Koerarmoca Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 I am considering wining it for spelling for my 4th and 8th graders next year. They are both strong spellers. dd8 has gone the entire school year with all 100%'s and dd12 has gotten all 100%'s and 1 95%. my concern is are the continuing to remember how to spell these words or are they just memorizing them until Friday and then forgetting it later. They have some basic homework with spelling, use your words in a sentence, write the word 5x each, fill in the blanks kind thing. All thing I could do on my own with many free lists on line. I was thinking about buying R&S for my 4th grader but I don't know much about it other than samples I have seen. I could go the free route or find something even cheaper but I don't know where to start. with their spelling already pretty good is winging it even a good idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peek a Boo Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 as an excellent speller, *I* loved SWR [spell to Write and Read]. My oldest is a natural speller and really benefits from the logical layout of SWR. I read WRTR [Writing Road to Reading] by Spalding from the library, then bought SWR. {{SWR is kinda like WRTR on steroids, lol}}. I've been to 2 seminars on it and STILL learn something new everytime I re-read the books. It's packed w/ a LOT of great info on the why's behind spelling, not just lists and a few rules.... eta: it can be used w/ all age levels, preK-adult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 I am considering wining it for spelling for my 4th and 8th graders next year. They are both strong spellers. dd8 has gone the entire school year with all 100%'s and dd12 has gotten all 100%'s and 1 95%. my concern is are the continuing to remember how to spell these words or are they just memorizing them until Friday and then forgetting it later. They have some basic homework with spelling, use your words in a sentence, write the word 5x each, fill in the blanks kind thing. All thing I could do on my own with many free lists on line. I was thinking about buying R&S for my 4th grader but I don't know much about it other than samples I have seen. I could go the free route or find something even cheaper but I don't know where to start. with their spelling already pretty good is winging it even a good idea? I have a few kiddos who aren't officially doing 'spelling' this year and I'm actually finding it good. A couple of times I have pulled dd10 up for a mis-spelled word or two, had her practice it, then we've moved on. Do you do dictation? Maybe doing some studied dictation, where the child studies the spelling of the words before taking the dictation, would be enough. That way they are still practising a variety of words but putting them straight back in context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Why not give them a cumulative test to see if they're actually remembering the words from the year or not? Also, why not "pre"-test them on any words you plan to assign for the week? No reason to waste time doing "spelling exercises" on words they know how to begin *before* the week starts. I wouldn't go buy a 4th grade spelling book for a child who is likely already spelling above that level. You might get the most for your money out of a copy of Spelling Power (used, older editions would be fine and cheaper -- you don't need any of the extras). That way you've got placement tests and spelling lists up through at least middle school. (They say through 12th grade, though it's really more like "'til the kids finish".) You don't have to do all of the SP steps either. Just give them the pre-test and have them learn any words they miss (in whatever way works best for your kids), and move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 My 9 yro has been winging it since 2nd grade. We follow SWB's suggestion of having a notebook for each subject and writing words that are frequently mispelled in the notebook (we write ours in our LA notebook). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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