Spelling?

[twoxcell]

Ok so I need a little perspective of what is appropriate spelling for a 7 year old boy. My ds is 7 and in 2nd grade. His birthday is in July, so he is on the young end of hid grade level. He is excelllent at math and will be finishing SM 2a soon, and his reading is great. I would say he reads around a 3rd-4th grade level. I have him do daily copywork, and he hardly ever makes a mistake. We are about to finish AAS level one right now. The problem is his spelling is not very good. We flew through most of AAS 1, but the last few steps have been tougher for him. Below is a passage he copied from dictation from PLL:

 

"The Cat and the mice:

Sum mice livd in a brn. A cat livd in the brn two. She chast the mice. She cat meny uv them. Wun dae the mice had a meeting. Thae tockt ubot the cat. Thae wisht two get rid uv her."

 

Missed would have been wrong too if I had not given him some hints. My question is is this normal? Do I just need to chill about this, or work harder at spelling? He is also doing Talking fingers, which covers spelling too.

Edited November 4, 2010 by twoxcell

[MerryAtHope]

A few thoughts:

 

Copywork generally shouldn't be that high above a child's spelling level. He hasn't gotten to many of those patterns in AAS level 1 yet, so I wouldn't hold him accountable for things he hasn't yet learned. A couple of words in a passage that he hasn't learned how to spell would be ok--you could walk him through each of those words and explain how to segment them, why the sounds work they way they do etc...

 

What you don't want with copywork is for a child to think of words as a string of letters to be memorized in order, which is something that doing copywork above a child's spelling level can encourage. The positive side of your son's copywork is that I don't see him doing this. I see that he has looked at a word, thought about the sounds, and written the sounds that he heard. Most of his errors are either phonetic or they are homophones--and that's a good thing. I think those are easier to fix than the ones where a child who has a total disconnect between letters/phonograms and the sounds they make.

 

We tend to think that copywork should be easy because the child has the words right in front of him. I took a class from Bravewriter on copywork and dictation that really opened my eyes to why it's not that simple. We copied passages in several different languages--Greek, Dutch, German, French, and English. Next to English of course, French was the easiest. I could think in terms of phonograms and the sounds they make as I copied. German was a bit more challenging. Dutch was very difficult--for many of the words, I couldn't come up with any phonetic sound for the combination of letters--I just had to copy letter by letter, as if I was trying to copy a phone number. Greek was the hardest--since I don't know the alphabet, sometimes I could only copy part of a letter at a time.

 

For a child who is still learning how to form letters, copywork is like copying Greek to that child. For a child who doesn't know how all of the phonograms work, that is like copying Dutch. ETC... Kids will get tired of looking up and down at a book and lose their place if they have to look at every letter--your son is probably showing signs of this by attempting his own phonetic spellings. If handwriting is tiring to him, that could be slowing him down also.

 

If it were me, I would either drop copywork for now, or simplify it--shorten to one sentence and teach any words he hasn't yet learned (not too many at once), or use easier passages, or pick back up with it after he's gone through AAS level 2, and see how the words used match with what he's learned at that point.

 

There is a possibility that something else is going on, like a vision processing issue or something. I think it might be a bit early to decide that yet, especially given the that he's only through AAS 1 at this point--but it might be something to keep in mind if he continues to struggle when he's 8.

 

Just my thoughts! Merry :-)

Edited November 4, 2010 by MerryAtHope

[twoxcell]

Thanks for the thoughts :001_smile:! This is not a sample of his copywork. His copywork is generally perfect, and without errors(although his handwriting is a bit sloppy). This is a passage I dictated to him that he could not see kwim. I do see that most of his errors are things he has not covered in AAS. He has learned all of these phonograms while learning to read with Phonics Pathways, but not as applied to spelling.

[MerryAtHope]

Thanks for the thoughts :001_smile:! This is not a sample of his copywork. His copywork is generally perfect, and without errors(although his handwriting is a bit sloppy). This is a passage I dictated to him that he could not see kwim. I do see that most of his errors are things he has not covered in AAS. He has learned all of these phonograms while learning to read with Phonics Pathways, but not as applied to spelling.

 

Oh, I see now that you said "copied from dictation," and I thought you meant that you used it for him to copy, sorry about that! But this is even better news then. I wouldn't use passages with so many words that he hasn't learned how to spell for dictation either though--stick to mainly words he has learned, and study any new words with him before doing the passage.

 

The dictations will get longer in Level 2, and you'll see his knowledge expand then. Learning phonograms in reading is much easier than learning them for spelling (and knowing which ones to apply when!)

 

Merry :-)

[twoxcell]

Thanks that seems reasonable. He does well with the dictation from AAS. This passage came from Primary Language Lessons, it says it is for 2nd-3rd grade, but some parts seem rather difficult. I was just wondering if this was what is expected of a 2nd grader.

[MerryAtHope]

Thanks that seems reasonable. He does well with the dictation from AAS. This passage came from Primary Language Lessons, it says it is for 2nd-3rd grade, but some parts seem rather difficult. I was just wondering if this was what is expected of a 2nd grader.

 

I used PLL too, and I did find some parts to be too much for us. I used to just pick and choose what to do, and I ammended some assignments to fit our needs.

 

Merry :-)

[robsiew]

My advice would be to use the sentences/phrases in AAS for his dictation. Then he'll only be expected to write words that he has studied. I think you'll get a much better sense for his ability to spell from that.

 

For dictation outside of spelling, I would give help with any words he hasn't come across in AAS. Also, I agree that passage is too long. My 2nd grader last year was only doing 1 to 2 sentences at a time with WWE2. I helped her with any spelling she needed help with. We also use the sentences in AAS and those I don't help them with. Just help them correct errors after they write the sentences.

 

I don't think you really have anything to worry about with your 7 y/o. Especially since he's only just done with AAS1. I'd take it slow through spelling though. Don't rush through AAS2, especially since you said the end of 1 was harder. We would sometimes spend a week or more on one step. There's lots of time! :D