd graders are doing with the tweets of the NFL football players.

I retweeted George's tweet, and one of my followers, a college English professor, was concerned that the exercise might reinforce stereotypes about football players.

I tweeted back that this activity could be used in the classroom with tweets from others on Twitter.

In addition to building spelling skills, this activity can also build proofreading skills, and it might encourage students to proofread their writing, especially when it will go online. Now, I know we encourage young learners to use invented spelling to get their ideas "on paper," but still the misspellings these 2nd graders noted are easy enough for the average student that age to find.

What is your opinion on this teaching strategy? How do you encourage the development of spelling skills in your own teaching?

Now, if I have misspelled anything in this post, please feel free to so note it, and to use my post as a learning activity in your own classroom.