She just can't spell...please help.

[MistyJ]

Dd, 4th grade, is just a terrible speller. We are halfway through AAS I. She loves the tiles, the dvd, writing words in grits/sand/rice. AAS has shown me she's a kinesthetic learner. She ooohs and aaaahs when I put out a pie plate of tactile "stuff."

 

She reads great. She doesn't seem to make the connection between the AAS lessons and when she is doing other writing. Also, the AAS lessons are so teacher-intensive, that they often get shoved aside. (Like today.)

 

Is there something she should be tested for? She is having a rough year...lots of mood swings, math anxiety, says she wants to go back to school.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

She reads great. She doesn't seem to make the connection between the AAS lessons and when she is doing other writing. Also, the AAS lessons are so teacher-intensive, that they often get shoved aside. (Like today.)

I could have written this. I have made our AAS lessons much shorter. For one thing, she is responsible for going through the cards for review herself and reading them. Then I just figured some more out today. Copywork and dictation are what translate spelling into writing. Two words spelled correctly with the new rule and then a sentence that includes a new word and a review word. She made the whole sentence building it word for word with the tiles. She then writes the sentence down. Then I will have her study the sentence and write it from memory (dictation).

[MistyJ]

bump

[Lovedtodeath]

I just thought you might be interested in this post. I hope someone with experience can answer your question.

"The Natural Speller" is fairly inexpensive and has grade level lists like you describe. It also has ideas including games for ways to practice the words, but doesn't focus on rules, so it's not a huge book. ABC's and all their tricks doesn't divide words by grade level (or maybe one small part of the book does? I don't remember) but has lots of lists and organizes them by sound/letter combination.

[MerryAtHope]

Hi Misty,

 

She's not that far into AAS, I wouldn't expect a student who was really struggling with spelling to be able to put it together yet. Instead, I would separate out the act of writing from the act of spelling. So, for example, let's say she has to write a few sentences (or even do some fill-in-the blanks). Take a break after that, and then let her edit her work later. If it's more than a sentence or two and she has lots of errors, make it her LA assignment for the next day. Tell her to look for words that might follow the rules she has learned so far. Encourage her to sound things out (segment if needed) exactly as she has written them. This will help if she leaves out a sound (like writing pat instead of part), or if she uses the wrong sound, etc... If she can't sound out exactly what she wrote, sound it out for her--"This says pat. What do we need to add to make it say part?"

 

Praise her for any mistakes she finds and can fix, and help her fix the ones that she didn't catch. You can put a light X in pencil for each error next to the line (errors that she knows how to fix I mean), and see if she can find them after that. If she still can't find them, point them out, but ask her questions. Don't let her know right away what's wrong with it--see if she can remember the rule or sound it out and see what's missing or what doesn't belong. You want to help her think through spelling as much as possible, then what she misses, you can remind her--ie, "Do we know a rule about when to use C or when to use K? What is it?"

 

At this point I would only hold her accountable for what she has learned in AAS so that you don't overwhelm her too much.

 

The lessons are teacher intensive, but you don't need to spend a long time on them. Set a timer for 15 minutes, start with the review cards, and then work as long as you can in the lesson. The next day, start again with any review cards, and then pick up wherever you left off in the lesson. I give my kids a quick recap, such as, "we have been talking about the ___ sound. Do you remember how to write that sound?" Or something like that.

 

I like to make a focus each year for school. Some years it has been math or reading, some years LA, some years spelling, etc... I put that subject within the first 1-3 subjects so that we don't skip it. If we don't finish everything for the day, I rotate whatever we miss to an earlier spot--but I remember what my focus subject is and keep it early so that we always or almost always get it in.

 

There's an article on tactile spelling on the AAS site that you might enjoy.

 

Why does she want to go back to school? Ask some questions and listen, and maybe you will find things that you can adjust at home. Things like more time with friends or different teaching methods etc... can often be accommodated with a bit of planning.

 

It does sound like there may be some learning issues going on. Trouble with spelling and/or math can sometimes be a sign of dyslexia (in fact, reading well but spelling poorly is what the Eide's call "Stealth Dyslexia.") AAS is a really good program for kids with Dyslexia.

 

I hope this helps some! Merry :-)

[MIch elle]

Spelling takes persistence and YEARS of maturity! :D

[Ottakee]

Have you looked at APples and Pears spelling? http://www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm It is very easy to teach and your older child could "teach" it to her--all lessons are scripted but only about 10-15 minutes long. You can see samples of the entire program in PDF format at the above link as well.

[Carol in Cal.]

then I think it is important to separate spelling from her other work. You don't, for instance, want her to hold back her composition skills out of fear of having to spell everything properly.

 

Copywork is very helpful to non-natural spellers because it forces them to actually look closely at a word or sentence and reproduce it exactly. A lot of times non-natural spellers don't notice how a word is supposed to look and don't realize that it's misspelled.

[ElizabethB]

For an older student, I like Gayle Graham's program, which teaches rules and patterns but uses misspelled words from the child's work.

 

You could also make your own spelling notebook and have her figure out a reason or rule for each misspelling, but their book makes it easy, you can order it cheaply from CBD, the notebook is called "Tricks of the Trade."

[Lovedtodeath]

I just noticed the wanting to go back to school part. DD wanted to go back to school because 1. She hated MUS and 2. She knew I was frustrated with her lack of progress in math. Sometimes she still says that she wants to go back and it is always because I require more of her than they did. (they let her write in all caps for example)