Ok.. through me some more spelling ideas...

[sweetsouthern]

dd is in 4th, 9 yrs old.

 

were a little behind in spelling. she is refusing to do drill work almost at all. i know she can spell the words better, but when she drills she gets annoyed and misspells (shes adhd).

 

she needs something she can do a majority of on her own. i really want to move her towards megawords later... but shes not read for such hard words yet. if there was something like MW but with easier words, it would be perfect i think.

 

we just got spelling workout d and shes already annoyed with it. drill and then 3 pages of worksheets and then more drill is so not her.

 

any ideas? thanks!

Edited January 8, 2010 by sweetsouthern

[Lori D.]

... (shes adhd)... she needs something she can do a majority of on her own

 

Saying this gently with no disrespect, but those are two situations (ADHD / on her own) just don't go together with spelling, in my opinion. My suggestion would not be to increase drilling practice thru writing, but take advantage of her natural visual strength. Jeffrey Freed, in his book "Right Brain Children in a Left Brain World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child", has some GREAT, SPECIFIC tips and techniques for spelling, reading, writing, and math. His spelling practice idea is to write the spelling word with different colored markers on a white board (ex: vowels in one color, consonants in another; or, each syllable in a different color; or, whatever spelling rule you are trying to emphasize), and have the child really look at the word for a minute to imprint it on the "blackboard of their mind". Most ADD/ADHD students are extremely visual, and once they have that word imprinted in their mind, can literally "read" it letter by letter -- forwards or backwards with equal ease! -- off of the "blackboard of their mind."

 

 

Spelling practice techniques that have helped our mildly dyslexic son:

- out loud spelling practice out loud to one another

- whiteboard practice together

- write with fingertip each letter while saying it aloud either big on a table top, or in a tray of cornmeal

- dictation of a few short sentences with several spelling words in each

 

Below are more details on how we have used these techniques. BEST of luck, and be patient! Many students don't even begin to "click" with spelling until about age 12. Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

- Out Loud (do 4x/week, 3-5 min/day)

(idea from Andrew Pudewa/Phonetic Zoo)

You clearly say the word aloud, spell it (syllable by syllable if that helps), and toss the child a beanie toy; then the student says the word/spells it correctly, and tosses the beanie back. The beanie toss helps keep him focused and mentally prepared. *Immediately* stop and correct any misspelling by spelling it aloud correctly several times and have the student spell it correctly by looking at it and reading it letter by letter several times. Hearing the letters in correct sequential order really helps cement correct spelling in the mind.

 

- Dictate sentences (1-2x/week towards end of week; 5-10 min./day)

(idea from Stevenson Basic Blue Spelling Manual)

You dictate 5 short sentences, (slowly, one at a time) each with 2-3 spelling words in them for student to practice simultaneous thinking/writing/spelling.

 

- Child says each letter and uses fingertip to write each letter in a tray of sand or cornmeal. Helps the child see, say and feel the spelling.

 

- Fingertip on tabletop; child writes each letter large (must involve whole arm), saying each letter. Helps the child see, say, and feel the spelling.

 

- Work with words on whiteboard (3x/week, 5-10 min/day)

(expanded from original idea from Sequential Spelling)

* reinforce vowel patterns, syllabication patterns, etc.

* write out root words and practice adding endings, prefixes, etc. -- tell it and draw it as a story with character pictures (ex.: "hope" -- the vowels at the end of the word like to fight with vowels at the beginning of an ending (like "-ing", or "-ed"), so you have to drop the "-e" at the end of "hope" and then add the endings such as "-er" or "-ing"; adding endings such as "-ful" or "-less", or prefixes such as "-un" are not a problem, because they start with a consonant, and consonants don't fight with the vowel at the end of the word)

* work with homophones -- see the different spellings, and draw a picture or tell a little story to help the difference stick (ex: "meet" and "meat"; it takes 2 people to "meet" and there are 2 "e"s in "meet"; draw the letter "a" to look like a heart and say "I love to eat "meat" -- and see, the word "eat" is IN the word "meat"; etc.)

[PeterPan]

I agree with Lori that I don't see why you're so worried about drill. Is she reading enough daily? Reading alone helps build their visual memory of words. She's quite young yet. Is she writing something daily? They won't remember words when they have no use for them.

 

Things that have worked for us:

-dictation--We've done it lots of ways, and it's all good. Just do it and thank us later. But make it a TEAM process, a win-win. Dictation is NOT a test. After you read the sentence, ASK her if she knows the words you think will trip her up. REWARD her for asking for help. (praise, m&m's, whatever) This builds her internal sense of when she knows the word or not. Make it a team effort and help her spell the words, never criticizing. She has years to learn these!

-Calvert spelling cd's--Totally turned around my dd's attitude toward spelling. Cheap, fun, can't lose with these.

[sweetsouthern]

lol! i dont know why im so worried about it i guess lol! it just seems that every spelling program in 4th and up has some format of drill too it, or its very teacher intensive (which is not her.. that annoys her). along with adhd, shes a little stubborn spitfire! giggle

 

shes doing dictation, copywork, reading (which is behind and we just started reviewing phonics concepts this week again)

 

if i ended the drill and just did something fun for now, i dont understand then, when should she start somthing formal? and what would that be?

 

thanks! :)

[Lori D.]

if i ended the drill and just did something fun for now, i dont understand then, when should she start somthing formal? and what would that be?

 

What spelling program are you using now? What about using that, but practicing with all of the non-writing methods I listed above?

 

Or, if you're not using a formal spelling program, All About Spelling is multi-sensory (meaning it uses a variety of techniques for practice), and it teaches vowel patterns and syllabication rules. While I haven't used AAS, I have heard it is a good prep program for Megawords.

 

Or, you could even go with something simple and cheap like Natural Speller, which just lists words by "word families" (i.e. "-ei-" words with long "a" sound; words ending in "-le" or "-el"; etc.), and then you can practice with the non-writing methods.

 

Just a few ideas! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Matryoshka]

How about Sequential Spelling? I've heard it's a great prep for Megawords, too.

 

It's a list of 25 words a day. There's no prep, no drill, no test. The 25 words have similar spelling patterns, and each day the list is altered a bit - the words from the day before get prefixes or suffixes added, for example. So there's built in review, and at the same time the child can see the patterns of spelling - like a final y gets changed to i when you add a suffix beginning with a vowel.

 

Mistakes are to be corrected immediately, before you move on to the next word. The teacher shows the correct spelling on a white board (if it's helpful, with different colors for the root word and prefixes/suffixes), and the child copies it. So at the end of the list, you're done.

 

This takes about 10 minutes a day - the teacher does have to be involved, but it's pretty much completely painless.

[Amber in AUS]

We LOVE AAS! I would move in that direction :)

 

Lori does offer some wonderful ideas which you could use in conjunction with your current program.